27 former Lamonts stores reopen as Gottschalks

27 former Lamonts stores

reopen as Gottschalks

SEATTLE--Former Lamonts department stores in the Seattle area reopened yesterday under the name of their new owner, Gottschalks.

The Fresno, Calif.-based retail chain has restocked and reopened 27 stores in Washington, Idaho, Utah and Oregon, including nine in King County. Seven Gottschalks' stores in Alaska are scheduled to open Thursday, Gottschalks spokesman Fred Bentelspacher said.

Gottschalks bought the leases to 34 of Lamonts' 38 department stores after the Kirkland company filed for bankruptcy protection earlier this year.

Three Lamonts stores--in Lynnwood, Olympia and Spokane--were turned over to developers. The Spokane store did not reopen, and a fourth store in Aberdeen was sold.

Same-store sales perk up

10 percent at Starbucks

SEATTLE--Coffee-retailing giant Starbucks said yesterday that same-store sales, sales at stores open at least a year, rose 10 percent during the four-week period ended Wednesday compared with the year-earlier period.

The company reported consolidated net revenue of $183 million for the latest four-week period, an increase of 35 percent from the same period last year.

Shareholders OK merger

of Webvan, HomeGrocer.com

KIRKLAND--Shareholders of Internet retailers HomeGrocer.com and Webvan Group approved the merger of the two companies yesterday, the companies said.

More than 85 percent of HomeGrocer.com shareholders who voted and 99 percent of Webvan voting shareholders approved the deal at separate meetings in Seattle and Burlingame, Calif., respectively.

As previously announced, Foster City, Calif.-based Webvan will issue 1.07605 shares of its common stock for each outstanding HomeGrocer.com share. Kirkland-based HomeGrocer.com will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Webvan. The deal is expected to close Tuesday.

Date of decision to hear Microsoft case unknown

WASHINGTON--The Justice Department does not know when the Supreme Court will decide whether it will hear Microsoft's appeal of a ruling that the software giant violated the nation's antitrust laws or send the case back to a lower appeals court, a senior department official said yesterday.

The official was contradicting an earlier report by a stock-market analyst who said a senior Justice Department official told him the Supreme Court would probably make a decision by Sept. 8 on whether to hear the appeal of the ruling that could ultimately result in the breakup of Microsoft. Deutsche Banc Alex Brown analyst Chris Mortenson said in a research note yesterday that the Sept. 8 date given by an unnamed official was ahead of the popular opinion that the Supreme Court will make its decision in late September or early October.

Supreme Court experts say no one knows for sure when the court will act but that several times are possible, one being Sept. 8, when the court will next issue summer orders. The court could also act the week before it formally opens its new term on Oct. 2, or on Oct. 2 itself.

RealNetworks software now

in French, German, Japanese

SEATTLE--RealNetworks, which makes the most widely used software to download audio and video via the Internet, released its video, audio and download software yesterday in French, German and Japanese.

The Seattle company plans to introduce RealPlayer 8, RealJukebox 2 and RealDownload 4 in eight languages over the next month: Dutch, Italian, Portuguese, Korean, Spanish, Swedish and two Chinese dialects.

Lawsuit alleges Amazon.com

misled customers on supply

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa--Alpha International, maker of die-cast collectibles, said yesterday it filed a lawsuit against Internet retailer Amazon.com for false and misleading statements.

Alpha, which sells toys and collectibles under the name Gearbox, said Amazon.com falsely stated on its Web site that Alpha's Gearbox 1940 Ford fire truck was out of stock even though it had not placed recent orders with Alpha and there were no back orders.

The company said it has lost a number of wholesale and potential customers as a result.

It is seeking compensatory and punitive damages "in an amount sufficient to punish Amazon.com and to deter it from engaging in similar conduct in the future."

Amazon.com was not immediately available for comment.

- Seattle Times business staff and news services