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So 46 Eckerd stores in the Triad are slated to become Rite Aids as part of an estimated $4-billion stock-and-cash acquisition deal that closed today.

What does this mean for consumers? Well, not a lot, right now. Rite Aid Corp. hopes to swap over the branding at its more than 1,850 new stores in 18 states within the next year and a half. The nation's third-largest drugstore chain also said it might put more non-pharmacy items on sale in the newly acquired stores in coming months and could bring in the private label Rite Aid brand.

Customers ages 60 and older also may be able to sign up for a Rite Aid senior-loyalty program of discounts and other offers, the company said Monday.

Regulators have asked Rite Aid to close a handful of stores, and the chain plans to close a couple hundred others in markets where it already has a strong presence.

Greensboro-based FirstPoint Inc. will find out June 11 whether it has nabbed a coveted "Stevie Award."

The honors, otherwise known as the American Business Awards, recognize companies for innovation, new products, turnaround, overall image and involvement in the local business and charity communities. FirstPoint is one of eight finalists in the Stevies' Best Corporate Social Responsibility Program category for companies with 101 to 2,500 employees.

The final awards will be handed out at a national ceremony in New York next Monday.

None of FirstPoint's competitors are from North Carolina.

The Greensboro Economic Development Alliance has picked up a new team member.

As manager of new biz development and expansion services, Gail Bartunek will develop marketing materials and handle public relations. Bartunek previously worked as the Rockingham County reporter for WFMY News 2 and marketing director for Steven D. Bell & Co.

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services has raised its rating on Greensboro's water and sewer bonds to AAA from AA+, basing on continuing financial strength and capacity expansions of the utilities. The rating change impacts approximately $30.3 million of existing debt.

"From a capacity and operational standpoint, both the water system and the sanitary system have performed well and are positioned to handle additional growth and development," Standard & Poor's credit analyst Colin MacNaught said in a news release.

"We expect that Greensboro will maintain strong debt service coverage and high liquidity levels in the future while addressing further capital projects," he added.

City water and sewer customer bases have been growing, respectively, at an average annual rate of 1.5 percent and 1.6 percent since 2002, the ratings service reported. City water supplies will be adequate for the next three years, at which point the Randleman Dam project, with its planned water-treatment plant, should provide any additional water and sewer services necessary.

Standard & Poor's also assigned an AAA rating and a stable outlook to the city's nearly $37.9 million series A combined enterprise system revenue bonds.

Another summer day, another grill-related list from Winston-Salem's Blue Rhino.

This time, it's an iTunes playlist of "Music to Grill By," culled from a national survey of 2,000 men and women. Shoppers can download the playlist here or here, at 99 cents per song.

The top contender? "Cheeseburger in Paradise" by Jimmy Buffett, of course.

After the jump, check out the complete (and somewhat strange) list ...

Challenge Financial Investors Corp., a Fla.-based lender with offices in Greensboro and Winston-Salem, has agreed to pay $848,000 to settle allegations of poor supervision and controls in its mortgage operations, according to the N.C. Office of the Commissioner of Banks.

The state banking commissioner claims Challenge solicited and accepted more than 100 mortgage applications from individuals unlicensed to do business in North Carolina. The banking office also claims Challenge failed to appropriately supervise and control loan officers at some of its 19 branches in this state.

According to the banking commissioner, Challenge ran a "net branch" company, allowing loan officers to work with little supervision as long as they paid a small fee for each loan originating in the company's name. This sort of action was held in violation of the state's Mortgage Lending Act in 2003, the NCCOB reports.

As part of its settlement, Challenge will pay the state banking office $27,525 to cover investigative costs, in addition to the $848,000 civil penalty. The lender also has agreed to measures including evaluation of its branch manager and loan officers and installation of a software program to detect, identify and fine unlicensed individuals who try to originate loans.

The state investigation found no evidence that the company employed abusive loan terms.

Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, a regional nonprofit with offices in Asheville and Raleigh, is joining talks about a proposed Duke Energy energy-efficiency plan.

