Posted on 11/27/2002 2:33:52 PM PST by Willie Green
For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.
Prior to the opening of the new Wal-Mart Super Center at Roxboro Commons, some had warned that the new mega-store might come into being at the expense of some other Roxboro businesses.
Is MaxWay the first casualty? MaxWay, a general merchandise retailer, is scheduled to close its Uptown Roxboro store permanently, probably in January.
"I wouldn´t say Wal-Mart did it all," said MaxWay store manager Rachel Jones. "The economy is so bad. ... A lot of it is the economy. So many people are out of work. ... I do believe Wal-Mart and Dollar Tree (another new store in Roxboro Commons) contributed to it."
MaxWay is owned by North Carolina´s Variety Wholesale, which also owns and operates Rose´s discount stores.
"We´re competing with Rose´s, too, and Mr. Pope (Phil Pope of Variety Wholesale) owns that too," said Roxboro MaxWay Assistant Manager Drema Welborn.
Store Manager Jones said that no definite closing date has been established.
"They told us sometime in January," she said.
Although Jones was not ready to lay responsibility of the closing at the feet of the Wal-Mart Super Center and Dollar Tree, she said there was an effect on MaxWay´s business volume as soon as those new stores opened this fall.
"It was real quick," she said. "I think everybody downtown felt it."
When Roxboro´s MaxWay closes, its five employees will likely have job opportunities elsewhere in the Variety Wholesale company, Jones said.
"All I know is that, yesterday (Monday), they (company officials) came in here and said, ‘I´ve got bad news and good news. The bad news is the store is closing. The good news is that we´ll try to put you somewhere else in the company.´"
But Jones observed, "...If a company´s going out of business, it seems to me they should let the employees know a little bit ahead of time, at least before that information is given to the public."
While Jones obviously took exception to the way the news was broken to employees, she just as obviously has strong feelings for the Roxboro store.
"I came here just before Easter, but I´ve been with the company 10 years," she said. "This is the second store I have seen close down.
"It doesn´t put you in the mood to work. I just can´t concentrate today.
"This is going to make me cry."
Jobless rate rises to 8% in October
After two straight months of modest declines, Person County´s unemployment rate spiked upward in October to 8.0 percent.
The jobless rate was up from a September rate of 7.6 percent, the county´s lowest single month rate for all of 2002 to date.
"What it says to me is that we still have a long way to go," said Roxie Russell, manager of the state Employment Security Commission´s Roxboro office, about last month´s unemployment rate rise of four-tenths of one percent.
"It´s still an uphill climb," she said. "All indicators that would affect unemployment insurance rates are still on hold. There´s really not much difference" from September, Russell noted.
Person County was one of 45 North Carolina counties that recorded increases in unemployment in October. Rates fell in 37 counties and were unchanged in the remaining 18.
During October, Person´s total labor force – the number of people in the job market – declined to 16,070 from 16,230 in September. At the same time, total employment in the county dropped by 200 workers to 14,790 from 14,990 the previous month.
Total unemployment in October jumped up to 1,280 from 1,240 in September.
"Unemployment insurance rates are usually the last thing to move forward, because there are so many factors in there," noted Russell, citing seasonal unemployment as an example.
"That means when it rains, our construction people are out of work; and this is not their season to work.
"This is also the time of year when employers look at their inventories and start to figure out what their quotas are for next year," Russell explained. "So, unless they are seasonal employers, they are cutting back, too."
The ESC manager also noted that most Person County employers are "just trying to maintain, and the way you maintain is to just streamline."
She added, "We have some companies that are rotating, working one group of people for one week and another group the next week. They can do that for up to eight weeks."
She noted further, "We have already had companies who called around Nov. 1 and said they are not hiring anymore this year. This is the time of year when a lot of companies are tying up loose ends."
More than $7 million in unemployment benefits have been paid in Person County this year, Russell said. Moreover, she said, benefits have been extended three times this year, the last time in October. When benefits are extended, the federal government pays half and the state pays half, she explained.
