How much will abandoned retail space bother you?

America is downsizing and it was only a matter of time. Thinking you can build an economy based on endless growth and debt is just stupid. We need a sustainable economy not an ever expanding one. In my area, a stand alone Kmart has closed and a national chain furniture store is now dark. A large strip mall they built about two years ago has never seen a tenant, despite original talk of a supermarket coming in. The sad thing about the strip mall is that they bulldozed a beautiful stretch of meadow and forest to build it. They even made a mess of a pretty local creek by changing the grade of the land. I hope the developer who built it is now standing on line in a food pantry waiting for a bag of canned beans and soup mixes.

I would like to see all my local storage places go belly up. They popped up like mushrooms everywhere starting about a decade ago. They all look like army barracks with sparse rows of half dead evergreens to supposedly screen them from the road. If you have to pay for months on end to store your crap - you have too much crap.

I wish we had a backup plan to knock down these vacant eyesores and replace them with public park space or return the land to agricultural use so we could grow local food again.

America was slow to get the message, but now it's going to smack us all in the face in the form of ugly, useless, empty temples of capitalism. I feel no pity, but rather relief. Reaganomics and the second Golden Age RIP.

It bothers me.

Most of the people who worked in these stores for minimum wage were struggling already.

The food banks can't keep up.

Emergency housing and "warming centers" can't keep up.

People are being hit hard.

I read the other day that they expect 2 - 3,000 malls to close this year.

I'm not a big shopper, especially not a big mall shopper, but I know that's a whole lot of people out looking for work in a dead economy.

I admire your compassion, Boomer, but many of these people did it to themselves. Most people in retail today would have worked in manufacturing thirty years ago, but they chose to buy cheap. Why pay $25 for the American sweatshirt when the Chinese one is $19.99! The major force in creating the explosion of stores like Walmart, Target, Kmart etc came from the middle class. The middle class wanted more and they wanted it cheap - even at the expense of their own better paying jobs. I remember those "look for the union label" commercials of the 70's - the people who ignored those labels were the same people making other stuff and felt their jobs were safe. What a surprise when they also lost their jobs to 12 year olds in India. Remember Arrow Shirts? American made until they lost a huge contract with Walmart for the difference of 5 cents a shirt. Walmart went with the overseas supplier because they know their customers only care about on thing- price. Our society created this mess and now we are going to have to find a way to fix it - or maybe not.

2008 was bad. 2009 will be worse. We will see lots of shutters going down on retailers' windows.
My chain of stores had pretty dismal sales for the holidays. Down a lot.
The good news, I guess, is that I don't have to try to paint a good picture on it for shareholders or analysts. It was bad, and bad is bad. But just to me.
And I own my real estate. That is an advantage. No mortgage.
Mall stores expect to pay about 10% in rent. But with sales down and 70% discounts, the rent ends up being more like 25% of sales. The numbers don't work.

those who can find no better work than retail are not responsible for the fact that so many American jobs pay subsistence wages. Choices made by generations before and by higher classes have created this employment landscape. It has never been a secret what was being created, just an unwillingness to talk about/ deal with it. It reminds me of recent union contracts where the brotherhood agrees to allow the company to start hiring a new class of employee who are paid much less than those who came before, so long as all who are there on agreement day don't have wages and Bennie's taken away. As a society we are completely sick, the " I've got mine, you worry about yours, it is not my problem" sentiment rots society. We have forgotten that we sink or swim together, Americans especially have been poorly educated, don't know the most important stuff humans need to know to get along in life over the long haul.

wow hawkeye, youre preaching subversive progressive liturgy. I for one agree that , even if the hole is in one end of the canoe , the entire canoe will sink.

for the most part, occupied retail space bothers me if it's a strip mall or plaza

much prefer a single store downtown vibe

The "new urbanism" is slowly taking back some of the cities for livability and retail.Even the giant Walmart is looking to set up smaller, specific retail centers in center cities. Philly has 2 now and they are talling of more. Same thing with super markets. The model that we dont want to see is to create a city with a downtown that is priced beyond what most people can afford. Like San Francisco or NEw York. I suppose that Chicago is the same. Other large Cities like Philly, Newark NJ, Cleveland, Columbus, Pittsburgh, HAve all just sat there and moldered until recently when new urban landscapes have taken over. Ive seen more activity in Pittsburgh, Newark,and Philly in the last 3 years than in the previous 20.

