A roundup of business developments spotted...

A roundup of business developments spotted by other publications. Fast Fashion: Limited Stores Inc., an Ohio-based marketer of women’s fashions, is exploring high-definition television to speed items from the design board to the sales floor. Limited bought satellite time to use HDTV in business meetings between buyers overseas and designers and manufacturers in the United States. The instant communication and the enhanced picture of products and materials gave promise of cutting development time from 40 to 20 days. Business First of Greater Columbus (Ohio) Light Rock: Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing Co. is joining a venture to make Macrolite the key ingredient in a new form of concrete that floats. Macrolite is a composite of several minerals formed into ceramic pellets that are heat-treated to replace rock in conventional concrete. Another company, which 3M declines to identify, has been contracted to manufacture the pellets. A Macrolite concrete brick weighs 50 pounds a foot--12 pounds less than water. Though twice as costly as traditional concrete, Macrolite is said to be easier to handle and could prove ideal in earthquake-proof structures requiring lightness and ductility as well as strength. Minneapolis Star Tribune Petrochemical Blues: Western Europe’s petrochemical industry faces more lean years, according to Chem Systems, a British-American chemical consulting firm. The firm notes that developing countries are adding two new plants and relying less on European sources, that demand in developed countries is off due to slowdowns in manufacturing and that European oil firms are completing longstanding plans to add capacity. Western Europe now enjoys a chemical trade surplus, but Chem Systems predicts that it will disappear by the mid-1990s. Financial Times Electronics City: Best Buy, a Minneapolis-based electronics retailer, is moving into the Dallas market with plans for six superstores to open this fall and possibly two more next year. The company is acquiring four former Federated stores and two other buildings for the first six outlets. The $16-million project was devised to get the jump on Circuit City, which hopes to have nine stores in the area by the end of 1991. Dallas Business Journal