The movie theater news continues this week.
After closing temporarily in late March, the Columbus Malco is preparing for a Sept. 3 reopening date.
As I said last week, along with numerous businesses nowadays, the movie industry has suffered billions of dollars due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The movie schedule for the Columbus Malco, which will include all new lineups, will be released Aug. 31.
For COVID-19 precautions, Malco employees will all have their temperatures taken, will all wear masks and gloves and sanitize high contact surfaces every 30 minutes.
Moviegoers will be required to wear face masks in the lobby but will be allowed to take them off once in the auditorium. When you’re picking your seat, be sure to maintain at least six feet from other groups, skipping a row between other guests.
Moving to downtown, Rae’s Jewelry on Fifth Street is officially shuttered. After more than 50 years in business and a few weeks of slashed prices from its going out of business sale, the Columbus jewelry store has taken down its clearance signs and flipped the open sign to closed.
This vacancy downtown means there’s prime real estate for another business venture to occupy.
Speaking of business closures, an East Columbus car lot is closing.
Triangle Auto Sales, 301 Alabama St., is selling its last car after 50 years of business. The lot, building and few remaining cars are all up for sale.
The Dispatch could not reach the owner by press time today.
Keeping with the car trend, Starkville has a new performance shop open now.
Apex Performance, 9829 Hwy. 25 S., is ready to service and upgrade your vehicle to a higher performance.
Apex owner Benjamin Shurden, who is also the owner of Parrish Towing, has turned his passion into a full-on business venture.
“We specialize in high performance,” Shurden said. “We can tune just about anything that’s newer than a (2005 vehicle). … I take your stock calibration and I put my own calibration on there and I make vehicles more efficient and more powerful.”
On average, he said he can tune your vehicle and give your car a 12-percent increase in power and increase up to two miles per gallon.
“I tune every aspect of it,” Shurden said. “I’ve been a gear-head and a car guy and built race cars most of my life, so automotive is kind of in me. … I built a rapport for custom tunes on the side, so instead of it being side work, I just went public with it.”
Apex is open Monday through Friday 8 a.m.-5 p.m.
If you’re like me and you’re not quite mechanically inclined, Shurden is inviting the public to check out what high performance tuning can actually do to a vehicle. On Oct. 3, he’s inviting the public to a big cookout and a chance to see cars that have 600 to 700 horsepower. Be sure to stay up to date with Apex’s Facebook page for more updates and public events.
“We’re going to (have) all the vehicles that we’ve done tune work on and the public,” he said. “We’ll see what the turnout is. I’ll grill 100 hamburgers if I have to. We’re going to give the kids in the local area a chance to see some cool cars.”
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