"In Person County," Russell observed, "I would say that everybody knows somebody who is not working and has really tried to get a job.
"I keep on saying that we have to look at a job as a regional kind of thing" in the current economic environment, Russell said. "You have to be open-minded. You may have to go to another town to get a job, even if it´s a temporary kind of thing until things improve."
Russell speculated, "The way I see it is that by mid-summer, if things are going to improve, we will see a great improvement by that time."
With the release of the October employment figures, state ESC Chairman Harry E. Payne Jr. said, "The fact that a nearly equal amount of counties´ unemployment rates rose and fell indicates the economy is in a holding pattern. Growth in counties with increased rates was relatively small – no more than 1.2 percentage points. Likewise, the largest decrease in rates didn´t exceed 1.5 percentage points, indicating very little change from September rates."
Edgecombe County recorded the state´s highest jobless rate in October at 12 percent, mostly attributable to plant closings and layoffs in the manufacturing industry. Watauga County posted the lowest unemployment rate at 1.7 percent.
In October, 32 counties had jobless rates at or below 5.0 percent, while 65 posted rates between 5.0 and 10 percent. Only three had rates at or above 10 percent.
The statewide unemployment rate for October was 5.9 percent, up slightly from 5.8 percent in September.
October jobless rates for area counties follow with their September rates show in parentheses: Alamance, 6.7 (6.7); Caswell, 6.2 (5.8); Durham, 5.6 (5.4); Forsyth, 5.1 (5.2); Franklin, 5.5 (5.5); Granville, 6.3 (6.3); Guilford, 6.0 (6.1); Orange, 2.8 (2.9); Vance, 11.3 (11.0); Wake, 4.9 (4.8); and Warren, 8.5 (10.0).
Padlocked for delinquent taxes,
Uptown restaurant may reopen on FridayFormer owner Randy Cash says he is attempting to reacquire Farmer´s Supply on Abbitt Street
Last Friday, officers of the Person County Sheriff´s Department, acting on authority of writs obtained by the North Carolina Department of Revenue, padlocked the Farmers Supply Restaurant in Uptown Roxboro.
The Department of Revenue had obtained four writs of execution that allege that Farmers Supply Restaurant, under the ownership and operation of Ricci Anderson, had not paid certain North Carolina taxes since February of this year. The revenue department also had sheriff´s officers serve four notices of garnishment for taxes. Those notices allege that Anderson´s Farmers Supply Restaurant owed almost $27,000 in state taxes.
Anderson had operated the restaurant on Abbitt Street for the past three years, after buying the business from Person County restauranteur Randy Cash.
Cash said Tuesday that, if the details can be worked out, he will regain ownership of the business, with the intention of re-opening on Friday, Nov. 29.
"We´re trying to get it worked out so it will be back open for the public Friday and with business as usual for December," Cash told The Courier-Times. "Our plans are to re-open Friday and to honor all reservations for December.
"Our intentions are to open back up for dinner Friday night. It would be closed for lunch on Friday anyhow, since that is the day after Thanksgiving.
"I sold to [Anderson] and we have agreed to take it back over, if everything can be worked out. Our plan is for Jeff Taylor to remain there as manager."
The Person County Sheriff´s Department received the writs of execution and notices of garnishment for taxes Friday. Sheriff´s officers went to the restaurant at about 2 p. m. Friday to serve the documents. Sheriff´s department Capt. Errol Lockhart said that there were customers in the restaurant when officers arrived. He said that those customers were allowed to "finish eating, pay and leave," before the building was padlocked.
In accordance with the writs, the sheriff´s department seized all personal property of the restaurant "and the place has been padlocked by us," Capt. Lockhart said. Part of the property seized Friday was about $7,500 in cash and checks, which the sheriff´s department is holding for the N. C. Department of Revenue.
