The new Vann’s store in the Skyway Regional Shopping Center has been open for a little more than a month, and the Missoula-based audio/video/appliance retailer is using an unusual drawing card to get customers in to check out the new space: one of the biggest televisions on the planet.

Vann’s claims its new Helena store is one of just five in the whole country to showcase a 103-inch flat-panel plasma television made by Panasonic. That’s 7 feet, 5 inches wide by 4 feet, 2 inches high.

The set weighs 485 pounds, and the store says potential buyers need to prove they’ve got somewhere to put it, and a way to get it there before the store will make the sale. Most are sold to businesses, Vann’s says, though a few homeowners have stepped up too.

Buyers also need to prove some serious financial wherewithall. The 103-inch set retails for $70,000.

Elsewhere in the Skyway center, the new Hardee’s restaurant has been open for several weeks, and a new branch for American Federal Savings Bank is taking shape. The full-service bank, being built by Dick Anderson Construction, is expected to open around the first of the year.

Park it Here: Speaking of Hardee’s, construction of a new restaurant is under way at the corner of Benton and Lyndale, and the existing Hardee’s on that corner remains open while the new one is being built.

The new building will be closer to the intersection, and Van’s Thriftway owner Paula Vander Jagt is optimistic that when the new building is open and the old one torn down, her supermarket will be able to offer shoppers some 50 additional parking spaces, easing one of the biggest challenges to shopping at Van’s.

Stimulus Update: The deadline is approaching for Americans to claim their stimulus checks from the IRS, and the agency reports that 4.3 million retirees and disabled veterans who didn’t have to file income tax forms this year have yet to file for the paperwork to receive their payments.

That figure includes 14,089 Montanans, according to the IRS, awaiting checks for more than $14 million.

People who in April filed for six-month income tax extensions also have until the 15th to get their returns done and qualify for their stimulus payments.

The payments, $600 for individuals and $1,200 for married couples with an additional $300 for qualifying children, were sent to most Americans early in the summer.

Seniors and veterans who still haven’t filed can request information at www.irs.gov, or at the local IRS office in Helena.

E-mail your Open for Business ideas to john.harrington@helenair.com.