How to explain the influx of new businesses? The shiny new ads? Especially the plethora of new restaurants?

Froth. Pure and simple. Someone forgot to turn off the spigot and the brew kept flowing and flowing, and it's running over the sides, and all over the tabletop.
Hell, the mug was huge....already way bigger than dainty little Bend, Oregon could have ever imbibed.

It happens with every bubble; just as people should be taking a second look before leaping, they're coming out of blind spots where you didn't even know they were hiding. By the time they see that it's too crowded, they're already in mid-air, and they can't stop. So they tell themselves, they're different, they've got a new idea, a better idea. They'll show little old Bend how to do it.

Whenever a business says, they're doing it for Bend, to show us how the better half does it....watch out. There's a big fall coming. Bendites don't respond real well to that message. We think we're pretty darned sophisticated, already. And where we're not sophisticated --- we don't want to be! That's why we live in Bend!


Business has been slow, but I've stayed ahead of it. Every time I've made a cut back, I've thought to myself that it might be just a bit too early, or just a bit too much. And each time, it's been pretty much right on. So I have to keep following that instinct; this week, for instance, has been extraordinarily slow. At a pace I thought my store would never feel again; I thought I had increased the level of stock and that the level of downtown would keep this from ever happening again. So, it's only one week, but the fact that it could happen for one week is a warning to me that it could happen for a longer period of time.

Ironically, our cash-flow is actually better than it's been for years. I've stopped taking aggressive stances toward inventory, and it's worked out pretty well. It isn't so much that I've cut back, but that I've cut back on the increase. So we're doing fine.

But I still find it somewhat depressing. What's interesting to me, is that whenever I've had a downturn in business before and felt down about it, I always thought it was because of the stresses of bill paying, of keeping my head above water. But now I'm having a downturn I saw coming, made the appropriate steps, and doing just as well in profits as before....and it's still disheartening to me. I guess it's not just about the money.

As I said, I could still give back a third of the gross sales from where we are now, without it hitting by break-even point. But that doesn't mean I want it to happen.

Also somewhat humbling is that Linda's store has rebounded from December and January, into very strong Feb. and March's; back to double digit increases. For which I'm grateful, darn her.