A Bit of a Shock
I got some troubling news today.
No it's not my father and my job is OK.
It involves some old friends.
I first met them when they were my neighbors during my teen years. They had four kids and the older two were capable of watching themselves when their parents were away but the younger two needed adult, or at least near-adult, supervision and they were a handful to say the very least. I babysat them.
Toward the end of my teens they bought a laundromat/dry-cleaners and went into business and for many years did quite well. The economy has reached them and they have had to shut their doors. While their laundry business was alright, the economy caused a large cut in their dry-cleaning and they were no longer able to survive.
It's odd but I feel terrible for them. They are wonderful people who don't deserve this. They are old enough to retire but their children have worked for them for thirty years and don't know the first thing about a job hunt. I guess they'll have to learn.
I guess their competitors will now see an increase in business.
No it's not my father and my job is OK.
It involves some old friends.
I first met them when they were my neighbors during my teen years. They had four kids and the older two were capable of watching themselves when their parents were away but the younger two needed adult, or at least near-adult, supervision and they were a handful to say the very least. I babysat them.
Toward the end of my teens they bought a laundromat/dry-cleaners and went into business and for many years did quite well. The economy has reached them and they have had to shut their doors. While their laundry business was alright, the economy caused a large cut in their dry-cleaning and they were no longer able to survive.
It's odd but I feel terrible for them. They are wonderful people who don't deserve this. They are old enough to retire but their children have worked for them for thirty years and don't know the first thing about a job hunt. I guess they'll have to learn.
I guess their competitors will now see an increase in business.
posted by shoprat at 3:45 PM
13 Comments:
Shoprat, so much is making me so sad these days...this is a terrible story and I wish it was an anomaly...
How can people feel confident when we're borrowing and spending so out of control? How will people hire when they're being told how bad the economy is?
I'm so so sorry for your friends..the lovely American family business; CLOSED.
My MI brother's friends had the same thing happen to them-same business too-He opened his house to them--
MI my MI-progressive socialism has brought you down--as it has brought down CA---
C-CS
What a tragedy. The private business owner is now The Enemy of The State!
Somebody got the Full Ayn Rand?
That's what you far right wingers stand for, why are you complaining when your ship comes in?
Gotta maximize the efficiency of the economic engine.
The demise of their business, of course, was not brought on by the forces of individual enterprise and rights, but of the overzealous interference of the federal government in the economy, resulting in a downturn that has side-swiped nearly every sector of the economy.
Exactly the opposit of Ayn Randism.
We hardly have Randesque laissez-faire capitalism and/or a constitutionally limited governemnt at work in this country at the moment.
If private business fails, then it fails because of its inherent wantings.
On the other hand, Business is TRULY the Enemy Of The State. With THIS admin.
BZ
I don't like it when ANY honest business has to close, but even though the children have never had to job search, they had to have picked up their parents' entreprenuerial skills that lead them to go into business in the first place, and how to manage a business along the way. I wish them well, as I do all Americans in the same predicament.
Shoprat,
I've seen several small businesses close here in Northern Virginia: a video-rental shop, a couple of my favorite restaurants, and a Kwik Kopy.
I understand why the video shop and the Kwik Kopy closed -- NetFlix and personal copiers, respectively.
But those restaurants? They'd been here and prospering for quite a long time.
As I understand it, those restaurants suffered from two problems: (1) fewer people dining out and (2) a hike in real-estate taxes, resulting in a rise in monthly rent.
No other businesses have moved into the buildings those restaurants vacated.
In fact, all over the D.C. area, office and retail space is languishing unoccupied.
I suppose they will just get on welfare. At least Wal-Mart will add more to its bottom line.
After all, they had it coming to them, right?
I just went to a Target store for the first time in 2 years..
Did you know HAINES is now made in El Salvador? We could find NOTHING made here...there IS no money being MADE HERE and STAYING HERE.
It was all China, MX, and HOnduras for us yesterday.
I told Mr Z I'd like to go home and slam the door and never open it again......it was like a third world country there.............
This isn't America anymore, Ducky's about the only person rejoicing about that and I hope he, at least, enjoys it.
God bless them. I hope things work out for them.
This comment has been removed by the author.
I don't think Ducky's rejoicing, he's pointing out the hipocracy of all of you who bemoan someone losing a job and going out of business when it is someone that you know personally yet supporting the policies that undermine manufacturing and small mom and pop type operations to the benefit of multinational corporations that Z rightfully pointed out are making the products overseas and taking the profits of said products to China and other countries.
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