Friday’s Weekend Column
About a Minnesota Man Exploring Life in the South

Business Are Failing
by James Glaser
June 5, 2009

Yesterday, Wanda went to lunch with a friend of ours who we have dinner with every few weeks. She learned that another restaurant that we like closed. It seems kind of strange the way businesses are closing now. Just one day the doors are closed, and there is a For Lease sign in the window.

Usually, you hear rumors of a closing first, then you might hear what they are asking for the place, and then you hear rumors again about who might be buying the place. This isn't just about restaurants, but any sort of business.

I don't know if this is a Southern thing, or if they are doing this all over the country, but almost every weekend now we see people with big "Going out of Business" signs for stores in the malls and stores that are close to the malls. The men's clothing store where I bought a new suit last year went out of business after twenty some years here in Tallahassee.

Furniture stores are closing, art supply stores, a bakery, several bars with restaurants, lots of car dealers, a Dillards department store, music stores, art galleries, Circuit City, and lots of others. You see the empty store front, and then try and remember what was in that spot.

Now, here's the strange thing, or at least it is to me. With all these businesses closing all over Tallahassee, and with the economy spiraling downward, and people losing their jobs, and teachers being laid off, and houses being foreclosed on, why are there banks being built all over Tallahassee? Not only are these huge, multi-storied elegant looking banks being built, but there are also store-front banks being opened. I just don't get it.

The President said that is was going to get worse before it got better. The only problem with that statement is he never said how much worse it was going to get. He doesn't know, and we don't know, but he was right, it is getting worse.




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