Archive for November, 2011

COEUR d’ALENE — Even dentists aren’t recession proof.

For Dr. Paige Landers, graduation from dental school in 2008 coincided perfectly with the wrecking ball of the worst recession in a lifetime.

For her father in law, Dr. Jim Landers, the best-laid plans to hand off his established practice to her the following year crumbled with complications from the existing partnership.

Even Dr. Ben Gates, a local boy who’d been practicing since 1998, felt the business he’d built in a magnificent new office at Riverstone in 2004 wasn’t reaching its potential.

Those three paths finally merged this summer and the result, North Idaho Dental Group, has created a more dynamic practice than any of the individuals could have produced themselves.

“We offer everything,” said Gates.

“Everything” goes beyond the services rendered by the trio, which include orthodontics, invisalign, cosmetics, dental implants, one-day crowns — they’ll even pull a tooth if that’s what you need. It also involves one of Dr. Gates’s chief goals: A practice that is open Mondays through Fridays, with availability during long customer-friendly hours, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

“What we deliver as a product now is amazing,” Gates said. “The atmosphere in dental care has changed, and while insurance companies aren’t looking out for the patient’s best interests, we are. We hope that with good communication we can use benefit plans to help achieve good care and dental health for our patients.”

To reach this new launching point in the practice, Gates called upon some outstanding resources to bolster his business. One of them was his sister, Kimber Gates Travis, owner of Coeur d’Alene Cellars.

“A lot of people don’t know this but she’s a CPA and has an MBA,” Gates said. “I know how to fix teeth; she knows how to run a business.”

Gates also went through the acceleration series of North Idaho College’s Small Business Development Center, where Mike Wells mentored him.

“He’s great and I still see him on occasion,” Gates said.

All roads led to collaboration, Gates said, with familiarity facilitating the venture.

“Paige and I have known each other our whole lives,” Gates said. “My parents know her parents; our families traveled together when we were younger.”

With his wife, Mary Anne, Jim Landers wrapped up six months of travel and a volunteer stint in the snow-skiing events of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Canada and cast a longing eye toward Coeur d’Alene, where all their children had returned.

“I was missing dentistry and I missed my patients, too,” he added.

And for Paige Landers, working with her father in law and a close family friend — both of whom happen to be terrific dentists — was too good an opportunity to pass up. She’s glad she made the commitment.

“I love being in a practice that embraces all the technological advances in dentistry right now,” she said. “Jim is a great mentor for me and besides, there are other benefits.”

As she says this she’s holding her daughter — Jim’s granddaughter — Chloe.

Accepting new patients

North Idaho Dental Group, directly behind the Idaho Independent Bank in Riverstone, is now accepting new patients. Phone 667-8282 or visit www.nidentalgroup.com

The gateway to Coeur d’Alene for the masses flowing in on Northwest Boulevard from Interstate 90 gives little hint that a gorgeous lake and thriving downtown are 60 seconds away.

On the right is a blend of purported modernity: multi-storied condominiums resting on retail shops hulking in the background, framing a cold concrete parking garage, top level barren. There’s the windowless massive rear end of Regal Cinemas and retail space spreading north, buildings as blunt and bland from the back as they are warm and welcoming from the front. The theater’s sprawling roof, where air conditioning units crouch like abandoned cars on a forgotten tarmac, caps the visual splash until the Inland Northwest’s largest metal feather beckons from an approaching median.

This might not be the welcome to the City by the Lake envisioned by chamber of commerce types, but it is the entryway to Exhibit 1 in the community’s controversial public-private urban renewal partnership, a live/work/play neighborhood evolved from an old mill site and 100 foot deep gravel pit. Over the past decade, it has stalled, flourished, staggered, and is showing signs of life again.

This is the road to Riverstone.

