Newsfeeds 11.04.09

Plaza Possum (Style Weekly)
Southside Plaza, with its stream of cars crisscrossing its massive parking lot and most of its storefronts occupied, has sidewalks brimming with customers. There’s no Target or Ukrop’s, but there’s Maxway and Farmer’s Foods, a grocery store with spotless floors and shelves so well-manicured that it’s hard to imagine the building is more than half a century old.

GOP reclaims Virginia (Washington Post)
Virginians elected Republican Robert F. McDonnell the commonwealth’s 71st governor Tuesday, sweeping the GOP to power and emphatically halting a decade of Democratic advances in the critical swing state.

In October, Signs of Life at Retailers (NY Times)
October was far and away the best month American retailers have had since consumers put the brakes on spending last autumn. Major categories had robust sales growth for the first time in more than a year, new figures show.

How to Create a Budget (BusinessWeek)
It’s not glamorous, but a budget will help manage costs, identify red flags, and achieve profitability.

Why the Commercial Real Estate Collapse Could Be a Good Thing (Slate)
For some time, economists have expected that the next shoe to drop is commercial real estate–but in this case, there is some potential upside for small companies. Rent is usually one of a firm’s highest fixed costs, and many of us may now get the opportunity to negotiate a much better deal.z