Opinion by Richard Ducote: Bargain Center is gone, but 1 ganga stays

Short takes, outtakes, sound bites, flotsam and folderol from the world of business in Baja Arizona.

The corner of East 22nd Street and South Swan Road is a sign painter's paradise these days.

The Southwest corner is sporting the Chapman name all over the old Beaudry dealerships selling Honda, Acura, VW and others.

And across the street, at long last, the Tucson checkerboard landmark, Bargain Center Furniture, is no more.

After the longest "store closing" sale anyone can remember, a new store has opened in its place.

Sporting a new paint job, Tucson Furniture Mart is now open.

It's owned by the same Agron family that started Bargain Center in 1955.

Scott Agron is running the place now and says the furniture line is slightly upscale from the "gangas" that filled the 30,000-square- foot store in past decades. But "value" is still the watchword at the store.

There was one remnant of the former incarnation still in evidence Thursday morning - the gumball machine on the front counter is marked "1 - that's a ganga."

Agron admits that the Bargain Center curtain call went on a little longer than expected. He said business was so brisk during the sale that he held off the final closure until April. The renaming and remodeling of the store is just completed.

Wright is wrong

Southwest Airlines is trying to stir the grass roots in its escalating campaign to repeal the bizarre Wright Amendment.

Southwest released a study by the Campbell-Hill Aviation Group that claims a total regulatory burden of $4 billion from Wright, which prohibits airlines flying out of Dallas Love Field (Southwest) to go nonstop beyond a seven-state ring around Texas.

Phoenix is among 15 cities listed in the study that cannot connect nonstop to Dallas on Southwest. If Wright went away, the study said, just those 15 cities would generate 3.7 million new one- way passengers to and from North Texas.

Campbell-Hill said Phoenix nonstop passengers to Dallas would more than double if Wright were lifted and fares were cut nearly in half - from $225 to $122 - as a result of Southwest competition.

Overall, the study said $688 million would be saved by passengers flying to and from Dallas to just those 15 markets if Wright is killed by Congress.

Tucson is cited as one of 49 markets where Wright has resulted in a monopoly by American Airlines for nonstop Dallas service. More than 6.5 million passengers used that American service last year, including 88,000 Tucson passengers.

American Airlines now is the primary beneficiary of the Wright fix for Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. American soon will have 84 percent of the flights out of DFW.

More frequent flights and lower fares are in store for passengers in Tucson and dozens of other markets when Congress finally gets around to killing Wright.

CVS collecting adult briefs

CVS Pharmacy is helping the Southern Arizona Community Diaper Bank in its effort to collect adult briefs.

All CVS locations are drop-off locations for the drive, which runs through Father's Day, June 19. CVS will also match donations of adult briefs up to a value of $3,000.

About 1 in 5 requests to the diaper bank is for adult briefs, which can cost $100 a month. That cost can be prohibitive for some seniors on fixed incomes and keep people homebound.

This worthy effort is an example of how Tucson looks after its needy.