Getting smaller: About 200 Waldenbooks stores across the U.S. are set to close in January, bringing the number of the mall-based bookstores to about 130. Borders Group, which owns Waldenbooks, says this is part of a strategy to operate a smaller company that complements its freestanding Borders bookstores. Plans are to close the Waldenbooks stores in Alexandria and Bossier City.
Paying more: Small businesses are seeing insurance premiums go up an average of 15% for 2010, double the rate of last year’s increases, reports the New York Times. The hike is due to the continuing rise in medical costs and speculation that insurance companies are raising premiums to get ahead of any federal health care legislation that could cut into profits. Small employers are at a disadvantage since they don’t have the negotiating clout that big companies have.
Talk to me: AT&T has completed its $945 million purchase of Centennial Communications, expanding its coverage across rural Louisiana. AT&T will pick up about 893,000 customers in the South, Midwest and Puerto Rico and will start selling its products in nearly 100 former Centennial stores. As part of the deal, AT&T has agreed to sell off Centennial assets in Iberville, West Feliciana, Beauregard and DeSoto parishes, Lafayette and Alexandria. Verizon is set to pick up some of those assets.
