Shopping

ISARail, an Italian railroad-safety firm, is seeking assistance to locate a U.S. headquarters in the Philadelphia area. The facility could employ 30 to 50 full-time employees. ISARail representatives met last week with the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development to discuss options, a state official confirmed.    - Bob Fernandez

Two years ago, Marco Gigliello shut down his Mount Laurel jewelry store, Reflections of Venice, and opened a cash-for-gold shop along Route 70 in Cherry Hill. Erlton Cash for Gold has jewelry, coins, and silverware on display, but "nobody buys anything," Gigliello said, standing behind the counter of his shop one afternoon last week. He instead makes his money selling gold to refineries. It's a business that, in a sign of the times, has exploded in Cherry Hill. The township now counts 27 cash-for-gold shops, up from five just five years ago. Now the township wants greater authority to regulate those shops, already subject to a state law requiring that they turn transaction records over to police.

A Mount Laurel man has received a $150,000 out-of-court settlement after suing state police and an auto shop, saying he was falsely arrested in a dispute over a repair bill. Acting on a complaint from the shop owner, a trooper went to Richard Greenberg's home on Feb. 22, 2007, and placed him in handcuffs because Greenberg had stopped payment on a $129 check, according to court documents. Greenberg had stopped payment because he suspected that the Oil Station in Hainesport had ruined his car, said his lawyer, Michael Ferrara Jr. The state police settled the case for $135,000; Oil Station paid $15,000 on the eve of a trial scheduled for February, Ferrara said.

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission is stepping up promotion of natural-gas shopping for residential customers, a once-moribund market that is showing signs of life. The PUC this week formally launched PAGasSwitch.com, modeled on the agency's successful electricity-shopping website. While nearly two million electricity customers, or 35 percent, have signed up with competitive power suppliers, the market for natural gas is more subdued. About 350,000 gas customers, or 12 percent, have switched.

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission is stepping up promotion of natural-gas shopping for residential customers, a once-moribund market that is showing signs of life. The PUC this week formally launched PAGasSwitch.com, modeled on the agency's successful electricity-shopping website. While nearly 2 million electricity customers have signed up with competitive power suppliers, the market for natural gas is more subdued. About 350,000 gas customers, or 12 percent, have switched.

A man died and two firefighters suffered minor injuries after a fire broke out late last night at the Melrose shopping center in Cheltenham Township, Montgomery County. Montgomery County dispatch logs show the fire was reported about 11 Thursday night in a 911 call. The two-alarm blaze broke out during what was initially reported as a small explosion in a beauty supply store in the strip mall on the unit block of East Cheltenham Avenue. The fire was brought until control about 4:37 a.m., but was still burning an hour later.

WASHINGTON - For many passengers, air travel is only about finding the cheapest fare. But as airlines offer a proliferating list of add-on services, from early boarding to premium seating and baggage fees, the ability to comparison-shop for the lowest total fare is eroding. Global distribution systems that supply flight and fare data to travel agents and online ticketing services like Orbitz and Expedia, accounting for half of all U.S. airline tickets, complain that airlines won't provide fee information in a way that lets them make it handy for consumers trying to find the best deal.

WASHINGTON - U.S. holiday retail sales this year grew at the weakest pace since 2008, when the nation was in a deep recession. In 2012, the shopping season was disrupted by bad weather and consumers' rising uncertainty about the economy. A report that tracks spending on popular holiday goods, the MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse, said Tuesday that sales in the two months before Christmas increased 0.7 percent, compared with last year. Many analysts had expected holiday sales to grow 3 percent to 4 percent.

The story of crowds overrunning stores the day after Christmas continued its shift to near-mythical status Wednesday as consumers' ongoing frugality - combined with the growing community of online-shopping devotees - meant that post-holiday commerce was likely to disappoint retailers relying on brick-and-mortar locations to sell their wares. Healthy throngs braved sleet and chilling rain to partake in the annual tradition of returning unwanted holiday gifts, looking for post-holiday discounts, or just killing time during a vacation week.

All Anton Mahne's wife wanted for Christmas was a Pandora bracelet. That, and to walk again. "I can't do anything about that," Mahne said of his wife's disability, the result of a stroke she suffered after giving birth to their daughter 18 months ago. But at 8 a.m. Christmas Eve, the Cherry Hill radiologist was among the first in line at the Pandora jewelry store at Cherry Hill Mall. Yes, in line, with several other flinty holiday shoppers making a mad dash for gifts.