The Observation Deck

The American economy is booming.

Unemployment is at near record lows, the GDP is at record highs, American factories are producing more than ever. Much of the doom and gloom about the economy has more to do with political posturing than economic reality. See: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articl ... strum.html

There is no doubt that Northeast Ohio is not sharing in much of that prosperity. I think it has to do with our area politicians attitude towards business, profits and entrepreneurs. Some of our leading politicians despise business, are suspicious of profits and are contemptuous of entrepreneurs. The people who elect them must share that attitude.

Was there ever a Cleveland politician who was the champion of a major Cleveland industry? When is the last time this area had a leader who championed the job creation machines that use to call Cleveland home?

The City was home to a major oil company but we elected a senator that treated the oil industry as a criminal enterprise. The City was home to major financial institutions but we elected a mayor who treated the banks like the enemy.

One of the last of these major companies is Sherwin Williams. Ohio's cities are now engaged in a guerrilla war against that company, hoping to cash in on the rather dubious contention that company is responsible for all the woes caused by lead paint.

All this was brought to mind when I saw the picture of Dennis Kucinich and Tom George leading a meeting about Giant Eagle. What I hoped for was a meeting with Giant Eagle to discuss development opportunities and job creation.

What we got was a dog and pony show. A political rah rah session casting the job creator as the devil. And we wonder why jobs leave town.

Bill

A couple corrections.

The Oil company you speak of was nearly a criminal operation. Also from the second they moved into their building it was for sale with designs to move to Houston. It had nothing to do with the city's politics.

The banks, were/are nearly criminal activity when they conspire to run the politics of the city and work with business to create monopolies. It even gets worse when they own huge chunks of stock in the one company.

Giant Eagle/Topps. Were you at the meetings?

I was, and though yesterday's meeting was much about whipping on the Human Resource Director for Topps, it underlined many things. Especially when added with the first meeting.

Did Topps act in good faith? Did Topps pursue bad business practices to get out of a business they seem to have NO INTEREST IN. Far easier to make a profit selling out than working for years. While it is their right, it leaves 4300 employees possibly out on the street. Many as their retirement was months away.

At yesterday's meeting came out a couple interesting moments, and put on your business hat, drop the hatred for Congressman Kucinich and tell me what you think. Topps had an offer from a group that wanted all 46 stores, and was willing to honor ALL contracts, and KEEP all employees. Of course this group on average sold groceries for 13% less than Giant Eagle.The the Federal Trade Commission is looking into anti-trust laws against this deal. That while management will get rich, there are areas of Ohio that now have no grocery stores. Other cities only have Topps, or their puppet store Dave's.

I cannot believe that you are for any monopolies. Especially when it comes to food sources.

Like I said, forget the hate, look at the facts.

While we are on topic, I cannot believe how well off Lakewood is. While there is only two grocery stores between State Route 91 and the Pennsylvania. Lakewood still has four viable choices, with another five within ten minutes.

Mayor after mayor talked losses and how it was going to be the death blow to their city, Mayor Tom George sat silent. The simple fact is, it will hurt, but our food security is strong and getting stronger with the help of Holly Whisman, and Ken Warren. After the meeting last week, Mayor George and I once again spoke of how well off Lakewood is compared to other cities in the region.

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We are very well off in Lakewood. My quality of life here is much better than it was in Elyria, which is basically one giant ghetto (save for the area around LCCC), and is only getting worse.

Bill:

I don’t think you have it exactly right, or could get it right from simply reading the PD’s spin, which through my skeptical lens will need to keep advertisers like Tops and Giant Eagle spotlighted in the story and generally satisfied with the take.

I attended yesterday’s session. The Tops HR rep was articulate and decent.

While the democratic and ethical motivation to preserve for neighbors the legacy of resources and benefits distributed though organized labor, good contracts, etc., there was another element to the event to consider.