I live in Portland, Oregon where our land use laws and transit system makes downtown and the inner city the most desirable place to live. It always has been, nothing to do with "new urbanism".

In addition, most neighborhoods have shopping districts which would be similar to small town downtowns.

But the trickledown is happening even there.

For instance, I take Mo to the neighborhood barber for a haircut. He charges $7.50 for a cut in his tiny shop. He does great haircuts. But his business is hurting because most of his clients are minimum wage workers and, according to him, people are either not getting their hair cut or cutting their own.

That's why empty big box stores bother me.

Also, when I venture to some local specialty shops the snobbery is beyond belief. I'd rather buy cameras from the big discounter than from the dickheads at the local shop.

Also also, I don't think there is a single KMart in Portland and maybe only four or five WalMarts. They really aren't part of our landscape.

There's still a bit of good business news out there. I don't buy many cookies, but when I do, I'll be looking for the ones from this company.





Shuttered bakery reopens, rehires workers

From John King
CNN Chief National Correspondent
ASHLAND, Ohio (CNN) -- An Ohio bakery shut down in October is bustling again, with 60 eager employees who had expected a Christmas on the unemployment rolls.

Some 300 workers lost their jobs when the Archway cookie factory in Ashland, Ohio, was suddenly closed by the private equity firm that owned it. The workers also were left without benefits like health insurance.

But then Lance Inc., a Charlotte, North Carolina-based snack food company, purchased Archway at a bankruptcy auction. And last week 60 workers were asked to return immediately, with perhaps more coming back in the months ahead.

Kathy Sexton, a worker at the bakery, had been preparing her children for a very modest holiday. Watch the holiday brighten for workers »

"They said they understood," Sexton recalls. "They said, 'That's all right, Mom.' You always want to give them more, but ... I didn't think I would be able to."

Now she can.

Tiny Ashland has been struggling. Ohio has lost 200,000 jobs over the past eight years. The recent presidential campaign saw both candidates visiting frequently.

The outlook in Ashland became especially bleak when the Archway plant closed. Workers at the bakery said they felt betrayed when Archway at first said there would be more work in a day or two, but then changed the locks.

Rita Devan remembers.

"They just kept taking and taking until there was nothing left to take," Devan says, "and they didn't care that they were putting 300 people out of work."

Things are different now.

When it promised to reopen the bakery, Lance gave all 300 former Archway workers a $1,500 prepaid debit card.

"I was crying," Devan says of the gift. "I am like, 'What are these people doing? They don't know me. They don't know us. They don't know any of the Archway people. And they are giving each and every one of us $1,500.' "

Sexton -- the woman who'd been preparing her kids for a meager holiday -- says of the $1,500 gift: "It was awesome. My first thought was, 'I can give my kids a Christmas.' "

David Singer, CEO of Lance, says the gift cards were a way of letting Ashland know the new owners are different. "We wouldn't do it willy-nilly," Singer says. "We do want to make money. But this is the pool of folks that we intend to hire. We just wanted to let them know who we were."

The 60 workers rehired so far are earning their previous salary and retained their seniority. They also were provided health insurance from day one.

The bakery now produces Lance cookies that are sold to big chains like Target and Wal-Mart. But production of Archway cookies is scheduled to resume soon. Lance has told the employees that it hopes to have the plant fully operational by the end of 2009 -- that is, five lines of cookies being produced simultaneously.

The new owners say that if new orders keep flowing in, more jobs will follow.

Terry Mowry is another worker rehired by Lance. He says what has happened is hard to describe: "You just saw life being breathed right back into the face of these people."

And Devan says with a laugh: "I walked into the garage last night, and my husband says, 'You actually smell like a cookie again.' "

"He said, 'Boy, I missed that smell.' "

http://www.lance.com