Montana

Pop-up and pop-in shops have become mainstream marketing tools across the retail spectrum. Here are some tips for emerging specialty brands wishing to pop-in:

Home Depot, the world's largest home improvement retailer, is accelerating the national rollout of its online handyman referral service Redbeacon to tap demand from homeowners who don't want to do fix-it projects themselves. Redbeacon, which connects consumers with painters, plumbers, carpenters and maids, expanded this week through Home Depot to Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Utah, Montana and Alaska. That puts the service in 11 states as it pushes nationwide over the next two years, CEO Anthony Rodio said in an interview last week.

As I write this, the Senate just voted 74-20 to take up the Marketplace Fairness Act for debate and amendment, the bill's first procedural hurdle. The bill would empower states to require online retailers to collect state and local sales taxes for purchases. The taxes would be remitted to the state where the customer lives. Under current law, states can only require retailers to collect sales taxes if they have a physical presence in the state.

Katherine Field Boccaccio Cabela’s Inc. will open a Cabela’s Outpost Store in Kalispell, Mont., joining the outdoor retailer’s single full-line Billings store in the state. read more

Online sales are soaring. State budget deficits are growing. And tax-free internet sales are once again in the spotlight. Congress is considering bills that would level the playing field by allowing states to require all online merchants doing business in that state to collect sales tax. Web retailers have largely had a free ride since a 1992 Supreme Court ruling that only merchants with a physical presence in a state are responsible for collecting sales tax.