A New York restaurant is offering folks who were swindled by Bernie Madoff a true free lunch. Restaurant owner Nino Selimaj operates his business a few short blocks from where Madoff used to do business and said he just feels bad for the victims. To qualify, you must bring in a monthly statement from Madoff to prove you were truly an investor.

You could call it a generous gesture, or a savvy business move. But if you are interested, check out the New York Times story for more...

It should be no surprise that more people are purchasing store brand items as a way to make ends meet. But smart retailers are taking note of the trend. Wal-Mart is planning to reinvent hundreds of items in its Great Value brand line of products, which I believe is its largest private label brand. It will also introduce almost 100 new items including thin-crust pizza. You can check out this AP story for more details. 

Health Magazine recently released its list of the top 10 healthiest fast food restaurant chains. At the top of the list: Panera.

The others in the top 10 (in order): Jason's Deli, Au Bon Pain, Noodles & Co., Corner Bakery, Chipotle, Atlanta Bread, McDonald's, Einstein's Bagels and Taco Del Mar.

You can read the full story here... 

With the economy going down, it's no surprise that stores are seeing more stealing. Still, I am constantly surprised by the scope of some operations.

For instance, here's a story about a Virginia Best Buy where crooks stole about $20,000 in iPods in about three minutes. And here's a story about a criminal ring in Florida, which apparently stole thousands of cans of powdered baby formula. Some of that formula apparently was transported to North Carolina, where it was repackaged and sold.

I thought some of you might be interested in this story from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution about Belk's expansion in that market... 

As some of you may know, Saks got a lot of heat this Christmas season for discounting products so steeply that it caused a price-slashing frenzy in the luxury goods world. Suppliers weren't happy because Saks was offering their goods at cheap prices. Competitors weren't happy because they were forced to match Saks' prices.

Well now, the Saks CEO says those discounts won't be back. In this Reuter's story, Steve Sadove (pictured here) called the discounts of up to 70 percent a "one time thing." Do you believe him?

Thanks to Valerie for bringing it to my attention that the Cary Kmart is making an appearance on the Consumerist Web site.

The topic: a customer experience during Kmart's most recent double coupon promotion...

When I was in college, I worked at a pizza place one summer as a hostess/counter service person. I got an hourly wage, but the waiters and waitresses I worked with survived on a very tiny hourly wage plus tips. It's an experience I often think of when I dine out today. So, I found this story from the Orlando Sentinel very interesting. Basically waiters and waitresses are suffering as diners cut back on appetizers, drinks and desserts. The diners are just trying to keep their check total a little lower and save some cash. But that means that even patrons who leave good tips are generally leaving less. And when that money is your livelihood, that can become a probelm. It's just another way the economy is impacting folks, but I thought it was interesting nonetheless...

I just thought this was a really interesting story titled "What Microsoft Can Learn about Retail from Apple and Best Buy." Just in case you're interested...

As you can probably tell by the fact that I keep my life in spreadsheet format, I'm a fairly organized person. And I love new ideas for ways to be even more organized!

So in this month's issue of ShopSmart magazine, I thoroughly enjoyed a feature about organization ideas. Among the best ones were using lazy susans (ie. spinny things) inside cabinets to make their contents more accessible and using one of those over-the-door shoe organizers in the bathroom to hold all your various bottles, hair dryer, brushes, etc. You can read the feature here.

I thought I'd post this to see if anyone else out there has some really good suggestions. I'm always on the hunt for ways to be more organized. What are your best home organization ideas?