Oak Hall and Lansky Bros. are collaborating on a unique project that gives back to the patients of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. A set of three pairs of collectible socks is available just in time for the holidays, and sales benefit St. Jude.

A new, larger Wiseacre brewery Downtown would enable the Memphis company to double its full-time employment and expand distribution of its craft beer initially into all of Alabama as well as Georgia and the Florida Panhandle. “We’re in seven states full-time,’’ co-founder Kellan Bartosch said Friday of Wiseacre Brewing Co.'s current footprint. “And we’ve had conversations with markets all over.’’

New management of  The Shops at Carriage Crossing wants to enhance the pedestrian-friendly shopping center’s customer experience – a shifting of direction for the business district.

While big-box retailers like Best Buy and Walmart tend to dominate Black Friday sales, the Saturday after Thanksgiving is when consumers “shop small.” In 2010, when small businesses were struggling from an economic recession, American Express declared the Saturday after Thanksgiving as Small Business Saturday, a marketing effort that encourages people to include small, local businesses in their holiday shopping.

A keynote presentation by Paul Campbell, chief innovation officer at W.L. Gore & Associates, from the Back End of Innovation Conference.

About 26 years ago, Amy Howard started Amy Howard Collection, a company where she designed and manufactured furniture.

Wiseacre Brewing Co. plans to build a second, larger brewery Downtown. Abel Parcels LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Wiseacre, is seeking a Board of Adjustment variance to build on 2.5 acres at the southeast edge of Downtown. B.B. King Boulevard, East Butler and Vance avenues and Abel Street border the site.

At a time when brick-and-mortar retailers are competing with e-commerce, Downtown Memphis is trying to figure out if it can support retail at all.

Shab Chic Marketplace, a set of gussied-up shipping containers housing retail, was originally supposed to open in November 2017. It is located in the parking lot next to the former Kudzu’s Bar & Grill, which had an address of 603 Monroe Ave. Across the street is High Cotton Brewing and Edge Alley, the latter of which also houses micro-retailers.

The Beale Street archway signs are loved by some and hated by some, but with nearly 1 million impressions in six months, there’s no debate. They work. For the past six months, Chris Porter, the local graphic designer who created the winning submission, has been keeping track of how many times the archways appeared in an online video or were posted to social media.

The Metal Museum proposes to spend $21 million to renovate Overton Park’s Rust Hall and make it a “world class museum and educational center." The museum board approved what it calls the “expansion plan" in September as part of its campaign to win the keys to Rust Hall.  The 78,000-square-foot headquarters of Memphis College of Art becomes available after the school closes in May 2020.

Shelby County’s unemployment rate rose slightly for the month of October, according to the most recent statistics released by the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development.

Ray’s Take: The longest known will filed in probate court was in 1925. It was 1,066 pages long and belonged to Frederica Evelyn Stilwell Cook. Her will was bound into four leather books and detailed what should happen to every single item she possessed. It also included specific requests such as not putting her age on her tombstone. Can you imagine being the executor of her will?

There really is no such thing as “one size fits all,” especially when it comes to education. The needs and life circumstance vary from student to student. For adults who dropped out of high school for whatever reason and want to earn a high school diploma, Goodwill Excel Center and Shelby County Schools have worked the past few years to determine the exact fit for those students.

Highlights of a Back End of Innovation keynote by Alex Goryachev, managing director of innovation strategy and programs at Cisco's Corporate Strategic Innovation Group. 

The Racquet Club of Memphis will close in the spring as the owners pursue another use besides tennis for the 12 acres in the heart of East Memphis’ bustling Poplar Corridor.

Memphis has landed another corporate headquarters with Mimeo agreeing to relocate its executives from New York City to the Bluff City.

The Episcopal Diocese of West Tennessee has elected Rev. Phoebe Roaf as its fourth bishop. Roaf, who will be installed in a consecration service May 4, is rector at St. Philip's Episcopal Church in Richmond, Virginia, the oldest African-American church in the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia, where she has served as the parish leader since 2011. Before St. Philip’s, she was associate rector for three years at Trinity Episcopal Church in New Orleans. Roaf, who earned a law degree from the University of Arkansas, Little Rock, and clerked two years for Judge James L. Dennis, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, worked in commercial real estate before pursuing a call to serve the Episcopal Church as clergy. 

When I was in college, I never joined a sorority. But, like you, I’ve heard some of the horror stories about what it can sometimes be like to become part of Greek life.

Buoyed by a state-approved tourism development zone, the city of Memphis will take bids for a hotel-retail developer on the Fairgrounds site as part of a $161 million public-private project and go after a private operator as well to repurpose the Mid-South Coliseum.

A father and son planning an $11.3 million craft beer brewery and taproom are intentional about the business engaging with and helping to lift its neighborhood, a long-distressed part of North Memphis.

FedEx has announced a deal to significantly expand its electric vehicle fleet by adding 1,000 Chinese-made Chanje V8100 vehicles.

Nonprofits who conduct year-end campaigns may unconsciously believe in Santa Claus. Some – though by no means all – are looking for a year-end windfall gift to appear between now and Dec. 31.

I find myself inspired today by a book called “The Speed of Trust,” by Stephen M.R. Covey. You’re probably familiar with Covey’s father, who wrote “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.”

The Shelby County Health Department is offering free flu shots Wednesday, Dec. 5, as part of a statewide vaccination event.