[picture of Helios House gas station from LA Times via Redding.com]
1) Retail: In a story on all the upscale convenience stores swarming our shores we learn that Famima!!s chicken korma recently won the grand prize at the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS) Chef Showdown contest in Las Vegas. We also learn that Harrods of London is doing their own super high-end c-store, with rumors of the stores coming to NYC, Berlin, Paris and Dubai. Can LA be far behind? [Convenience Store]
2) Retail: The Pink shall inherit the earth. Via the inbox, a reader writes in: "According to Westfield's [Century City] site, a new Pinkberry is opening up at the mall attached to Bloomingdales (new wing in front of new Hollister & Anne Klein)." [CurbedWire Inbox]
3) Retail: Via reader Tracy, we get an update on BP's Helios House, which threatens to make us feel good about filling up: "the british petroleum station is now unwrapped. I drove by it twice today.. once at 5pm and it was slowing down traffic to a crawl... I can only describe it as giant spider made out of aluminium. it will be here for many many years. hopefully someone took a shot of it for you... oh, and when I drove by again at 830p there appeared to be some kind of grand opening or something festive... please don't tell anyone in NYC. they will mock us more." [LA Times has more]