It seems the local economy is moving toward the thrifty. As the announcement came that Saks Fifth Avenue would leave its prestigious and highly visible spot on 1st Avenue in Cherry Creek, Dollar General, aka “the store where you can buy stuff for $1,” announced it would expand throughout Colorado and 34 other states this year. In all, the chain will add 625 stores and hire some 6,000 people, reports the Colorado Springs Business Journal.

Saks, on the other hand, will close the doors to its 87,000-square-foot store in the Cherry Creek Shopping Center on March 19 due to underperforming sales, according to The Denver Post. “It did catch us a little by surprise,” Nick LeMasters, general manager of the shopping center, tells 7News. “We had known for a very short time that there was an initiative focused on this.” No word yet on what will replace Saks in the location, but the Post devotes a separate article to some possible candidates, as well as the notion that filling the space will be “critical.”

Regardless of the retail landscape, Denver is still number one when it comes to top places for conventions, notes 9News. “The Mile High City is no longer a pit stop en route to the slopes of Vail,” says Zane Kerby, who has booked the National Business Travel Association’s 40th annual convention in Denver for 2011. As of today, keep an eye out for the likes of Ben Bernanke or Larry Summers, rumored to be in town for the annual meeting of the American Economic Association, which is working on a code of ethics for economists, writes KUNC radio.