•••

John Stone has agreed, somewhat reluctantly, to be interviewed by North Idaho Business Journal at 11 a.m. on 11/11/11. He shows up at Starbucks, right on time, a Riverstone promotional packet in hand and a countenance on his serious face as gray as the November skies. It is the look of a man who devoted much of his time and more of his treasure to create and then shape this project over a dozen years, yet as he walks through the front door of the coffee shop he looks anything but triumphant.

As reported in The Press in late October, Stone has just deeded back to a Seattle-based lender three buildings that form part of the village’s heart: the movie theaters and two adjacent, multi-tenant retail buildings. He got kicked in the financial teeth when Barnes & Noble went into what was called “capital preservation mode” and “pulled out at the 11th hour,” Stone said, leaving the developer embarrassed, angry and in full possession of the empty B&N building that he had sunk an additional $1 million into just for that specific client.

All told, Stone has suffered much more than that.

“We probably lost $15 million,” Stone said of his Riverstone investment. “It hasn’t been fun. That’s the risk you take in the development business.”

Stone admitted reluctance to being interviewed, saying he was concerned a “witch hunt” might be lurking in a hidden agenda somewhere. And later on that Veterans Day, as Stone drove a reporter and photographer toward what someday could become a sports complex on the northwest edge of Riverstone II, he imparted a little payback for criticism that has come his way from editorial writers and urban renewal critics.

“If I hear ‘wealthy developers are lining their pockets’ ever again, it’ll be too soon,” he said.

For this developer, the support he has gotten from Coeur d’Alene’s urban renewal agency, Lake City Development Corp., was critical to proceed but has done little to mitigate that $15 million loss. According to Tony Berns, LCDC’s director and lone employee, Stone has been reimbursed just under $1.5 million over the past decade. He is due $30,677 more before reimbursement from LCDC for the original Riverstone development concludes.

And reimbursement is the key word, Berns said.

“We don’t just hand out cash up front,” he said. “John Stone paid for that [traffic lights and other infrastructure on Northwest Boulevard for access to Riverstone] out of his own pocket.”

Stone pointed out that even full urban renewal reimbursement on the original Riverstone doesn’t fall into his profit column because it paid for improvements along Northwest Boulevard that he doesn’t own.

“There is not one penny of urban renewal money that’s in our pocket,” he said. “It’s all owned by the public in infrastructure.”

“It’s his risk; the burden’s on him,” Berns said of Stone’s venture with LCDC. “If it works, he gets paid back from the parcels within that improvement. If it doesn’t…”

•••

Stone said that when he walked the 76 acres of the original site more than a dozen years ago, it was the graveyard of a sawmill littered with industry mementos that included buried sawblades and other “unsuitable materials.” In a wistful moment, Stone wields the fact as a counter to some of his critics.

“They have no memory of what this was,” he says.

But Stone sure does. In 1998 he had a video made and distributed to 30 or 40 people in the community, including Coeur d’Alene Mayor Steve Judy and Avista’s Paul Anderson. Stone showed them what the site was — and told them what it could be, including a lake for the public and many other pluses.

“When we did our first conceptual renderings. . . I’ve been amazed at how close we came to that,” he said. “It’s really happened. I’m pleased that we’ve done everything we said we’d do.”

He paused and then added, “It hasn’t been successful economically but that’s part of life.”

Stone labored for two years to finalize the development’s plans and forge the necessary agreements. And just as momentum was beginning to build — bringing with it a burst of bricks and mortar for Riverstone — terrorists brought down twin New York financial landmarks and with them, the nation’s economy.

“Nine-eleven hit us and that stalled everything for another year,” Stone said. “You can’t control that.”

Riverstone began to rise with its first tenant, First American Title. Nationally and locally, the economy picked up speed, reaching unprecedented pinnacles. In 2004, Stone’s company acquired the old quarry on 77 acres just west of the original Riverstone and, over the next three years, moved 2.5 million cubic yards of material to prepare the quarry site for a lake, a park and more. In April of that year, construction began on the 14-screen Regal Cinemas theater. Four years later, the 25-acre Village at Riverstone was complete, but the good times that had taken so long to build ended in a hurry.

