January 3 picture-a Christmas card comes for the view

While teaching, I pursued a number of businesses to be partners with the Marketing Academy. One of the best partnerships I was able to arrange was the one with Dumont Printing.

A fieldtrip to Dumont Printing

Larry and Susan Early, the  owners, gave lavishly of their time and resources to help our students do well. They sent guest speakers to the classroom, allowed the students (and teachers) to job shadow at the printing offices, arranged field trips to show the students how a business operated, and offered advice and counsel on curriculum and equipment purchases. Any time we called on this company, they were right there, ready to help in any way they could.

Another nice thing Dumont Printing did was include the Academy teachers in their annual holiday party for clients and important people in their operation. We felt so honored to be included in this yearly extravaganza. As the economy went south, the party was curtailed, but a lovely card was always sent, a sort of engineering/printing feat. This year’s card arrived at the tiny apartment, and since we have been in Fresno for two weeks, I only opened it today. It seems to like the view:

The card and view.

What a nice reminder of such nice people and all the nice things they did for this school teacher and her students. I think it makes a great picture of the day.

Fair Season

On the Fairgrounds

Originally uploaded by dkzody

The Big Fresno Fair is a big deal in this town. For two weeks every fall, the whole city’s mindset is on the fair. The local tv stations run their news shows from the fair; people take days off from work to go to the horse races; kids miss school; local businesses say their revenues drop. Money and time that would normally be spent in the community go to the fair.

Having not attended the fair in about 15 years, Terry and I decided to go yesterday to see what we have been missing. It’s bigger and splashier than it used to be. More vendors, more places to sit, more fried food. More free places for kids to play.

You can now walk into the horse racing grandstand without paying an extra entrance fee. I had never been to the track before because I saw no need to pay more money to watch horses run, horses which I did not intend to bet on. Still didn’t bet yesterday, but we watched a race. It was over so fast we hardly knew it had started. Fast way to make or lose money.

The exhibit buildings are still there, but harder to find because the buildings are surrounded by food vendors who have very loud, garrish displays of their wares. Lights, camera, action…We managed to find all the buildings and traipse through them. Nothing much had changed. You can still see a man demonstrating a chopping gadget; you can still look at more photographs and paintings than you thought possible; you can still buy a bag of rocks in the gem building; and the outlying towns are still bringing all their products in for display in the agriculture building. Fewer quilts and jellies, though.

In a tight economy it is costly to go to the fair. We did it on a budget. By the time we entered the gates we had paid $5 to park and $20 for admission. We ate tacos, corn dog, and beerock for another $17.50. Oh, and Terry got a coffee in there, too, for that money. I did get a coupon for 55 cents off a pound of butter and another coupon for a free case of water at the local grocery store, both of which I took advantage of today when grocery shopping.

This afternoon, to help the local merchants, I went book shopping and spent more for books than I spent at the fair. The book store seemed less crowded than usual on a Saturday afternoon and traffic was much lighter. Guess it’s true. People are at the fair. The BIG fair.

For more pictures, check here.

Another company bites the dust

As I listen to President Obama’s press conference and his pleas for passing the stimulus package, I read about another company closing its doors, or at least some of its doors.  Although I have never shopped at Shabby Chic, I have heard about it and seen references in magazines to the style.  The lady who owns it wrote in her blog that she has filed bankruptcy.  

I think this is another company which did not plan nor see an end to the frivolous spending.  Why did so many think we could just keep going the way we were?  Without credit, Americans cannot afford the lifestyle to which they had become accustomed.

Macy’s to close stores

Just read that Macy’s is closing 11 stores.  The only California mention is Los Angeles.  Wonder what part of LA?  

Two weeks ago I was in the Macy’s at Stanford Mall, and it was buzzing.  Too few clerks, but maybe that’s part of the strategy to save mney.  Of course, prices have been slashed so much (or so I have been told; I have not seen any low prices on what I want to purchase) that the stores just may not be making much on all of those sales.

Thriving businesses

One of the more popular posts on my blog is Company Closings.  It gets hit almost every day, usually coming from Google where searchers have typed in those two words.  Funny, though, it hasn’t gotten many comments, just hits.  Today I want to go in a different direction:  thriving businesses.

I was reading in the newspapers that experts believe 2,000 to 3,000 malls will close across this country this year.  May happen, but I find that hard to believe from what I have been seeing while out shopping.  Every week I am in the Fig Garden Village center, mainly for Whole Foods, and the parking lots are full as are the stores that I may dart into.  Yesterday I specifically went to Soma and had to wait in line for a cashier, and there were three of them.  Afterwards I stopped at SaveMart to pick up a few groceries, and found the store bustling.  Again, parking lot full.

Last week I went to River Park Shopping Center,  looking for a new black coat, thinking there would be some great sales after the Christmas holiday.  I could find no black coat, the cosmetic counter where I stopped was out of the eyeliner I wanted, and the clothes I did buy, were NOT on sale.  The parking lots where full.

My girlfriends and I headed to Palo Alto to Stanford Mall, and found the parking lots full, people everywhere, and they were carrying shopping bags.  We stopped in Macy’s and not one sales clerk spoke to us.  They were all too busy with customers.  Nordstrom’s was a little better; even though busy, I was able to get clerks to wait on me.  

