Carrollton-based T.G.I. Friday's couldn't give away fried green beans on its Cowboys Stadium video board promotion. It will be able to give stuff away on Halloween for guests in costume.

The top business stories out of the West Zone: 

Coppell: Golf tournament turns Sweet Sixteen

Lewisville/Flower Mound: Soccer moms-turned-CPAs

Carrollton/Farmers Branch: Indoor football for 2010

Frisco/Little Elm/The Colony: Hey, where's the doughnuts?

Irving: Opening some Googly eyes

Frisco, Irving and Plano is a little less sweeter. Krispy Kreme is closing its stores in those cities.

Jodi Whisenhunt tipped off neighborsgo on Twitter after she noticed the darkened store in Frisco on Preston Road. Contributor Mathew Lewis offered us photographic proof earlier this month.

According to The Dallas Morning News, the Plano location off Central Expressway closed this week and the Irving store closed in June.

I remember when the Krispy Kreme in south Arlington opened a few years ago. People came from all over Tarrant County and cars wrapped around the store to get those warm bites of sweet goodness.

Beginning Friday in Frisco, you’ll be able to see giant meatballs and snow storms made of ice cream with “greater clarity, brightness and contrast.”

Neighborsgo's Emily Goldstein reports that AMC Stonebriar 24 has modified one of its auditoriums — removing seats and installing a new screen — to create the IMAX experience, starting with the release of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, a movie about an inventor who saves the day with a device that causes giant food portions to fall from the sky.

You wonder whether the brass at T.G.I. Friday's headquarters in Carrollton did its homework on its latest promotion.

On Sunday night, during the Dallas Cowboys-New York Giants NFC East game at Cowboys Stadium, if a punt hits the video board ...

Free Crispy Green Bean Fries for everyone at the bar.

That's right. Free green bean fries for anyone watching the game in the bar at nearly 600 participating restaurants in the U.S. That's a lot of green bean fries.

Free sandwiches, of course. The Atlanta-based company's Labor Day promotion means it's a bad day to be a chicken. Anyone who comes in wearing the logo of an athletic team gets a free sandwich. The parking lots are full. The drive-thru lines are wrapped around each store. It's trending strongly on Twitter.

How do you feel about Chick-fil-A? Tim Hawkins tell us in this ballad performed at a Carrollton church.

Did the so-called cash for clunkers program help stimulate local auto sales in July?

Sure did. New vehicle registrations are down 17 percent in Denton County from July 2008 but 24 percent better than June, according to the Freeman Metroplex Recap, which reports such data each month.

On the other hand, Dallas County's July sales were down 38 percent, 10 percent more than June.

Back-to-school shoppers have crowded malls and stores throughout August. That effort goes into overdrive Aug. 21-23 during the state's annual sales-tax holiday.

This year, the list of qualifying items has expanded. In addition to clothes, footwear and some backpacks, Texas families will also get a sales-tax break on most school supplies priced at less than $100 purchased for use by a student in an elementary or secondary school.

Abbott at chamber event
∙ Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott is the scheduled speaker 11:30 a.m. Aug. 19 at the Coppell Chamber of Commerce’s membership luncheon at the Embassy Suites Outdoor World, 2401 Bass Pro Drive in Grapevine. The luncheon is open to the public and costs $25. Those who play to attend must RSVP by calling the chamber office at 972-393-2829 at the Embassy Suites Outdoor World, 2401 Bass Pro Drive

Recession? What recession? That seemed to be the consensus culled from Coppell businesses in a face-to-face survey conducted by the Coppell Chamber of Commerce.

Armed with clipboards holding a three-question survey specifically designed to measure the pulse of the business community, chamber volunteers split into 15 pairs and, over the course of a week, canvassed more than 150 businesses big and small, looking for answers to these questions:

∙ How is business?
∙ What are the benefits of having your business in Coppell?
∙ What can be done locally to make things better for your business?