“This economic earthquake hit us in 2008 and you can’t control that, either,” Stone said.

Also beyond his control was Barnes & Noble’s last-minute decision not to provide the retail anchor that formed much of the development’s foundation for financial growth. When B&N exercised a clause in its contract and backed out, Stone said, the ripple effect was devastating. Seven other national franchises retreated from their earlier commitments, Stone said, and existing Riverstone retailers that had been contractually assured the giant was coming to the village were given steep discounts in their leases — again, triggered by the bookseller’s bailout.

That created a quarry Stone hasn’t been able to fill.

“If the economy would do a magical turnaround, then we’d be back in the game again,” he said. “But that’s highly unlikely to happen.”

•••

Coeur d’Alene City Council member Deanna Goodlander believes Riverstone is a boon to the community, and that it most definitely would not have happened without John Stone’s hard work and the encouragement from urban renewal.

“John has said that if it weren’t for urban renewal, he’d never take that risk,” she said.

As a council appointee to the LCDC board of directors, Goodlander sees first-hand how urban renewal can impact a community.

“When you take a brownfield like John did and turn it into something positive — the same holds true for Mill River, too — everybody benefits,” she said.

Berns, who took LCDC’s helm in December 2001, said that after the initial agreement with Stone on the original Riverstone, the urban renewal agency executed a promissory note with Stone for Riverstone West Phase I on June 21, 2007. That phase includes property west of the Red Robin restaurant. The agreement called for Stone to spend $6,682,237 of his own money on infrastructure, with half of it dedicated to the park and pond that have become the development’s public centerpiece. Stone then deeded that property to the city.

Almost four and a half years later, Stone’s risk still has not paid off. According to LCDC financial records, the principal on the promissory note remains $6,682,237. Only interest on the note has been paid.

While Stone hasn’t begun to be paid back, his investment has reaped dividends for the city, Berns said.

“The first thing that jumped out at us was the park and pond,” he said.

Hundreds of jobs were generated as well, and the city’s residential options grew. Berns recalled that there were even plans for condominium towers at Riverstone.

“People were dreaming big,” he said, “but what really encouraged us was creation of the public space.”

Like Stone, Berns compares what was to what is.

“I think people forget what it looked like,” Berns said. “That was a brownfield for the community, which he reclaimed.”

Berns also emphasized that urban renewal support leads to reimbursing developers like Stone only if the property being developed becomes viable. The mechanism of tax increment financing works like this:   If the original Riverstone property generated $100,000 in annual property taxes before Stone developed it and $500,000 in annual property taxes after he developed it, that $400,000 difference — the tax increment — would be divided as follows:

• 72 percent would be applied to Stone’s reimbursement agreement with LCDC

• 3 percent would be transferred to the city’s Art Commission to spend on public art in the Lake District

• The remaining 25 percent would be used by LCDC on other projects within the district.

And if the property never generates property taxes beyond that initial $100,000 annually, Stone would never get repaid for the public improvements he installed.

“The taxpayers are not on the hook,” Berns reiterated. He explained that when an urban renewal district closes, as the district encompassing Riverstone West will in 2027, whatever balance remains to reimburse Stone would go unpaid. Instead, all the tax increment will go back to the other taxing entities within the district from that time on.

Berns is convinced that Riverstone is a model of a good public-private partnership, providing public space and valuable amenities.

“A successful Riverstone means more jobs, more places to live,” he said. “At one time Riverstone was going to be only high-end apartments.” Now, Berns notes, construction for low-income apartments on the far west end of Riverstone is almost complete, and most of the original condos sold for modest prices.

He also pointed out that because the original Riverstone is generating positive dollars, the additional funding can be deployed elsewhere in that specific urban renewal district. That’s how Midtown improvements were made, he said, and more downtown improvements are coming.

