Three Verizon wireless retail stores opened in the East Valley. The stores, which offer wireless phone and data service and products, opened at the Crossroads Towne Center at 2640 E. Germann Road in Chandler, 1804 S. Signal Butte Road in Mesa and Scottsdale Fashion Square at the corner of Scottsdale Road and Goldwater Boulevard in Scottsdale.

Goodwill of Central Arizona plans to open its first retail store in Gilbert on Friday at the northwest corner of Gilbert and Guadalupe roads. The not-for-profit snagged Arizona Diamondbacks catcher Robby Hammock to welcome shoppers from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Microsoft Corp. opened its first retail store on Thursday to hundreds of people who waited for as long as 12 hours to get freebies and to see if the place is as cool as it was hyped to be.

Qwest Communications International will open a new type of retail store in Gilbert Friday at the Crossroads Towne Center, 3765 S. Gilbert Road.

Casa Paloma Interiors, a locally owned home furnishings, accessories and unique gifts store, slipped open a couple of weeks ago at North Scottsdale Marketplace, the 85,000-square-foot shopping center on the southwest corner of Scottsdale and Lone Mountain roads. The shop is planning its formal grand opening for June 14.

Himalayas Salt Lamps & More has opened at the Mesa Riverview shopping center at Loop 202 and Dobson Road.

Off Broadway Shoe Warehouse, a discount retailer of trendy shoe brands, is heading to the Valley, but the company isn't saying when.

Two stores at Fiesta Mall are going out of business. D.e.m.o, a hip-hop clothing store for men and women, is in the process of liquidating its inventory, but the exact closing date is unclear.

Stores of all sorts are opening in Gilbert so fast they have to do it in twos. Like SuperTarget, which staged a dual opening earlier this month, a new-to-the-East Valley supermarket chain is wrapping up March with a double debut.

The walls are up at IKEA, the Swedish mall-sized home furnishings store that is under construction on a 23-acre site at Interstate 10 and Warner Road in Tempe.

Make way for the procrastinators.

POWAY, Calif. - Troubled computer maker Gateway Inc. announced Thursday it will shutter all of its retail stores next week, eliminating 2,500 jobs, or nearly 40 percent of its work force.

Kierland Commons, the open-air shopping center on the Phoenix side of Scottsdale Road, south of Frank Lloyd Wright Boulevard, is adding a Harari boutique.

Think twice before tossing that store receipt. A poll conducted by Angie’s List, an online consumer-driven ratings service, said 64 percent of respondents reported having diffi culty making returns without receipts.

The British owner of Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Markets has announced plans to close six stores in the Valley -- and all but one are in the East Valley.

At SanTan Village in Gilbert, two big retailers - Best Buy and Dick's Sporting Goods - are opening, along with two restaurants and three smaller retailers this month, mall officials said.

The East Valley keeps landing more and more high-profile retail chains: Barneys New York is coming to Scottsdale in 2009, as is H&M. But how can you tell we've really arrived? We now have the state's first Lego store.