According to the Department of Revenue, the largest amount of money owed the department by Farmers Supply Restaurant was for North Carolina sales and use tax. The revenue department alleges that the restaurant had not paid any state sales tax since February and that it owes about $24,100. In other writs, the Department of Revenue alleges that the restaurant owes almost $1,200 in franchise taxes, just under $900 in withholding taxes and $65 in corporate income taxes.
Optimist Club won’t sell Christmas trees
For many years, it´s been traditional for the Roxboro Optimist Club to begin its sale of live Christmas trees during the Thanksgiving weekend.
Not this year.
The Optimist Club will not offer any Christmas trees for sale this year.
Optimist Club spokesman Alvin Puett said that the club is skipping tree sales this year because of a belief that tree quality will likely not be as high as in previous years.
Puett said that the extended drought, which became intense this summer, is the reason club members believe this year´s trees will not have the quality of trees in past years.
Normally, Optimist Club members make an annual trip to West Jefferson, where they harvest their own trees to be offered for sale.
Fifty years ago their was an independent grocery store on every corner. People spent a 25 percent of earnings on food. Today their are only huge supermarkets and we spend half what we used to on food. It improved our standard of living.
You need to go to Canada Willie. They have men working in lots of small grocery stores. Everything costs a lot more than here, youw would be poorer but happier. They do hte same with clothing, cars furniture. Everything you buy is done the old fashoned way... they feather bed.
In a free economy companies die all the time. Companies are born all the time. The strong ones live and the weak ones die. You of course seek security. That is only possilbe in a socialist model. Where companies are born and never die.
They "long for a greater power"???
I was under the impression that these Americans simply want to scratch out a stable life in Roxboro, North Carolina.
Methinks you suffer from the paranoia of arrogance, Tator.
NOT the point..when there is no competition they may charge what every they like..competition is GOOD
Wal Mart places it's stores with the intent of driving competition away
They want someone else to scratch out a stable life for them in Roxboro, North Carolina. That ain't the way the world works, Willie.
You labor under the delusion that others will provide you with security. I hate to tell you Willie, but people only provide for their own security. They will use you to get it. When they are done using you, they will thow you away. It is true in all economic systems. It is the nature of humans. That is what they call it human nature. I know it is a shock, but Santa Clause really is make believe.
I grew up in Pittsburgh...
north of the Mason-Dixon line...
That makes me a "Yankee".
I'm afraid my imagination isn't quite that creative.
Tell me about it.
If you want to play in this game, you must always give the customers something they want. Lower costs, better service or higher quality.
I live in a tiny town and the local businesses had to learn this lesson. Those that learned, survived and are doing just fine.
Bull crap. If walmart ever raised their prices they would have competition all over the place. The reason the local stores don't make it is they charge to much.
Sam Walton started out with one Store. With that store he ran other stores in that town out of business. It was pretty simple. He bought for less and he sold for less. If it takes a big operation how did Walton run people out of business when he only had two little stores in two different towns. Some of the store he ran out of business in that town had dozens of stores. But they couldn't compete with Sam. Before he had a successful store, sam had gone into business and failed. After his first store failed, he went back to work for J.C. Penny to get enough bucks to try it again. It took him a while but he finally figured it out.
That is alwasy the case. Henry Ford started 5 car companies. The first four went under or the investers kicked him out His 5th car company made it. Dave Thomas was working at a Kentuckey fried Chicken place when he got Jim Rhodes to get him the money to try the first Wendy's. Ray Krock had to con a Coke Distributor into loaning him a coke fountain to use in his first McDonalds . He didn't have the bucks to buy one. How many greasey spoons have Ray and Dave run out of business. Thomas was an orphan. He did not know who his mom or dad were. He was raised in the Columbus Ohio orphanage. It takes a hell of an orphan whose entire experience is cooking chicken at a KFC to talk his way into the governors office, sell the governor, and have the goveror find people to put up a quarter of a million dollars to do a hamburger place. But that is what dave did.