Congressman Kucinich distributed a letter from Retail Group Partners, which claims interest in pursuing the acquisition and making an “additional investment of $50 million in Ohio to develop vertically integrated food manufacturing capabilities.â€Â￾

Do you believe Congressman Kucinich is bashing the job-creator by bringing this news to the table?

Actually I was a little troubled, because I felt that perhaps Retail Group Partners was spinning him. I don’t really know.

Some homies pine for Trader Joes, something chi-chi and upscale. But here’s the Boxcar Store model that could come to Lakewood if the Retail Group Partners group are successful.

This is from the website:

“Boxcar consists of three parts. The first section is a palletized supermarket, similar to that of Sam’s, Costco, or Price Club. The second section is the restaurant component of the facility which consists of a casual dining restaurant from 200-400 seats, very similar to Ryan’s or Golden Corral. The third section is a Boxcar-branded gas station, when possible, with a minimum of 12 fueling positions. The entire store is approximately 30,000 to 50,000 square feet, depending on the location for new construction or retrofit.

Boxcar offers 300 basic foods, one-third of which is dated perishables such as meats, produce, bakery and dairy. Our concept is very similar to Sam’s, Costco, and Price Club except goods will be in consumer sizes only and there will be no membership fees.

Boxcar foods will carry the Boxcar label, with a few exceptions. Boxcar’s concept is based on the “80-20â€Â￾ theory that 20% of the items sold generates 80% of the revenue in a traditional supermarket.

Boxcar will offer one selection per category of food such as canned pork and beans, spaghetti, lunchmeat, etc. This concept allows the foods to be offered at the most efficient price available in today’s market.

Boxcar’s trade area is approximately three square miles, like a traditional supermarket. Boxcar locates its stores right next to the competition because it is a true alternative to traditional supermarkets and dining. The difference is the infrastructure allowing Boxcar to sell the same food as the competition approximately 15% cheaper and to make more profit on most items. Complete plans and specifications are available to qualified contractors.â€Â￾

Source: http://www.boxcarstores.com/

It’s another “valueâ€Â￾ proposition, not upscale, more suited to the third world chow line, from what I can read.

The Gas station at the entry to “Main Street,â€Â￾ whether Giant Eagle or Boxcar, tells us both that this food delivery model is yoked to fossil fuels and how out of sync LCPI’s planning premises for economic development of the legacy street car suburb are from the concrete forces of the free market and wheels that created and may continue to create “dead zonesâ€Â￾ in Lakewood's built environment.

These are global and regional market factors, and I agreed with Mr. Lay, that we are better off here than in other places.

But it’s more than a dog and pony show if we read between the lines.

In this sense, I note that the Tops rep spoke about a "viable" business plan.

What does "BOXCAR'S/PERISHABLE/CENTER" portend?
See: http://www.boxcarstores.com


Kenneth Warren

The definitions and methods of measuring such things are tailored to produce more positive or less negative results.

good thing I still have some dehydrated food remaining from Y2K days.

Doug

I usually try to shop at the IGA nearby. It isn't too big. When I am there I can concieve of it being owned and operated by the same people.

It is true that GDP is a nebulous and misleading figure. But if my memory is correct, GDP grew faster in the 1950s and 1960s, when top tier income taxes were between 70 and 90 percent, capital gains taxes were quite high, and corporate income taxes were much higher, and international trade was a much lower percentage of our GDP.

I believe one of the Rockefellers testified in the 1970s that his income that year was $200 or $500 million or something. He further testified that he paid $0 in income taxes. I am giving him the benefit of the doubt by assuming this was accomplished legally.

Doug

We must assume this Rockefeller's accountants and tax lawyers were paid somewhere between Zero and 200 million dollars.

What is known about "Retail Group Partners"? Does this outfit have a track record or just a PC, printer and some letterhead?

Dave Mechenbier wrote:What is known about "Retail Group Partners"? Does this outfit have a track record or just a PC, printer and some letterhead?

Dave

This is the point the Topps representative was trying to make. As they only own the land of 4 of the stores and everything else is leased they have to make sure the the group that takes over their leases are solvent and have a history.

