March 2018
DENTON
Business
CHRONICLE
www.dentonbusinesschronicle.com
The owners of Roanoke Trading Co. are opening a sister store called Denton Trading Co. at 112 W. Oak St. on the Square. The store will have clothes, candles, lotions, frames and other home decor items. Jake King
From Roanoke with style
By Dalton LaFerney
For the Denton Record-Chronicle
H
ome decor enthusiasts can soon save a trip down U.S. Highway 377. Popping up next to West Oak Coffee Bar on the downtown Square is Denton Trading Co., a sister store to the Roanoke-based Roanoke Trading Co. The store will have men’s and women’s clothes, kitchen decorations, candles, lotions, frames and other
ingredients to make a home more personal. Amid an e-commerce boom for brick-and-mortar retailers, this local seller is holding the line. It will sell some items from Facebook posts, but the company touts its value in faceto-face customer service. “We want to be a store you walk into, and you experience it and we get to know you,” owner Kristin Brittan said. Every day she goes to work, man-
Denton Trading Co. bringing store’s concept north to Square
ager Laura Lake is an active part of the shopping experience for those who visit the Roanoke store. “Hi, welcome in,” she says to each who visits, and Lake is sure to point out the half-price items near the cash register, the ones that didn’t do well
with customers. Knowing what customers want — and which products to acquire and display — comes from a congenial sense of style Lake picked up from her mother and grandmother. “I don’t know unless I try it,” Lake
said. “We’re a marketing person’s nightmare.” The shop sources inventory from trade shows in Dallas and travel across the county to shows in Las Vegas, Atlanta and, soon, New York. They buy everything wholesale. But sometimes Brittan, a frequent traveler, will find must-haves overseas, bringing them back in small quantities to North Texas. TRADING | CONTINUED ON PAGE 2
Good tax refund advice can be bad By Tina Orem | NerdWallet Every year, the same advice circulates about what to do with your tax refund. But if the experts have said it once, they’ve said it a million times: Everybody’s financial situation is different, and what works for other people may not work for you. Here are four pieces of common advice tax pros say you might want to reconsider before you follow the herd with your refund.
1. Put it all in an emergency fund By Peggy Heinkel-Wolfe | Staff Writer Dirt is flying at Rayzor Ranch — with Andy B’s Entertainment, Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, Rooms to Go and more shops on the way — but doors have opened at several businesses farther east on West University Drive. The first tenants are opening their doors at the new North Lakes Shopping Center, on the corner of University and Bonnie Brae Street.
Ideal Dental opened at 2200 W. University Drive. The office is open for new patients weekdays and weekends by appointment. Two sandwich shops are opening nearby. McAlister’s Deli opens Friday and Jersey Mike’s Subs is opening soon. Enterprise Rent-A-Car has opened a second location at 1911 W. University Drive in Denton. The original location remains open at the UPDATE | CONTINUED ON PAGE 2
Reconsider that if: You’ve already got one. Having three to six months’ worth of living expenses on hand is good advice, but if you already have an emergency fund, using your tax refund to pad a mattress full of cash might be overkill. You might be able to invest and earn a return on that money — and still access it quickly, says Vincenzo Villamena, a CPA and CEO of accounting firm Online Taxman in New York City.
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Happy about the amount of your tax refund? Then be sure to make smart decisions regarding what to do with those funds. “There are emergencies that come up. But at the same time, why not invest it in a bond fund or something [where] you can get liquidity really easily?” he says.
2. Invest it all
Reconsider that if: You’re into
rolling the dice. Investing can be a fantastic way to get a step closer to your financial goals. But pouring all of your tax refund into Bitcoin, orange juice futures or some other ultra-risky REFUND | CONTINUED ON PAGE 4
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