Goodlander is keeping her eye on the bigger picture. She shares the story of interconnectivity that came from her cardiac physician, who works for the network of heart specialists now being brought into the Kootenai Health family. According to Goodlander, her doctor from Heart Clinics Northwest asked if the Riverstone condos were joined by pedestrian and bike trail with the education corridor just south of the development and on into downtown. And the answer was “yes.”

“She said she’d be interested in one of the Riverstone condos because she’d love to ride her bicycle on that trail,” Goodlander said.

Goodlander said Stone’s role is basically transparent as far as taxpayers are concerned.

“It doesn’t matter who owns it,” she said. “It’s there, and whoever owns it will be paying taxes.”

Asked if she believes Riverstone has been a rousing success, she answered thoughtfully, “I don’t think it’s there yet but I think it will.”

And she remains firmly in Stone’s corner.

“Are we lucky we got a John Stone? You bet,” she said, “because he made that development happen.”

•••

John Stone is on a new mission these days and it has nothing to do with rebuilding a fortune.

“I’m working to pay down debt,” he said.

That effort is emphasized by jackhammers and clamoring construction workers busily working on several of the five projects launched in Riverstone this year, projects that Stone estimates have generated 300 construction jobs while paving the way for numerous other permanent jobs in those buildings.

Right next to Bardenay, the restaurant on the lake, construction on a dermatology business is in advanced stages. Across the road heading northwest, a new center for the FBI is going up. Stone’s own offices and expanded space for an existing high-tech tenant, Pacinian, are also taking shape, and there’s more of that in store. Several parcels have been purchased this year and contracts are pending with a couple others, Stone said.

Meantime, his eye is fixed on that one prize.

“It takes awhile for the tax increment from these new businesses to pay off that debt,” he said. “We have to pay off the loan regardless. We took the risk that this had to be paid off in a certain amount of time.

“There are close to 500 units here now that weren’t here 10 years ago. Taxes are always there. They’re down now because real estate across the board has dropped 40 percent, but we still pay our taxes and the increments continue to build. It’s a funny game.”

Not that Stone is laughing.

“It’s been a rough ride but we’re real pleased with what we’ve been able to accomplish,” he said. “This will be the place to shop in the North Idaho Panhandle. This village will be healthy at some point when the economy picks up.”

Ah, those were the days

A story published in the Coeur d’Alene Press on Oct. 31, 2003, reflects an intriguing side of Riverstone developer John Stone’s relationship with the city’s urban renewal agency.

Stone was asking Lake City Development Corp. to help expedite removal of railroad tracks that bisected the property.

“We have a waiting list for the residences,” Stone told The Press back then. “Within two years we will have about 250 people living here.”

He said the tracks would be detrimental to the live-work-walk neighborhood reaching its potential and that “The LCDC needs to take a lead role.”

“Riverstone is working,” Stone said eight years ago. “It is the cash cow everybody predicted.”

While the jury’s still out on how much of a cash cow Riverstone has become, one thing is certain: Those darned train tracks weren’t easy to uproot. As you’re reading this, the last ties and rails through Riverstone are finally being removed.

Maybe someday, the retail and commercial corridor between Riverstone, downtown, Midtown and East Sherman Avenue will be one big, prosperous family.

It’s not yet.

The recession hasn’t sped things along any, but despite the best efforts of Coeur d’Alene’s urban renewal agency, the magnetism of this interconnected dynamo must remain firmly in the category of tremendous potential.

Riverstone, as the cover story today details, has been a mixed bag in the live/work/walk arena. People who occupy those 130 or so condos got just what they wanted; they’re within walking distance of a nice park and pond, the movies, some shops and several good places to eat. But until the right anchor comes along and moves into the big building that had been reserved for Barnes & Noble, one senses that the whole place really won’t take off.

Yet because the original Riverstone is generating positive property tax dollars, you’ll see improvements being made downtown, much as those urban renewal bucks brought Midtown into modern times. And we don’t think it takes too much imagination to see a booming downtown again before long, with prosperity flowing back toward Riverstone and perhaps even infusing investment and excitement along East Sherman Avenue.

