Well....you know what I mean. It all seems to be coming down on people's heads much faster than I expected. Every January I expect a bit of a fallout, and usually not much happens.
Not this year.
What I have to wonder is -- did they not see this coming? I've been preparing for this for so long, that it seemed overdue, almost. A 'correction', if you will. Talking to the other comic shop guy, I said, "Didn't you see this coming?" and he laughed, and said, "I've been expecting this since 2000."
I've talked to more than one tourist who blithely planned to buy a house, I've talked to more than one customer who has already bought a house.
The Merenda story was interesting: the landlord certainly doesn't sound inclined to lower the rent, doe's he? But, perhaps without the 'loan' money, the two story restaurant is manageable? Like I said, hermit crabs finding a beautiful shell. I do, however, doubt that the local workers are going to manage to swing a deal.
Maybe I'm being inconsistent, but the idea of a 'out of town' owner doesn't bother me much. Even the idea of a 'chain' store isn't that disturbing.
Meanwhile, it seems like one corporate office after another is laying off employees. Suspiciously, the 10% figure is often quoted. I've told the story before of waiting up late to watch Jack Welch, the 'most admired CEO in America', on Charlie Rose and then wanting to reach into the screen and strangle him. What a ruthless piece of #$%@!$. (His post General Electric career has pretty much confirmed what a sleazebag douche he is...)
His concept was to fire 10% of the employees on a regular basis -- but I think most corporations have a bit more hesitancy than that -- unless they've got a good excuse, like now.
Maybe I can't talk, since I let go of my employee.
I've made an updated list of "Old and New Downtown"
If I'm going to name a 'new' store, I've decided it's more accurate to name the store they replaced, unless it happened more than a year or so ago. Thus...the Book Barn was replaced by Dudleys. Who was in the Goldsmith and Powell's space?
Since, say, the beginning of Fall, 2008.
NEW BUSINESS'S DOWNTOWN
Outdoor Store
Luxe Home Interiors
Powell's Candy
Dudley's Used Books and Coffee
Goldsmith
Magic
Subway Sandwiches
Bend Burger Company
Showcase Hats
Pita Pit
Happy Nails
BUSINESS'S LEAVING
Stewart Weinmann (leather)
Kebanu Gallery
Pella Doors and Windows
King of Sole
Olive company
Pink Frog
Little Italy
Bookbarn
Deep
Merenda's
Volo
Pomegranite (downtown branch)
Norwalk
Pronghorn Real Estate office.
Blue Teal
Speedshop Deli
Finder's Keepers(?)
Paper Place
Bluefish Bistro
Painted Pony
Help me out here. Any others?
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6 comments:
Pink Frog was located at the new Goldsmith and next door to them is a new business called Happy Nails replacing a gelato shop called Little Italy.
I do believe that Welch's and GE view point for that matter is that rank all of the employees and then get rid of the 10% that is performing the worst. Of course those are not elimination of positions, but instead elimination of under performing employees. In most organizations you get far more turn over than 10%. In most large organizations you have more than 10% of the employees that are not meeting the expectations of their positions.
I suspect that if you had 10 or more employees that you would probably find at least one that was not meeting your expectations each year. As you indicated you let an employee go that was meeting your expectations.
The choice comes down to competition, employee performance, and triming the dead wood. I think most people find it more demoralizing working for an organization that does not get rid of employees that don't meet the requirements of their job, then a company that does.
Pita Pit moved in around the same time as Bend Burger Company.
Heh.
BEND (Reuters) - Citing the bad economy, a prominent Bend comic book store announced the layoff of 100% of its employees.
Some of those shops couldn't survive even in a hopping place, much less a town of less than 100,000, two are definitely real-estate/building (= built on a bubble), and the margins on food places are horrible. As an outsider, I would guess that the hat place and the pita place are going to fail pretty quickly. The nails place is not a good sign. Fake nails are definitely popular now only with the lower socio-economic classes. You rarely see them on high-dollar ladies now. When nail shops, EZ lending, wig shops, and detailers come in, you know you are about to see a community tank.
Painted Pony out in the middle of night..replace by a sportswear shop.
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