NEW MEXICO

West Side CVS pharmacy closes permanently

The CVS on Coors NW and Ellison NW on Albuquerque’s West Side has closed permanently.

Signs posted on the store’s doors at 3821 Ellison NW say the location’s last day in business was Jan. 7. Prescription records for the store have been transferred to the pharmacy at 10700 Unser NW.

Companies to renew ABQ youth job training program

A pair of minority-owned businesses will begin operating Albuquerque Job Corps Center at the beginning of April.

Aleut Logistics Services, an Alaska Native Company and certified small business, and Odle Management Group, a woman and minority-led company, announced Thursday they will begin operating the job corps center under a mentor-protégé agreement, according to a joint news release.

The Albuquerque Job Corps Center, part

of a national residential career and technical education program, serves economically disadvantaged youth in Valencia, Sandoval, Bernalillo and Torrance counties.

The center works with around 600 students aged 16 to 24 in a variety of fields, including health care, construction and advanced solar and thermal system installation, according to the release.

The center is one of 123 campuses across the country and one of two in New Mexico. For more information, visit www.jobcorps.gov.

US retail sales dropped 0.7% in December

U.S. retail sales dropped at the close of the holiday-shopping season, wrapping up a painful year for the merchants as the pandemic forced closures and kept consumers at home.

Total retail receipts decreased 0.7% in December from the prior month after a downwardly revised 1.4% drop in November, Commerce Department figures showed Friday. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for no change in December.