POST FALLS – Kari Turnbough likes to cook from scratch.

“I don’t believe in cans and boxes,” she said.

Turnbough recently opened Grandma Zula’s Kitchen in the space formerly occupied by the Milltown Grill and Wooden Shoe restaurants at 306 N. Spokane St., Suite K, in Post Falls.

It’s named after Turnbough’s late grandma, Zula Turnbough, and offers country cooking for breakfast and lunch.

“I want people to walk in feeling like they’re in grandma’s kitchen,” Turnbough said. “Some of my greatest memories were with her. When she made biscuits, my job was always giving them a pinch of salt. When I was little, I pretty much lived at her house. She was always in the kitchen, and I remember big loaves of bread waiting to rise.”

This is Turnbough’s first run with a full-service restaurant, but she has a lot of experience with food.

“When I was a kid, we had a butcher shop and we had mobile concessions,” she said.

She also operates a business called Chef at Your Door, which makes and delivers meals to anyone who wants them.

With Grandma Zula’s, Turnbough believed there was a need for home-style cooking in the area.

“I hate going to corporate restaurants where everything tastes the same,” she said. “I want to have a place where people can have a home-cooked taste without having to cook at home.”

The restaurant makes its own bread, baked goods, pork sausage and gravy. The ham and bacon have no nitrates, and the fries are hand-cut.

“We try to make things as healthy as possible,” Turnbough said.

The breakfast menu includes biscuits and gravy ($4.95 half order; $6.75 full), steak and eggs ($9.49), chicken-fried steak and eggs with gravy ($6.99), eggs-potato-meat-bread combinations ($5.95 to $8.95) and four-egg omelets with toast and endless hash browns ($6.89 to $8.49).

Lunch includes hot, cold or grilled deli sandwiches for $7.39, fish and chips $9.39, chicken Ceasar salad $8.29 and a variety of burgers with fries from $6.49 to $7.99.

The restaurant employs nine.

Hours are 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. every day. Turnbough said the hours may be expanded to dinner later, depending on the market.

The phone number, starting Friday, will be 457-0228.

COEUR d’ALENE - Let’s give it up for aggressive consumerism.

Coeur d’Alene retailers saw jumps in turnout and sales this Black Friday, which some hope indicate an improving economy.

“The industry kind of uses it as a barometer of how the overall sales are going to be,” said Dave Harvey, president of Tri-State Outfitters.

Tri-State’s Coeur d’Alene store set an all-time record for Black Friday sales last week, Harvey said, beating its last record by 20 percent.

Usually Black Friday isn’t the store’s biggest sales day, he said.

But this year, it was.

“It really exceeded all of our expectations,” Harvey said.

The business had expected a healthy turnout because of the store’s recent addition of ski equipment, he said, though the success might also stem from more folks hunting for deals on practical items like jeans, which were among the most popular items of the day.

Harvey also gives credit to the store’s usual giveaway of free wool socks to the earliest risers.

“I think it’s an extra incentive, getting something for nothing,” he said.

Target saw close to 1,000 storm the store’s Black Friday sale, said Greg Foley, Coeur d’Alene store team leader.

“It was told that was several hundred better than previous years,” he said.

Opening at midnight played a big part in that success, Foley said.

And he wonders if individuals are starting to feel less impact from the recession.

“Customers have definitely become a lot more conscious in terms of waiting for those sales,” he said. “But at the same time, I do know for our store, it does feel we’re seeing an increase in shopping this time of year, as opposed to last year.”

Items like discounted TVs and video game systems were the most popular items on Friday, Foley said.

The gains of the sale, he added, are an obvious boon for the store.

“In retail, sales translate to payroll,” Foley said. “It’s really nice to give additional payroll to our teams with the increase in traffic.”

