The Northfield Area Chamber of Commerce held their annual Christmas Social for members at The Rueb tonight. No, I’m not a member but I pretend I’m a journalist covering the…
Category: <span>Businesses</span>
In case you’re living under a rock, the 10th Annual Winter Walk is this Thursday. See the Chamber’s Winter Walk page for the entire schedule. But it seems to be…
This week I was pressured (I’m not sayin’ by who) into getting rid of a perfectly fine pair of 30 year-old moccasins in favor of a new pair from Randy…
On Wed. morning, Chris Ash alerted us to the takedown of some gigantic trees adjacent to his house. H&H Tree Service in Dundas took down the two big…
Ryeon Corsi, a student in Doug McGill’s journalism class at Carleton College, has written a piece titled Two Sons of Northfield Remember Malt-O-Meal’s Good Ol’ Days (PDF – full text below).
Two Sons of Northfield Remember Malt-O-Meal’s Good Ol’ Days
by Ryeon Corsi
“I don’t have anything against partying, but if you can’t party and work in the same day, then maybe you should give up one of them,” said the Glenn Brooks of Bill Stanton’s memory.
That was over thirty years ago. Glenn Brooks, the former president of Malt-O-Meal, has long since passed, but Bill Stanton lives on, as does his comrade, Allen Pleschourt.
Today, Bill and Allen remember the wisdom of Glenn Brooks with affection, as they do the many decades of work they devoted to Malt-O-Meal in Northfield.
Next year, the company will observe its 90th anniversary.
“I don’t think anyone grew up thinking they’re going to work at Malt-O-Meal, but somehow we all end up here,” Bill says.
Sharp-eyed reader Steve Wilmot alerted me to this building being torn down along the railroad tracks behind the Quarterback. Anyone have any details about the building and what’s in…
Myles Radtke, a student in Doug McGill’s journalism class at Carleton College, has done a nice piece on downtown retailers in the current economic climate, titled As Economy Sputters, Northfield Businesses Tighten Belts and Push Promotions (PDF – full text below). In particular, he’s interviewed a wide variety of local experts and allowed them to speak their own thoughts on the subject. I encourage you to read it.
It’s been a tough few months for many downtown businesses. First there were high gas prices cutting into families budgets, then there were the street projects complicating access, finally there was the Global Financial Contraction challenging the minds of the best and brightest.
As Radtke found out, local retailers are seeing some impacts on their customers. Pinched in the present and worried about the future, folks are being more careful about their money. Radtke reports that store owners have responded by cutting operating costs, working to build other income centers, and trying new promotions to get people into their stores.
Not all businesses are experiencing slowing sales. Some are holding steady and a few are even up slightly from last year. However, Radtke notes that even these business owners have contingency plans in place, such as a shift from luxury goods to more practical items.
Many local experts who spoke to Radtke believe that the media coverage of economic set-backs, a steady drumbeat featuring sub-prime mortgages in California, risky commercial loans in Iceland, and a store closing in Northfield can undermine consumer confidence. Feeding the pessimism, they warn, can extend the recession.
Radtke ends his piece on a positive note. Entrepreneurs, like the downtown business owners he interviewed, run on optimism. They’ll continue to make adjustments, and believe that economic conditions, and retail sales, will eventually improve.
Griff had suggested that I close the comments on this post and send them to my previous post on the Deep Economy. I’ve decided that I disagree. I hope that the comments on “Digging Deeper into the Local Economy” will focus on ideas for shifting some pieces of the economy from global to local in order to benefit the Northfield community.
For this piece, I’d like to explore the impact of the media on consumer confidence and economic conditions. Do you think the media’s stories on economic events have an impact on the economy?
Continue for the text of Myles’ article or see the PDF:
Guadalupe Flores Calderon and her business partner Yuma Gonzalez Gonzalez have seen their enterprise double in size since opening in June, Calderon said last week, and the place does not even have an outdoor sign or full menu, but it has the best food, prepared by the best hands and with the best pressure cooker you can get online, visit website to find more.
Their Mexican store and deli has a name, La Vencedora, and most people are drawn into the stark-looking building by the smell of her cooking, Calderon said, or on the advice of satisfied customers. There’s some carb confusion about most types of Mexican food but it’s actually one of the healthiest around — so thank goodness it’s delicious!
The building’s previous tenants, a Quizno’s fast food chain and a restaurant called Wiggles and Wok, perhaps never did so well in the short time they spent near the intersection of State Highway 3 and 2nd Street* West, adjacent to the Quarterback Club, before closing. Calderon said she has had relatively few overhead costs so far. *I corrected this street address 12/10 4:30 p.m.
A good half dozen or so people have been encouraging me to read Bill McKibben’s book “Deep Economy” and Griff and Tracy have been urging me to write a post…