Business bits

Maurices to open Blue Springs store
Maurices, the young women’s fashion retail chain, is having a grand opening Saturday at Adams Dairy Landing in Blue Springs.
The store is at 1032 N.E. Coronado Drive, next to Target.
The celebration begins a chance to win one of four $100 shopping sprees. Also, from Saturday through Nov. 22, a customer can buy one item and get one at 50 percent off.
Maurices, based in Duluth, Minn., is owned by Dress Barn Inc. of Suffern, N.Y. Maurices has 30 locations in Missouri, and the Blue Springs stores is one of more than 50 to open nationwide in 2009.

New Big Lots update
The new Big Lots opening in the strip center anchored by Price Chopper on Noland Road is set to open Nov. 14, according to a sign on the door.
The store at 23rd Street and Noland closed last winter.

Dillard’s planning grand re-opening
Dillard’s at Independence Center plans a grand re-opening Wednesday through Saturday.
The renovated store will have treasure hunts, live music and the chance to win prizes. An intimate apparel department will debut along with a ladies shoe department with nearly 50,000 pairs of shoes.
A ribbon cutting is set for 9:50 a.m. Wednesday.
Dillard’s, based in Little Rock, Ark., has more than 300 stores nationwide.

Rent-A-Center posts quarterly earnings
Rent-A-Center, citing lower sales, has reported a decrease in revenues but higher profits for the third quarter.
Revenues for the quarter ending Sept. 30, were $671.3 million, down from $708.8 million for the same period in 2008. Same-store sales were off 6.1 percent.
Net quarterly profits were $36.8 million, or 55 cents a share, compared with $29.4 million and 44 cents in the third quarter of 2008. In the first nine months of the year, total revenues were $2.08 billion, a decrease of $105 million from same period in the prior year. Net earnings were $124.2 million, or  $1.86 a share, compared with $103.5 million and $1.54 for the same period in 2008.
The company, based in Plano, Texas, has stores in Blue Springs and Independence aming its approximately 3,000 stores in the U.S. and Canada. The stores mainly offer major consumer electronics, appliances, computers and furniture and accessories under rental-purchase agreements.

Mall owner earnings
Simon Property Group, which owns Independence Center, has reported higher third-quarter profits.
“Funds from operations,” as the company termed it, increased 2 percent to $473.1 million, or $1.38 per share diluted, reflecting a dilution of 23 cents a share as a result of the company issuing 17.25 million shares of common stock in March and 23 million shares in May, as well as approximately 10 million shares so far this year issued as common stock dividends. “Funds from operations” for the third quarter of 2008 were $463.9 million, or $1.61 per diluted share. The company declared a quarterly dividend of 60 cents a share.
The company, based in Indianapolis, has 387 properties in North America, Europe and Asia.

Sprint losses worsen
Sprint Nextel has reported a net loss of $478 million, or 17 cents a share, for the third quarter.
Revenues for the quarter were $8.04 billion, down 9 percent from $8.82 billion in the third quarter of 2008. For the first nine of the year, the company’s revenues are off 10 percent. So far this year, losses are 51 cents a share, compared with 41 cents a share in the first three quarters of 2008.
Sprint, based in Overland Park, Kan., had a net loss of 135,000 retail subscribers in the quarter, but the company says subscriber losses have improved by approximately 20 percent in each of the second and third quarters this year.