The nonpartisan environmental group followed in the footsteps of Piedmont Natural Gas and petitioned state regulators at the end of May to join discussions of Duke's plan. According to a document issued today by the N.C. Utilities Commission, SACE will be allowed to intervene in the proceedings.

Duke hopes to launch new energy-efficiency programs and an accompanying bill hike in North Carolina by the start of next year. But the utility could be delayed if the commission opens talks up to competing utilities and other parties concerned about energy-efficiency and the impact of Duke's plan on their own business.

Burlington's Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings has renewed a multi-year clinical lab services contract with CIGNA HealthCare, according to a news release.

Under the terms of the deal, LabCorp will remain a contracted provider in all CIGNA markets. And starting Jan. 1, the Burlington-based company will no longer be restricted from advertising its full participation as an in-network provider for CIGNA.

"This agreement is important because we will no longer be prohibited from marketing to doctors and patients that we are a participating, in-network provider to all CIGNA HealthCare members and plans in all major markets," David P. King, LabCorp's president and chief executive officer, said in the news release. "We welcome the opportunity to compete for CIGNA HealthCare business on a level playing field with all other contracted laboratories."

Steven D. Bell and Louis DeJoy have stepped into major leadership roles with Greensboro College, according to a Thursday announcement.

Bell, founder and chief executive officer of major real-estate investment and management group Steven D. Bell & Co., has become chairman-elect of the college's board. DeJoy, chief executive at logistics operation New Breed, will become chairman of the college's investment committee, which handles the school's investment policy and diversification.

Bell has been a college trustee since 2003. He also serves as regional board chairman of Wachovia Bank and on the board of trustees for UNC-Chapel Hill's Kenan-Flagler Business School. DeJoy is on the board of trustees and also helps manage investments for the Moses Cone Health System.

Land developer and homebuilder C.P. Morgan kicked off sales Thursday at its first residential community in Greensboro.

Corinth Village, on Liberty Road east of U.S. 421, includes single-family homes priced starting in the $120,000s and ranging up to the $190,000s. Home sizes range from 1,500 square feet to 4,300 square feet. Potential homebuyers can visit three furnished models and, if they decide to buy, can pick design features for their house in the company's 8,000-square-foot design center.

Airport officials, economic development types and city planners all oppose plans to build 300-or-so apartments next to property owned by Piedmont Triad International Airport.

So if you're in charge of rezoning 18 acres for the apartments, what do you do?

Well, if you're the Greensboro Zoning Commission, you vote 6-1 in favor of the apartments, siding with developer Roy Carroll and Robbie Perkins.

That's what happened Monday at a regular meeting of the Zoning Commission, which finally took a vote on the apartment issue, which has been moving from one monthly agenda to the next for much of this year ...

Nope, not Greensboro.

But Asheville and Durham made a recent list of the country's top 25 greenest cities.

The list, compiled by "Country Home" magazine, ranked cities based on factors including the number of green-certified buildings, air and watershed quality, miles of public transportation, power use, farmers' markets and producers of organics, according to a report from Realtor.org.

Durham ranked 16th, while Asheville ranked 25th. The top-ranked city on the list was Burlington, Vermont.

We reported on this in the News & Record before it was announced.

But here's the official word on a new youth-sports program by Four Seasons that plays into the mall's continuing efforts to cast itself as a family-friendly shopping spot.

Starting this month, Four Seasons Town Centre will give a local sports team $100 each month and reward players with a variety of prizes, including a team photo and a "goody bag" - that doubtless will include gift certificates for mall shopping.

It's a way for the mall to promote itself with kids and families through do-gooding, and the program is open to athletes ages five to 12 who participate in any team sport in a community, parks and rec or youth sports league in the Triad. You can pick up nomination forms at the mall, by e-mail from Four Seasons or at the mall Web site.

The first team will be announced during the last week of June.

Italian manufacturing company Arneg SPA will hold a ground-breaking Friday for a $20-million facility in Davidson County.

The global refrigeration company, which already has an office in Salisbury, plans to create at least 181 jobs at the new facility on Hargrave Road, near the Lexington Business Center. Greensboro's Samet Corp. is at work on a 140,000-square-foot Arneg building there - the first part of an estimated 500,000-square-foot project slated for completion in less than six years.

