NEW ON THE BUSINESS SCENE

Carol's Hallmark Store has opened in the Town Plaza Shopping Center.

The store is the fifth Hallmark store for Morgan and Carol Soapers of St. Louis.

Teresa Brown of Jackson is manager of the full-service store, which offers a large selection of greeting cards, gifts and Hallmark ornaments. Brown has more than seven years retail experience and had worked in real estate three years.

The new business, in space previously occupied by the Woolworth Store, is open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and from noon to 4 Sundays.

The new Hallmark store will hold an open house in mid-October.

Victorian Memories, West Park Mall, is adding a new item to its inventory -- a 4-by-5-foot afghan featuring a number of historic sites in Cape Girardeau.

"We have a number of requests here for souvenirs of Cape Girardeau," said Cecelia Gerecke, owner of the business. "We're always in the market for new and unique gift ideas, and this afghan is one of the results which evolved from our search for new products."

Photographs were taken of a number of historic sites and are being reproduced and woven into the afghan, noted Gerecke.

Included on the afghan are The Glenn House, Southeast Missouri State University Academic Hall, Opera House, St. Vincent's Church, Common Pleas Courthouse, Civil War Memorial, Gen. Grant's Headquarters, Riverfest Mural and a riverboat on the Mississippi River with the Missouri-Illinois Bridge in the background.

The afghans come in a choice of three colors -- cranberry, navy and hunter green.

Clarklift of Cape has become Forklift of Cape.

Don Schreiner, vice president of Forklift, said the decision to change the name to Forklift of Cape is to reflect the diverse line of material handling equipment that the company carries.

"We have expanded the product lines we offer," said Schreiner. "Although we have changed the name, we're still the same company."

Clarklift was founded more than 20 years ago. Over the years other product lines like Toyota Industrial Equipment, Komatsu, Daewoo Equipment Corp. and other lines have been added.

The company, at 4430 Nash Road Industrial Park, provides sales, rental and service for forklift equipment.

Mortgage Universal of Rockford, Ill., has placed a branch office in Cape Girardeau.

The new office, managed by Stacy Mansfield, a mortgage loan specialist, is inside Century 21 Key Realty, 980 N. Kingshighway.

The new company will specialize in all types of home loans, as well as pre-qualification and first-time homebuyer counseling.

Century 21 Key Realty, say Karen Mogelnicki and Barbara Travers, broker-owners, "is pleased to offer the one-stop-shopping concept in this area. We feel it is a convenience and time saver for our customers and is a natural extension of the service needed to buy and finance a home."

Todd Uniform Laundry of St. Louis is being acquired by ARAMARK Uniform Services Inc., an employee-owned company.

ARAMARK will take over operation of Todd's 32 laundry processing facilities and 43 processing sites. Included in the transaction are a number of processing plants in Southeast Missouri, including Sikeston, Poplar Bluff, Kennett and Farmington.

With the acquisition, ARAMARK, which had 1994 sales exceeding $5 billion, will have more than 2,500 routes nationally, operating from more than 235 sites.