Hip-hop store opens in NorthTown Mall

A new store designed to appeal to the hip-hop generation opened Friday at NorthTown Mall.

The store is called d.e.m.o. and carries hip-hop clothing brands including G-Unit, Enyce, Sean John, Apple Bottoms, Rocawear and others. Owned by PacSun, a surf and skateboard-clothing store chain, d.e.m.o. has been around since 1998 and has 170 stores nationwide. PacSun has had a NorthTown store since 1992, said Leslea Warnick, the mall’s marketing manager.

“It’s just adding to the teen target audience we already have as one of our biggest audiences that shop here,” Warnick said.

This is d.e.m.o.’s first Spokane retail store, a mall news release said.

PacSun decided to call its new store “d.e.m.o.” after a demonstration of the line of clothing in one of its stores went over well. It added the periods because “they thought it looked cool” and would appeal to hip-hop enthusiasts, Warnick said.

United Airlines asks for $310 million loan

Chicago A federal bankruptcy judge on Friday approved United Airlines’ request for an additional $310 million in loans as the carrier works on its plan to emerge from bankruptcy this fall.

United, which is owned by Elk Grove Township, Ill.-based UAL Corp., said the financing is needed to provide a “stable environment” as it works toward filing a reorganization plan with the bankruptcy court, which the company is expected to do early next month.

The approval from Judge Eugene Wedoff to amend total new debt accumulated by United as it goes through Chapter 11 bankruptcy raises the amount to $1.3 billion. It also extends the deadline for repaying the loans by three months, to Dec. 30.

United last month said it plans to file around Aug. 1 two documents that will detail its plans for exiting its 2 1/2 -year bankruptcy proceeding, including a disclosure statement that will outline the carrier’s future business model. United has asked Wedoff to schedule a hearing on the disclosure statement sometime in early September.

Separately, around 100 members of the flight attendants union marched through downtown Chicago Friday to protest the carrier’s decision to turn the union’s pension plan over to the federal government’s pension insurer, said Sara Nelson Dela Cruz, an Association of Flight Attendants spokeswoman.

Visa sued for price-fixing transaction fees

Cincinnati Grocery chain operator Kroger Co. and several other large retailers are charging Visa with price-fixing on credit-card transaction fees.

Kroger said Friday a federal lawsuit alleges Visa USA Inc. and Visa International Service Association are colluding with member banks to illegally fix prices on interchange fees. Credit card issuers such as Visa and MasterCard charge merchants the fees each time a customer pays with a credit card.

Cincinnati-based Kroger also says that Visa set rules and restrictions that forbid merchants like Kroger from negotiating lower fees. Interchange fees are a source of hefty profits for the credit card industry. “It’s not fair to Kroger, and it’s not fair to our customers, who wind up footing the bill through higher retail prices,” Kroger spokesman Gary Rhodes said.

Grocers don’t oppose the fees themselves but believe they’re not based on market forces as they should be, Rhodes said.

“The fees are a cash cow for Visa,” he said.

Kroger, the nation’s biggest grocery chain after Wal-Mart Stores Inc. with 2,524 stores in 32 states, said it filed the lawsuit late Thursday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Other plaintiffs in the lawsuit are Ahold USA Inc., Albertson’s Inc., Eckerd Corp., Maxi Drug Inc., Safeway Inc., and Walgreen Co., Kroger said.

Spokesmen for Walgreen, Albertson’s and Ahold USA declined to comment on the suit. Representatives of Safeway and The Jean Coutu Group Inc., which owns Maxi Drug and about 1,500 Eckerd stores, could not be reached for comment.

Anheuser-Busch wins sole use of ‘Bud’ name

St. Louis

It’s a long dispute with no apparent end in sight, and the latest victory goes to Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc.

A Hungarian court has ruled in favor of the St. Louis-based brewer, ordering cancellation for Czech beer-maker Budejovicky Budvar’s use of the “Bud,” “Budweiser Budvar” and “Budweiser Bier-Budvar” labels in Hungary.

The court concluded the term “Bud” was not a reference to the city — Ceske Budejovice — where Budejovicky Budvar is based, Anheuser-Busch said Friday and therefore that the Czech brewer could not claim it as a so-called appellation of origin. Such a claim would have entitled the company to use the name.

The two breweries have been battling over Budweiser and other trade names since 1906, and are still involved in about 40 lawsuits worldwide. Anheuser-Busch claims it was using the Budweiser name in 1876 — 19 years before Budejovicky Budvar came into existence.

Anheuser-Busch’s Budweiser is the world’s biggest-selling full-calorie beer, and its Bud Light is the world’s top light beer. The brewery, which got its start in 1852, chose the Budweiser name because it was well-known in the German homeland of the Busch family.