The first building is scheduled to open by the end of this year.

Arneg was founded in 1963 in the Veneto region of Italy and has operations in more than 20 countries. Its products include shelving, refrigerated cabinets, cold rooms and specialized thermal doors.

The groundbreaking here will take place at 4 p.m. Friday.

View a site map.

RALEIGH - The state jobless rate held steady at 4.8 percent from April to May, even as total employment dropped for the third straight month.

Statewide employment fell by 5,029 workers last month, to just under 4.3 million, the state’s Employment Security Commission said Friday.

The N.C. jobless rate outpaced national figures for the third straight month, as well. The national unemployment rate for May was 4.5 percent.

Officials will release county unemployment figures for May next Friday.

Feeling toasty? If so, it's probably because Greensboro is one of the country's sweatiest cities.

But don't take my word for it.

Ask the makers of Old Spice deodorant, who ranked Greensboro No. 47 on a list of the 100 sweatiest cities in the United States this week.

SunTrust offices in High Point and Winston-Salem are among properties the company plans to sell and lease back in a cost-cutting move announced last week.

SunTrust Banks Inc. is offering up approximately 425 branches and a handful of office buildings to developers, brokers and real-estate investment trusts in a move intended to lower company expenses and cut the amount of unused or under-used office space for which SunTrust is paying, according to a company news release.

An office at Oak Hollow Village in High Point (on Eastchester Drive) and one on Country Club Road in Winston-Salem are among those being listed for sale and lease-back by the Atlanta-based banking organization.

Well, you might just qualify for Bank of America's rebranded wealth-management program.

We mentioned in today's News & Record that bank announced plans Monday to rebrand its private bank for high-rolling customers.

Mike Mack, the current chief operating officer of Syngenta Seeds, will step up as Syngenta's chief executive officer starting Jan. 1.

According to a recent release from the Swiss agribusiness company, Mack, who is 47, is a U.S. citizen who joined Syngenta in 2002 as head of crop protection for North America out of Greensboro. He will take the helm from Michael Pragnell, the company's 60-year-old chief exec.

Pragnell will step down from his position, and from the company's board, at the end of the year.

The number of existing homes sold in the Triad fell 20 percent last month, compared to a year before. And the area's home sales remain down by about 5 percent, year-to-date, even as the state Realtors group claims stats for metro areas are soaring.

To be fair, things look OK in the Triangle, where the number of homes sold was up 8 percent last month compared to May 2006. But the N.C. Association of Realtors wrap data for new home sales into their figures for the Triangle, so it's sort of hard to tell what's really going on there.

Regardless, the Realtors said in a news release today that the Triangle area has been posting double-digit growth, and nearby Wilson has seen an 8 percent rise in total sales dollars for 2007. The Charlotte area, they said, has held steady with about 5 percent growth and price appreciation of 7 percent.

Then there's the Triad - which, according to my quick calculations, has seen existing home sales fall about 5 percent this year, compared to the first five months of 2006. Total sales dollars here for the year are down a little less than one percent.

That isn't too shabby, but it's not quite soaring, either.

Anyway, check out the local breakdown after the jump ...

A major manufacturer plans to use eco-friendly yarn from Greensboro-based Unifi in to produce a new, sustainable line of zippers.

Ideal Fastener Corp., the world's second-largest zipper maker, plans to use Unifi's 100-percent recycled yarns, called Repreve, in its Ideal Earth brand. Repreve, which will be used in a variety of styles and colors of zippers, is a collection of polyester yarns made from recycled products. Ideal says using the recycled yarn will reduce the manufacturer's need for virgin polyester.

Ideal estimates that, for every 150 of its sustainable jacket zippers or every 500 of its pant zippers made with Unifi's yarn, one gallon of gasoline will be conserved.

This didn't make the deadline for last week's retail column in the paper, so I figured I'd just try to get it online beforehand.

The Village at North Elm, that mixed-use development at Pisgah Church Road and North Elm Street in Greensboro, will host a festival from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.

Activities include a sidewalk chalk-art contest, a children's musical performance at 10:30 a.m., caricatures and a 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. live jazz and wine-tasting event.

