Lexington store to celebrate 50 years

A Lexington store that has employed and clothed generations of Washington and Lee University students will celebrate its 50th anniversary Friday and Saturday.

Alvin-Dennis Inc. got started in 1963 as an all-men’s clothing store.

Alvin Carter, now 78, was just 28 when he decided opened the store with business partner Dennis Dixon.

Carter bought out Dixon after 10 years and has been operating the store on West Washington Street since then.

For years the store carried men’s suits, shoes and other accessories. Students at Washington and Lee were required to wear a coat and tie to class, and Carter was their go-to, he said.

During the Vietnam War, students stopped dressing up for class, Carter said. He began carrying more sportswear.

The store changed again in the 1980s when W&L began accepting female students for undergraduate studies. Carter added a ladies’ section to appeal to the new students.

Along the way, Carter hired students to help him run the store. He has seen generations of families work under him and attend the school, he said. Seeing those former employees and alumni is one of the motivations behind Carter’s six-day work weeks.

“I enjoy seeing people come back,” he said. “It keeps me going.”

Beau Dudley, Washington and Lee’s alumni director, a former student at the school and a former employee of Alvin-Dennis, said he first stepped foot in the store the second day of his freshman year in the 1970s. He later started working at the store and described it as “our own little fraternity.”

“Almost everyone knows [the store] and remembers it with a smile,” Dudley said.

He picked up some important life skills from Carter, too, such as how to tie a bow tie.

Carter’s daughter, Ginny Carter, helps run the store and said alumni, including graduates of the law school who now live the Roanoke and New River valleys, still return to Lexington to shop at the store.

“It’s not very common that you can come back after 30 or 40 years and see the same face,” she said.

The store will have anniversary sales Friday and Saturday and refreshments for shoppers, Carter said.

CVS stores to open walk-in health clinics

CVS Pharmacy is opening walk-in clinics at six southwest Virginia stores.

The one- to two-room Minute Clinics are located within the drugstore and will be staffed by a nurse practitioner.

The first of the six clinics opened last week at the North Franklin Street pharmacy in Christiansburg, said Brent Burkhardt, a spokesman for Minute Clinic. The pharmacy on Electric Road in Salem will open a Minute Clinic on Sept. 11. Four others will open throughout this month and next in Roanoke on Colonial Avenue, in Roanoke County on Williamson Road, in Radford on West Main Street, and in Lynchburg on Wards Road.

The clinics are designed to provide an affordable alternative to urgent care centers, said Joanne Yoo, a nurse practitioner and the Virginia manager for Minute Clinic.

Staff at the clinics can diagnose and write prescriptions for common illnesses such as strep throat, pink eye, and ear, nose and throat infections; administer vaccines; treat wounds, sprains and skin conditions including poison ivy and acne; provide physicals for sports; do TB testing; and offer support for smoking cessation. The clinics also offers lab tests for diabetes, cholesterol, blood pressure and asthma.

Minute Clinic accepts most health insurance. Its rates are posted online and on an electronic board in the store. An illness exam, for instance, costs from $79 to $89, according to the website.

Minute Clinic first opened as a private company in 2000. CVS Caremark purchased Minute Clinic in 2006, the same year that the first clinic opened in Virginia. (Minute Clinic has a presence in Northern Virginia and in the Richmond and Fredericksburg areas.)

There are 680 Minute Clinics in 25 states and Washington, D.C. CVS plans to open 150 more clinics by the end of this year and 1,500 clinics by 2017, Burkhardt said.

Minute Clinic is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., Saturday
9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and Sunday 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Hardee’s stores in Roanoke are getting spruced up

Nine Hardee’s restaurants in Roanoke are getting remodels as part of a larger remodeling campaign.

The fast food restaurants, operated by Boddie-Noell Enterprises, will get new counters and dining room finishes, new flooring and paint, and new furnishings including new seats and tables, said Rick Rountree, a company spokesman.

The exteriors will also see improvements, including a new red metal roof, painting and signage. The scope of the work will vary slightly by location.

Work began in August at the Williamson Road restaurant. A building permit filed in Roanoke valued the work for that location at about $162,000.

Remodels to all nine restaurants within the Roanoke city limits should be complete by mid-October, Rountree said.

The restaurants will remain open during the work, but there may be several days when service is limited to the drive-through, he said.

Boddie-Noell is remodeling more than 100 of its 335 restaurants in four states to give them a more contemporary look, Rountree said. Boddie-Noell is the largest Hardee’s franchise operator in the country.

“The significant remodel activities locally are a signal of the company’s commitment to the Roanoke market and the strong continued success of the brand in the area,” Rountree said.

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