Big 5 Sporting Goods garnered sales just above last year’s Black Friday bonanza, said store manager Jack Cunningham.

“It was so close,” he said. “And close is a win, because last year (the day’s sales) was up big, within 20 percent.”

The store’s popularity is weather-driven, he said, so he attributes last Friday’s crowds to the snow earlier in the week.

The sale garnered more customers, he noted, but most of them made smaller purchases.

“I’d just have to go with the economy,” Cunningham offered as explanation. “I had the big items staged and ready to go, the items we normally run out of, and they just sat. But the smaller items just flew.”

Gift items like snow boots were popular, he said, while game tables were neglected.

Still, the sale was good for the store, Cunningham said.

“Black Friday is very important to the third quarter, and making the third quarter, so yeah, it’s important,” he said. “And it shows a positive kickoff to the Christmas season, which is a good thing.”

The boost in sales this Black Friday could point to more confidence in the economy, said Regional Economist Kathryn Tacke with the Idaho Department of Labor.

That could mean more growth this upcoming year, she said.

“Last year, a lot of people wanted to save, too, and they didn’t come out in quite such big numbers because they couldn’t spend the money,” Tacke said. “This is probably a good sign.”

COEUR d’ALENE - It was kind of like waiting for the ball to drop in Times Square.

Only replace the champagne with hot cocoa and granola bars, the lists of resolutions with tallies of discounted electronics, and the gleaming ball with neon retail lights.

But the energy of the crowd near midnight? The same.

As Thursday’s hours waned, hundreds lined up like human barricades outside major retail outlets in Coeur d’Alene, prepared to stampede toward Black Friday sales at the now prevalent midnight openings.

“It shocked me at first,” said Rena Gould of stores backing up sale times. “But I think it’s going to be easier. It gives me time to go to other places opening later.”

The Bayview resident and her family skipped sleep to drive to Shopko and line up two hours before the 12 a.m. sale.

A worthy sacrifice, she said, to afford Christmas gifts for a family of seven.

“One year, we saved about $400,” Gould said with a grin.

Armed with a legal pad listing the big deals, Jennifer Bickle arrived at Shopko three hours early, making her a shoe-in to save on clothes for her kids.

The Hayden woman was not seduced by the midnight openings, she said, which she deems a portent that Black Friday will soon become Black Thursday.

“I feel bad for the employees ripped away from their families on Thanksgiving to put up with people like me,” she said.

Meaning aggressive Black Friday shoppers.

“If you’re smart, don’t do it,” Bickle said. “There’s pushing, shoving. People try to take things out of your cart. It’s ruthless.”

So in case folks were wondering, earlier hours doesn’t mean less crazy.

Mobbing door-buster sales with the rest of the nation on late Thursday and early Friday, many North Idahoans scored deals on jewelry, clothes and electronics.

But first they had to suffer for it, enduring rain, wind and unhappy driving conditions.

Several had pitched tents outside Best Buy to nab the Sharp 42-inch LCD TVs for $200.

First in line at quarter to midnight was Dolan Valenzuela, 16, looking weary after camping out for over 24 hours.

“I had a job over the summer and saved up my money,” Valenzuela said, adding that he had killed time in line by napping and chatting up other obsessed shoppers. “I wanted the TV for my room.”

The rest of his day was firmly set.

“Just plugging in my TV and start playing games,” Valenzuela said.

Ronald Deucher, camping in line since 8 a.m., said he had been grateful to receive leftover turkey from a Meals on Wheels driver.

“People have been very helpful and friendly,” Deucher said. “Would I do it again? No.”

Waiting for Target’s midnight opening, Jay Myers said he was unsure the cold and the early sale hour were worth all the Christmas gift savings.

“It took me away from my Thanksgiving time with my family. Being here at 8 p.m., when I would usually be with family,” Myers said. “But it was my choice. No one put a gun to my head.”