And this didn't make the cut for Sunday's shopping column.

The Heart of Living Home Gallery plans to host a "French Market" featuring local and international art and new and vintage accessories starting at 6 p.m. on June 29 and running through 5 p.m. June 30. A related art exhibit will be up at the gallery, at 5588 Garden Village Way in Greensboro, through Aug. 31.

Heart of Living's featured artist will be Danielle Beyssac Kicinski, a French painter. This is her first exhibition outside of France.

Tac, a Dallas-based security company, has signed an agreement to buy six Yamas Controls Group facilities, including one in Greensboro.

Tac, which also provides indoor climate and other building environment services, also has picked up Yamas offices in Charlotte, Morrisville and Greenville, S.C., according to a company announcement.

Solis Women's Health, an Austin-based healthcare provider focused on screening and diagnosis of breast cancer, has acquired the city's oldest independent breast center.

Solis, which runs seven comprehensive breast care centers nationwide, has picked up Bertrand Breast and Osteoporosis Center, which was founded by Margaret Bertrand in 1983.

Brad Hummel, chief executive officer for Solis, said in a news release that the acquisition will pave the way for Solis to grow in North Carolina and the Piedmont Triad.

"This initial acquisition will serve as an anchor for a broad initiative to expand our delivery system in North Carolina," Hummel said.

Bertrand and her staff will be staying on at the local diagnostic center.

Wilbur Smith Associates, a transportation and infrastructure consulting firm, will move its offices from Albert Pick Road in Greensboro to High Point's Mendenhall Business Park later this summer.

The S.C.-based company, which has digs near Piedmont Triad International Airport, has signed a lease with Liberty Property Trust for 5,880 square feet of space on Mendenhall Oaks Parkway.

The move is less than 3 miles.

The Reidsville Chamber of Commerce is getting into the publishing business.

Sort of.

The chamber has contracted with Piedmont Magazine Inc. to produce a glossy annual magazine about the Reidsville community. "Reidsville Magazine - 2008" will include 32 pages of articles and photos meant to promote the area and will be supported by local advertising.

Madison-based Piedmont Magazine Inc. publishes "Piedmont Magazine" on a quarterly basis and partners with area chambers of commerce to put out publications that focus on the area's business and economy.

Greensboro's RF Micro Devices ranks No. 6 among the world's top wireless communications semiconductor vendors, according to a company announcement.

The ranking, from a May report by Gartner Dataquest, was based on company revenue. RFMD advanced one position from Gartner's prior year report. RFMD did not provide further details on the rankings or identify which company it replaced.

And I wasn't about to ask the News & Record to shell out more than $2,000 for the full report. So we'll just have to be left wondering.

Regardless, Gartner noted RFMD's increasing presence in third-generation cell phones and pointed out the company's 44-percent growth in revenues from wireless applications from 2005 to '06.

Gartner is a major information technology research and advisory company with corporate headquarters in Connecticut.

Checked in with TransTech Pharma again to see whether there's any news on the company's much-publicized search for a possible new location.

The response: No decision (or at least no announcement of a decision) regarding whether the biotech company - and its subsidiary, PharmaCore - might relocate in High Point or leave the Triad.

We'll keep following it.

Consumer confidence in the region fell during the first six months of this year, nearing the national average for the first time since the latter half of 2005.

At least, that's what RBC Centura reported today, along with results of the Raleigh-based financial institution's most recent study of consumer attitudes and household spending in the southeast.

The overall RBC CASH Index for the region dropped nearly seven points to 92.9 - less than two points above the national average of 91.2. The last time the regional index, which has held steady above 99.5 since January of last year, matched national figures was in July to December of 2005, when both indexes were about 74.

Though the southeast saw slight improvements in consumers' feelings about investment and job security, the region took a blow when it came to consumers' expectations for the future - at an index of 45.4, more than six points below the national average. Consumers here also aren't feeling so hot about making major purchases, such as homes or cars.

RBC economist Derek Holt said he was surprised at the results but that, going forward, consumer confidence should be bolstered by a generally healthy job market in the region and nationwide. Holt's comments were part of a news release issued by RBC Centura.