BRIEFCASE MAY IS BUYING 125 GINGISS STORES.

Byline: - Staff and Wire Services

May Department Stores Co. will purchase 125 company-owned formalwear stores from the Gingiss Group, the companies said Monday.

The stores include Gingiss Formalwear and Gary's Tux Shop, along with two Gingiss Group service centers in Van Nuys and Addison, Ill. May will operate the stores as part of its Bridal Group.

Terms of the deal were not announced.

The deal brings to 225 the number of tuxedo stores acquired by St. Louis- based May in 2003. The company has also opened 30 additional David's Bridal stores and nine After Hours Formalwear stores this year.

Futures on beef keep on tumbling

CHICAGO - Beef futures fell the maximum amount allowed on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange on Monday for the third consecutive trading session since the emergence of the first U.S. case of mad cow disease.

But even with mad-cow fallout continuing, major hamburger chains maintained that their sales hadn't been noticeably hurt. The report Dec. 23 that a cow in Washington state was tentatively diagnosed with mad cow disease already had prompted the Chicago Merc to increase the limit on daily trading movement to 3 cents per contract, up from the usual 1.5 cents, last Friday and to 5 cents Monday.

With a ban on U.S. beef imports by more than two dozen nations still in place, near-term cattle futures all fell to the new limit Monday.