I will be in San Francisco at the end of January and will update my perceptions, but I have a feeling things are going well there, too.   The Westfield Center is always bustling.

So, we can see the glass half full or half empty.  We can see a bad economy or we can see an economy that is making some adjustments.  To say that all business is in trouble is going too far.  Retail will survive.

It’s not bad all over

Although the economy is doing poorly, and everyone seems to be crying “poormouth,” a term my mother would use, I didn’t see any of that today when I stopped at a very upscale shopping center in our town.  Fig Garden Village is a quaint center with many national retailers and lots of expensive restaurants.  I could not find a place to park.  Not only were people shopping, but there were many who were enjoying company lunches and holiday gatherings with friends at the eateries.  

I have lived in this neighborhood for almost 30 years, and the pace seems no different this year from past ones.  People are shopping, buying, entertaining, eating, enjoying the season.  I wonder if the media has made us feel that it’s bad all over when that is not the case.

Company closings

As many of you know by now, Mervyn’s is going to close its doors.  That makes me sad for a number of reasons.  1) I bought my daughter’s baby things there 30 years ago; 2) there are 3 stores in our city and that means a lot of people out of work; 3) one of my best ever students is a buyer for Mervyn’s and will now be out of a career he really enjoyed; 4) just another sign of our bad economic times.

I never worked for Mervyn’s but long ago, when I was buying baby clothes there, I had a Mervyn’s credit card.  That morphed into a Target credit card which morphed into a Target Visa.  I use that card, almost exclusively, so as to get money for the very poor school in which I teach.  My wonderful student who worked for our local business partner while in high school and college, has worked his way up at Mervyn’s headquarters and was just named a head buyer.  I don’t know what he will do next, but he is very talented so I know he will land on his feet.

Now, for companies I have worked, except for the school district where I am currently employed:  they are all gone, kaput, out of business, no record of some of them.  Payless Drug Stores, Levitz Furniture, Munford Publications, Ranchers Cotton Oil.  None of them folded while I was working there, but I could see the writing on the wall for Ranchers so left to get my teaching credential.  It was also the place where I spent the most time before I became a teacher, 11 years.  I still have dreams (or nightmares) of returning to work there and nothing has changed in the 20+ years I’ve been gone.  

Time rolls on, companies come and go.  Jobs change.  My view of the work I have done, am doing, and will do in the future has all changed, too.  Those company closings would have scared me 30 years ago, when I had a baby for whom to buy clothes, but now I see that we are a resilient bunch and will figure out a way to work through this economic downturn.   Although concerned for what will happen to my students, I know that if I give them skills and a can-do attitude, they will make their way.

In a flash

I’ve been using computers for so long that I can remember when we used 5 1/2 inch floppies to store our files.  My first teaching assignment at a middle school required those.  Then we went to 3 1/4 inch floppies, then zip disks, and now, we have flash drives.  Or USB drives.  Or thumb drives.  Whatever you call them.  They are tiny and they can store big amounts.  Here is my supply at home:

They sit in a bowl, on my desk, next to my laptop.  The bowl is also home to some PEZ dispensers but I took those out so you can more clearly see the flash drives.  I use these all the time to take work back and forth to school.  There is usually one sitting in my purse or tote bag.  I have another collection like this at school.  Because I do so much with photos, I need different drives for different projects.

I am requiring my students to have ONE flash drive this year.  Actually, I think most teachers want the kids to have them because of all the places they can go on campus to work on computers.  Plus, the new laptops that have been acquired have no other way to store files but through USB connections.  You would think I have asked the kids to buy a Cadillac.  Target, Office Max, they all have these gadgets on sale right now, some as low at 8.99.  I will even sell some I picked up over the summer to the kids for $12.   I know times are tough, but is it really that bad out there that kids with iPods, cell phones, designer clothes, cable TV at home, can’t afford a flash drive?

A tough time to be a kid

It’s the end of the month in an economically disadvantaged area of town. It’s cold outside and poor homes are hard to heat. Parents are feeling stressed and they undoubtedly are taking their rage out on their kids. I see it at school. Kids are angry. They spout a litany of profanity at the least provocation. Students do not see the point of an education because they don’t see it in their own homes or neighborhoods. Going to class, doing schoolwork, obeying the teachers, is just not in their scope.

We are recruiting for next year’s classes and in doing so we see a variety of students. These are the better students who have their credits and won’t need much in the way of remedial classes. One young man I spoke with today doesn’t have a plan for his future except to think he is going to be a professional football player. “Did you play frosh football?” NO. “Are you playing club ball?” NO. “Did you sign up for soccer?” NO. How do you think you can play any kind of football if you aren’t working on it? No answer. Then when I suggested he needed to take our classes and get some skills so as to get a job, he was adamant that he didn’t need any help.

I only see a small number of the total students at our large inner city school so can only affect a few. Those who go through our academy say that our classes look and act so much differently than their nonacademy classes. It is our goal that students graduate on time with skills to continue their education as well as go to work. For 19 years we have had a high success rate, and again today I saw one of our graduates who is now a social worker who maintains a group home. She and I discussed the difficulties we are seeing with kids due to social and economic problems. So many children are being abandoned by their parents or neglected to the point they are raising themselves. These people do not see that this is a critical problem to our society. They also do not understand how much they are damaging their children.