But again much of what was not said makes us look harder at all parties. He also mentioned that they wanted someone to take over all 46 locations, and even thought this group claimed they wanted them all they had no track record on that scale. All well and good, but Giant Eagle is not taking over ALL 46 stores. RGP promised to keep all jobs going, and honor contracts, giant Eagle is already working with unions but many jobs will be lost. Double standard? Finally RGP was offered the stores left but I believed said that the good locations were lost and they could not do it with the remaining 24 locations.

What I found interesting was at the first meeting talk came up that the management team at Topps might have been setting the company up for failure and buyout. The Topps HR person kept talking about how hard it was to run a supermarket. Did management decide to stop trying? Is it the same problem as with a restaurant? Restaurant always make the mistake of cutting corners when times are tough when they should be spending more money. quality suffers, people stay away. Have seen it hundreds of times. Stores, times gets tough, shelves run dry and are not restocked, they leave out what people are buying, less reason to shop there...

Topps mentioned that RGP was just incorporated months ago, but I have not looked at that info yet.

FWIW


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Jim Bryan wrote:
....The Oil company you speak of was nearly a criminal operation.


....The banks, were/are nearly criminal activity when they conspire to run the politics of the city and work with business to create monopolies.


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Your comments illustrate my point. The men who built Home Depot or Microsoft would never feel welcome in Cleveland.

I have a great deal of sympathy for the people at Tops who are about to lose there jobs. When I was in my thirties, married with two children I lost a job and had to work for $5 an hour until I found something else. I know what it is like.

If Tops had a viable offer to buy all of their stores they would have sold them. Do you think they want to keep paying rent on empty store fronts?

The world is a fiercely competitive place. Think of competition as a glacier clearing everything in its path. Topps and its predecessor, Pick-N-Pay, bankrupted many a small grocer. One of its subsidiaries, Edwards Food Warehouse, bankrupted Goldberg Markets in Lorain County.

When I worked at Edwards I saw the owner of Goldberg shopping there. He was loading his cart full of canned tuna. He kept saying, "I pay my wholesaler more than they are charging here". He never new what hit him.

If this area is going to compete in the new world economy it must abandon the idea that entrepreneurs are criminals. The glacier is bearing down on us.

During the mini ice age of the middle ages a priest for a small town in the Alps led his villagers to the edge of a glacier. Dressed in his most formal robes, surrounded by smoking incense, he performed an exorcism. He and the villagers were quite sure the wall of ice threatening their village was possessed by the devil.

The efforts of HE, who cannot be named, to slam Giant Eagle with various legal threats or HIS meetings to save hospitals that are not saved, or re-open factories that are never reopened are more like exorcisms than economic policy.

If we are going to compete we need an economic policy not political mumbo jumbo.

Bill Call wrote:

Jim Bryan wrote:
....The Oil company you speak of was nearly a criminal operation.


....The banks, were/are nearly criminal activity when they conspire to run the politics of the city and work with business to create monopolies.


.

Your comments illustrate my point. The men who built Home Depot or Microsoft would never feel welcome in Cleveland.

Bill

So we should just turn a blind eye for a check? Or a possible check?

Cleveland Power is still one of the bravest things I have ever seen a politician do. Mayor Kucinich risked everything not to grandstand but to keep a competitive price on energy in Cleveland. Today decades later it is still going strong and offering the cheapest power in the area. When Mayor Kucinich (at the time) fought with the banks, and all of their voices, PD, Sun, etc. he knew the party was over for their support, and it would be the end. Yet he risked it for the residents of Cleveland.

BP! Again, from the day they cut the ribbon, they were moving out of Cleveland. Had NOTHING to do with politicians, residents, workers or anything else as you suggested. It was coming to town, grabbing tax incentives, and moving on to the next town willing to whore themselves out. Let's not forget I worked there. I was still working for them 2 years after they moved to Houston.

