Do you remember your first...Google?
Ten years after Google debuted, Chicago-area CEOs and business leaders recall their earliest encounters with the search engine that bested Yahoo, AltaVista, Excite and Lycos. Most of the business leaders had trouble recalling a time without Google. Here are the results:

Dominick's to rent out space to other businesses
Sandra Guy: Want to go to the gym and grocery store at the same time? Dominick's is planning to lease space to other retailers in 15 of its larger Chicago-area stores to try to boost sales, according to real estate sources. The Oak Brook-based grocer, would likely rent space to non-competing companies such as exercise gyms or fashion clothing retailers.

Bargain hunters hit the jackpot at Web site
Sandra Guy: Brad Wilson, whose family traces its roots in Chicago back 100 years, has turned his obsession with finding bargains into a successful business, BradsDeals.com. Wilson's brainstorm happened when he was a student and started finding deals out of necessity that got fellow students' attention. After helping his friends find bargains online, Wilson realized he could attract a bigger audience by developing a Web site.

Adidas makes sure the (running) shoe fits
Sandra Guy: Two sneaker rivals are targeting the Chicago market with their technology that lets shoppers decide not only how to decorate their athletic shoes but how to mold them for peak performance. Adidas' newest store in Chicago at Water Tower Place features the only "mi adidas" shop in the Midwest, where shoppers can custom-fit a shoe for each foot and pick the type of shoe that suits the way their feet hit the ground.

Ifbyphone: You, too, can have a call center
Sandra Guy: Experts advise even small- and medium-sized businesses to set up Web sites, blogs, podcasts and Facebook pages, but they rarely mention the humble telephone. Skokie tech innovator Ifbyphone sees an opportunity in the omission: Its software applications let small businesses set up virtual call centers and make "live" contact with potential customers without having to hire technicians and phone operators.

Kmart may be casualty of Sears' dismal profits
After Sears Holdings Corp. reported Thursday a worse-than-expected 62 percent drop in fiscal second-quarter earnings, experts predicted Kmart's extinction and wondered how much longer the retailer will take to hire a CEO. The Hoffman Estates-based retailer cut its full-year earnings forecast because the weak economy is keeping shoppers away from Sears and Kmart stores. Net income in the quarter ended Aug. 2 stood at $65 million, or 50 cents a share, vs. $173 million, or $1.15 a share, a year ago.

CVS finds its inner Beauty
Sandra Guy: Cosmetics and skin-care shoppers may soon see a new boutique, Beauty 360, selling 32 brand-name product lines previously found in department stores. The surprise? The Beauty 360 concept is the brainchild of CVS Pharmacy. The Beauty 360 shops will be located next to certain CVS drugstores with high-sales cosmetics and beauty departments, said Cheryl Mahoney, vice president for beauty care for CVS.

Aculocity shows firms how to analyze claims
Sandra Guy: Warranties are the Rodney Dangerfield of the retail and manufacturing industries. Yet companies ignore warranties at their peril. "When a company pays attention to its warranties, it's a great way to improve brand image, save money and improve customer satisfaction, loyalty and repeat purchases," said Eric Arnum, editor of Warranty Week magazine, based in Forest Hills, N.Y. Product warranty claims total a jaw-dropping $28 billion a year in the United States, and extended warranty claims add another $16 billion, Arnum said.

Bay Harbour wins bid to buy Steve & Barry's
Sandra Guy: A newly created affiliate of investment company Bay Harbour Management has won the bid to buy Steve & Barry’s, known for its discount prices and celebrity-sponsored clothes. The $168 million purchase agreement calls for a majority of Steve & Barry's 276 stores to continue to operate, according to a press release issued Thursday by Steve & Barry's.

Worknet gets call when companies outsource
Sandra Guy: Food follows a circuitous route to get to food pantries and homeless shelters for people in need. America's Second Harvest, the nation's largest food-bank network, uses Worknet Inc., a Naperville-based technology firm, to host its computer servers that route food and make sure the food is delivered fresh.

Shop puts fun in fashion
Sandra Guy: A new teen fashion retailer, Frankie's on the Park, is hoping to show how intense customer service and unusual ideas can survive a brutal economy. Businesswomen Lisa Rolfe Burik and Mary DeRose Carter had worked together as partners at a health care consultancy that Burik and her husband, David, founded with two others. Three years ago, the Buriks sold Tiber Group, their 19-year-old firm that generated $10 million in annual revenues, to Navigant Consulting.

Sharing space keeps rents low for local artisans
Sandra Guy: Independent retailers are opening stores in today's tough economy by focusing on niche markets with one-of-a-kind concepts. The Andersonville Galleria, which showcases the importance of support for the arts and friendly property owners, is slated to double the space it rents to homegrown artists in time for Christmas and the winter holidays.

Barks beat economy's bite
Sandra Guy: Why would retail businesses be closing and vacancies left begging in the fastest-growing community in the Chicago area? At least 14 businesses have closed and two others have moved away in recent months in an area bordered by Cermak on the south, Roosevelt Road on the north, State Street on the west and Indiana Avenue on the east.

Beating the tax bite
Sandra Guy: Native Chicagoan Keene Addington plans to open eight new Flat Top Grill stir-fry fresh-food eateries in the next 18 months, but only one will be in downtown Chicago. The Loop site, in the old Carson Pirie Scott & Co. building at 1 S. State, is expected to open late this year. The entrance will be at Wabash and Monroe.

Location is key for restaurants to survive

Restaurants must charge an 11.5 percent sales tax if they operate inside a taxing district created 15 years ago by the Metropolitan Pier & Exposition Authority.

Course links Elmhurst students to South Africa
Sandra Guy: Ammar Haq had never paid attention to the message underlying a neighborhood's lack of banks and proliferation of currency exchanges until he took an honors course at Elmhurst College. "You don't see one bank for miles," said Haq, a 22-year-old senior majoring in biology, describing a class tour of a bank-less Chicago neighborhood. "You see storefront churches and fast-food places and currency exchanges." Haq, who grew up in Lombard and whose parents are from Pakistan, took the eye-opening tour as part of the course "Prophets: Visions of Social Justice."