Tesco today updated the market on its plans to become a major player in banking and selected a major software company to set up the infrastructure for its big push in financial services.

Are you leveraging your best customers to do more than just buy from you?

So far they've had pretty good business, according to Pho LB owner Tiffany Miller. Customers run about 50-50, half have tried the food before and half are complete novices. "There's not a lot of restaurants here in town, most of them are fast food," she said. Besides Pho LB's various soups, the spring rolls are the most popular item on the menu, Miller said.

Small-business owners hope the city of Dixon treads carefully now that a new tire store is setting up shop in the city. A new building for a Les Schwab Tire Center was approved Tuesday by Dixon Planning Commissioners. They voted 5 to 0 in favor of a design review and a lot line adjustment to build a 13,351-square-foot auto service facility on 2 acres along North First Street.

A plan to nix one detention pond on the Westway development on U.S. 84 West and put in another one--more removed from existing Westbrook property owners--did not bode well with city planning staff. But this time the objections did not originate with Westbrook homeowners.

Buck recently lost one of his legs due to an act of animal cruelty. He will soon receive another one, thanks to his new owners. Cullman County Animal Shelter Manager Candie Horsley said Buck, a 3-year-old St. Bernard, was adopted earlier this week by a family in Boston due to the efforts of the Cullman Area Animal Welfare Association. "He's being transported as we speak," Horsley said Thursday.

A new tire business is rolling into Dixon. Les Schwab Tire Center would like to build a 13,351-square-foot auto service facility on 2 acres. Planning commissioners will vote today on the design review and a lot line adjustment, merging two parcels into one. The new tire center would be on the east side of North First Street and north of Ramos Oil/Shell gas station and convenience store.

Newton's Tractor Supply Company is doing just fine, thank you. Apparently, the "for sale" signs in front of the store at 3021 First Ave. E. have some folks around town speculating that Tractor Supply could be the next Newton business to shutter its doors. Not so, says Tractor Supply Spokesperson Molly Williamson.

Tractor Supply Company will open its Troy store on Nov. 21, the company announced. Brendan Scott will be the store manager and said he looks forward to opening the store. -- Cosby Woodruff. To see more of the Montgomery Advertiser, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com. Copyright 2009, Montgomery Advertiser, Ala.

Tesco's tendrils are spreading ever further around the world with news today of a deal to open a host of hypermarkets in China. The company is signing jointventure deals with local investors to open 18 vast stores by February 2011. Tesco already has 65 large supermarkets and six small stores in China and said it wants to build a "substantial" business there.