But I suppose you are right, we should be grateful to businesses that have no real commitment to the region, and dump poisons into our rivers while looking for ways to pin the spill of their "patented chemicals" on others like parking lots and baseball fields in a small town.

Every morning I look in the mirror and put blade to face. One of the secrets of life is never doing anything that makes you want to use that blade anywhere else.

Bill what I find fascinating is that you, who attended no meeting, and maybe has not even read the handouts, has such a strong opinion the Congressman Kucinich is merely grandstanding. That he has no interest in working for his constituents. When all he has ever done is fight for the people he represents.

While this section of the board is about Lakewood, and here we have it pretty good. But some of the cities and people he is sworn to represent are really getting screwed by this deal.

Let the ill feelings go, take a breath.

FWIW

Bill Call wrote:
Was there ever a Cleveland politician who was the champion of a major Cleveland industry? When is the last time this area had a leader who championed the job creation machines that use to call Cleveland home?

I would like to hear the answer to this question. This very topic was just being discussed the other day. It seems to me that whether you look locally, regionally or on a statewide basis, we are falling behind quick and I've been hoping that there will be some plan to get back on track.

Just to be sure that I'm not marked as someone who doesn't attend meetings or do anything, there was a panel forum that was held prior to the Jackson/Campbell election that pointed out the need to make they system easier to maneuver for potential business ventures. The results of that particular political grandstanding, I'm still on the look out for.

I went on a tour of the old Millionaire's Row and Western REserve Historical place area last year. It was surprising they chose to build mansions so close to the factories they owned and understood how to operate.

I like to think Economic theory hasn't caught up with the Steam Engine and telegraph wire yet. It certainly hasn't caught up with big box retail. (it added up sometimes for a while cuz the place was mostly empty and we got in on the industrial revolution early). Most people don't want to live under or on top of a glacier. Your friend buying Tuna at discount might live long enough for the changing fishing and distribution methods of Tuna to make Tuna commercially extinct. (it has worked for many Cod fisheries. and is even working on Menhaden, which aren't consumed by people but are near the bottom of the food chain for other commercially harvested fish: Old President George Bush co-founded a company which feeds them to livestock).

The Big Box retailers are the Rhinos in the tea shop. Soon they will be the skeletons of Whooly Mammaths. But not before a few more resource wars, or the virtual Socialism we will construct as a "safety net" to deal with the 'greater competition' of Globalism.

I was searching for information on "liquified coal" and discovered this article Free Market Energy Policy by Doug Bandow from the Cato Institute. It was published at a Conservative Christian website.

Mr.Bandow writes that more free markets would take care of our Oil and Energy problems.

I do wonder at his logic. He doesn't ask why we use so much energy and how. I mean, most of the suburbs we've built since 1945 would not have been built if the residents there had to pay for the massive expensive of highways, roads, sewers, water lines, and other infrastructure spread out over such low population densities.

This article was published at the Center for Reformed Theology and Apologetics website. I looked at more of the website. The worldly issues it presents a focus on are abortion, homosexuality, and the theory of evolution. I find it interesting that this organization is so strongly allied with The Cato Institute. They show a strong disinterest in more relevant questions about the way we live. A strong desire to remain unconscious of the world around them and their influence on it.

It is as though they feel so entitled to so many comforts(much more unflappable than the sense of entitlement many socialists express directly) that they are willing to forego rationality to continue believing they deserve them. Just follow the right rituals, and every family can have at least two cars, a house in the suburbs, a riding lawn mower, a big screen tv, a fast growing Stock Portfolio, and not have to live near too-many-black-people or the workers who make most of the merchandise we consume. I realise Christianity means we don't have to be Jewish anymore, but does anyone remember the story about the Golden Calf?

More of America will turn into Clevelands and Gary Indianas and los Angeles ganglands, dead small towns, and decaying urban cores under Radical Globalism. Most suburbs will gradually turn into a Harmony Korine movie peppered with suburbs of Media Ratings absorbed obsessive-compulsives. Cuz it already has.