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• New restaurant giving three winners a year’s worth of free barbecue
• West Broad Hyundai moving
• If you haven’t heard: Sales tax holiday kicks off tomorrow
• Two downtown Richmond eateries closing
• Top 100 U.S. retailers named

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Dickey’s Barbecue Pit is giving away free barbecue for a year.

The restaurant, on Forest Hill Avenue at The Shops at Stratford Hills shopping center, opened in August and is celebrating its grand opening Sept. 9.

As part of that celebration, Dickey’s will have $1 pulled pork sandwiches from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. It will hold a drawing to give away a year’s worth of barbecue to three winners.

Dallas-based Dickey’s Barbecue Pit has 171 stores in 39 states, including three others in Virginia.

The company said in August that a second restaurant is planned for Midlothian. A company spokeswoman said a site hasn’t been chosen.

West Broad Hyundai is moving.

Gordon Hatcher, the dealership’s general manager, said he hopes to be in the new location by early next year.

The new store will be at 8903 W. Broad St. in the space once formerly occupied by Victory Nissan. Victory moved farther west on Broad Street to the Short Pump area several years ago and the dealership was recently sold to the Sheehy Auto Stores.

Hatcher said construction is underway at the new store and, barring delays, the dealership should begin moving from its current location at 7100 W. Broad St. in January.

The new store will be about twice the size of the Hyundai dealership’s current lot.

“We’ve outgrown our current facility,” Hatcher said.

Parents and students gearing up for the start of school will get a break from sales taxes starting tomorrow courtesy of the state of Virginia.

The state is waiving the 5 percent sales tax on some of the items students need as they head back to the classroom. The tax holiday ends Sunday.

During the three-day sales-tax holiday, consumers won’t have to pay sales tax on specific school supplies priced up to $20 per item and on clothing and footwear up to $100 per item.

Among the items getting the sales-tax waiver are must-haves such as calculators, index cards, lunch boxes and notebooks as well as some surprising items like diapers, corsets and wedding apparel.

Regardless of the amount, the break will be welcomed by many cash-strapped shoppers.

The average consumer this year is expected to spend $603.63 on back-to- school items, according to the National Retail Federation’s Back-to- School survey.

The Washington-based trade group found that, including college students, Americans expect to spend $68.8 billion this year preparing to return to the classroom.

That makes back-to- school the second-biggest shopping season of the year behind the holiday shopping season in December.

Back-to- school shoppers—and other consumers—might be able to save more. A retailer is allowed to waive the sales tax on any item its store during the three-day period by absorbing the 5 percent, in essence giving a shopper a 5 percent discount. Dozens of retailers are expected to do so.

Downtown Richmond eatery Louisiana Flair is closing.

Nathaniel Sams, who owns the restaurant at Grace and Fourth street in downtown Richmond, said it has become difficult to keep the restaurant running economically.

“I have no more money. Times are tight,” he said.

Sams said the restaurant would close at the end of the month.

Louisiana Flair is not the only downtown eatery shutting its doors.

Cedars, on 7th Avenue between Franklin and Grace Streets, is closing Friday. The business was sold.

Really sad to see Lou Flair close, I think the location could have been a factor.
Not sad to see Cedars close, service and food was horrible… IMHO

STORES, a retail trade publication, has named the top 100 U.S. retailers, and each one has stores in the Richmond area.

No surprise, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. tops the list with $307 billion in sales. Second is The Kroger Co. with $78 billion in sales.

“As one of the most competitive industries in the country, it’s not easy to stay at the top of the retail empire,” STORES editor Susan Reda said in a statement. “The nation’s largest retailers should be commended for continuing to find new ways to grow their businesses and remain relevant in the eyes of shoppers in spite of incredible competition from other companies in the U.S. and abroad.”

The top 10 on the STORES Top 100 Retailers list is:

1) Wal-Mart
2) Kroger
3) Target
4) Walgreen
5) The Home Depot
6) Costco
7) CVS Caremark
8 Lowe’s  
9) Best Buy
10) Sears Holdings

Click here for the full list.