More economic woes

The boss took our fire extinguishers in for their annual physicals today (Boy, does this city ever have strict fire department rules & regulations. It sure wasn't like this when we worked in Troy.) Anyway, while he was there, he got into a conversation with the owner's brother-in-law and was told that Chrysler owes them $1M and that they (the fire extinguisher place) were recently forced to lay off part of their workforce -- for the first time since they were founded in 1949.

I've also taken to counting the number of vacancies in the various strip malls I visit. The one up at the corner where we buy pizza is at about 50% capacity. The big mall by our house is even worse. Two of the "anchor" stores have closed and along the longest side of the open-air 'u' that forms the plaza's footprint, only three stores remain.

More economic woes

The boss took our fire extinguishers in for their annual physicals today (Boy, does this city ever have strict fire department rules & regulations. It sure wasn't like this when we worked in Troy.) Anyway, while he was there, he got into a conversation with the owner's brother-in-law and was told that Chrysler owes them $1M and that they (the fire extinguisher place) were recently forced to lay off part of their workforce -- for the first time since they were founded in 1949.

I've also taken to counting the number of vacancies in the various strip malls I visit. The one up at the corner where we buy pizza is at about 50% capacity. The big mall by our house is even worse. Two of the "anchor" stores have closed and along the longest side of the open-air 'u' that forms the plaza's footprint, only three stores remain.