Walton Krock, and Thomas all, grew when they used the profits to open more stores. The day Sam Walton opened up his first store, the Kressge family owned Kmarts and had many millions to Sam Waltons borrowed thouands. Sam destroyed them by buying for less and selling for less. Every place WalMart gotes against KMart, Kmart loses.
It is the genius of Walton's bias for older workers who work harder and steal less, and an inventory control system that maximizes return on investment that is a lot of the WalMart success. The final piece of the puzzle is WalMart refuses to buy from distributers. They buy direct and sell for less.
My son started a pet store 5 years ago. He started it with 4 gand he had saved. Our local WalMart had a huge fish tank and sold fish and lots of other pet supplies. My son could not affort the fancy tank. He worked like heck and took very small margins and had many small fish tanks that took lots more labor. But he cut prices and sold a hell of a lot of fish and fish supplies at small margins. Two years ago the local WallMart manager called him. He wanted to know if my son would be intersted in buying the fixtures in the WalMart pet section. Walmart was dropping the local pet department. They were losing money on it. My son bought the fixtures including the fish tanks for 10 cents on the dollar. He ran the local WalMart out of the pet department business and bought their fancy fixtures for next to nothing. He is opening another store.
I did not finance my son at all. But he did prove you can beat an exiting WalWart in a line of business they had established. My son proved anyone with brains and ambitions can beat Walmart. It is hard to be big and efficient and Walmart sure is big.
It takes a hell of a lot of work to beat Walmart. But it took a hell of a lot of work for WalMart to get to where it is today.
The Local Walmart epanded the tools department. They added tools in the floor space that used to hold the pet stuff. I hear they are hurting the local Sears store on tool sales.
Don't bet your butt on it. I worked for Walmart for 4 years and was assistant department manager to the local Electronics department in our supercenter. That's a 3 plust million a year department. From personal experience, they staff to a skeleton crew level at all times. When I worked there, The staffing was so deplorable that the manager actually demanded one of the department people to walk around the store continually to make it look like there was someone there. I'm not kidding. The guy's job was threatened on the spot if he failed to do so. I was there when it happened and I could give the guy's name and the now ex-manager's name. I'd note he isn't an ex manager for that practice...
He was demoted and sent to classes on personal communications or sum such - basically exiled to assistant manager position in a smaller store. He then quit. I went in there to get groceries on a busy night last week and stood in line for 20 minutes waiting on a price check on a pair of boots because although they have thirty-some checkouts, they only had about 5 of them staffed and no help on the floor. If you can find help at a Walmart, in my experience both shopping and working there, it happens by accident or after a long wait. You have to walk a mile across the building to get to anything and by the time you get taken care of, you could have gone elsewhere and been home for half an hour before you get through the lines.
When I was there my last christmas, we had lines so long in the store waiting to get any help at all that many people left hundreds - even thousands of dollars in merchandise sitting in Carts and walked out. With all staff on registers, only half the registers in the store were open and running and there was no one to help anyone out in the store getting merchandise off high counters and such. And that's with managers helping run the checkouts on a friday night.
Walmart is a joke.
Specialty hardware (woodworking, etc.) is something that WalMart can't handle. Fish/pets is another good example. Managing a pet store takes skill, good knowledge of your stock (it doesn't just sit there like floor mats and cheap shirts), and LOTS of hard, devoted work.
No way some part-timer in the WalMart who looks in on the fish after dusting the Rubbermaid stuff and sweeping the floor is going to be able to keep those little finny fellows swimming upright (instead of doing the back float on the surface), let alone looking chipper and frisky in a nice clean tank that says, "Buy Me!"
We did tropicals for years and then branched out into salt water. Once we were living in a place that allowed cats, we switched to breeding and showing Siamese cats. Now we're doing obedience and agility with a Chocolate Lab. . . . WalMart can do none of the above.
But, many people would rather stand around for half an hour to save $.30.
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