Kim and Richard Frymire, veteran Black Friday shoppers, agreed it was much easier to stay up late than get up at 3 a.m. to procure a new TV.

“We’re probably going to get what we came for,” Kim said, noting their place at the front of the line. “There’s no guarantee when you’re in the back.”

The same applied at Kohls, where throngs waited for the doors to open at midnight.

Sheila Oetting, who arrived an hour early with her shopping partner, Kelli Shanholtz, said they planned to bulk up on items for a needy family that her own had recently adopted.

“That’s the whole reason we’re out here,” Oetting said. “We’re hoping to get lots of blankets.”

An hour before Fred Meyer’s 5 a.m. sale, many customers remained in their cars as the wind howled.

But Cody Edwards and Levi Berezay stood stoically outside the store doors, sans jackets.

What’s a little suffering, to obtain an Xbox 360 for half price at $200?

“I may be wearing shorts, but I’m determined to get what I want,” said Berezay, 20, who drove from Spokane to get the best price on the game system.

Edwards, also from Spokane, found that running three miles around the parking lot had warmed him enough.

“About 40 minutes left!” the 18-year-old announced, watching employees walk around inside.

The spoils of their mission wouldn’t be enjoyed until later, Berezay said, adding that he had to go to work in a few hours.

Edwards had other plans, too.

“I’m definitely saying sleep,” he said.

NEW YORK - Retailers awaiting the arrival of Black Friday are on the edge. How well they do during the biggest shopping season of the year will have lasting consequences not just on them, but the still-fragile economic recovery.

This weekend, many stores will for the first time use midnight openings along with the usual bevy of deals as they try to lure consumers, whose appetite for good-buys has been increasing since the Great Recession.

Economists and business executives will be watching closely.

“A bad holiday season would raise recession fears again, whereas a strong one would start to dispel those fears,” said Scott Hoyt, senior director of consumer economics for Moody’s Analytics.

That would give companies more impetus to step up hiring, he added.

As usual, success will depend largely on consumer spending, which accounts for about 70 percent of U.S. economic activity. Their spending can impact stores’ expansion plans and inventory decisions into the new year.

And that trickles through the rest of the economy, from suppliers to jobs.

The November-December period accounts for 25-40 percent of annual sales. For 2011, that’s almost half a trillion dollars in revenue from spending on everything from tablets to toys. About a quarter of jobs in the U.S. are directly or indirectly supported by the retail industry.

As the critical sales time begins, economists and merchants are wondering whether shoppers will stick to their lists or pick up some extras for themselves not only on Black Friday but over the rest of the season.

Or will shoppers do what they’ve been doing for several years now – jump on the deals and retreat until the season’s final days when they think the bargains will be better? And how much discounting will be necessary to draw them in?

Just as in the past few years, merchants have tried discounts on holiday merchandise as early as October.

And those 4 a.m. openings on Black Friday are now outdated. The new trend is midnight openings, with many stores like Target, Best Buy and Kohl’s embracing them as they try to be the first to pull in shoppers.

Given this year’s challenging environment, online jewelry site Blue Nile is making a bigger push in marketing, launching its first online sale on Black Friday to snag more female customers.

“It’s going to be competitive. I want to get our brand out there in the mix,” said CEO Vijay Talwar, who estimates that 30-35 percent of annual sales come from the November and December period.

Earlier openings and a dramatic increase in early morning specials have helped make the day after Thanksgiving the biggest day of the year for the past six years in a row.

It’s predicted to keep that crown again this year, according to ShopperTrak, a research firm.

Just because stores have a decent start doesn’t mean the overall holiday period will be good. Merchants had a good Black Friday in 2008, as shoppers showed up for the enticing deals, but the season was a bust.

The impact of that period still lingers, from shrunken orders to the demise of some suppliers, experts say.

That was when spending plunged so much that many retailers were caught with too much product in the pipeline. As a result, they slashed prices up to 80 percent to draw shoppers and raise cash.

Even Saks Fifth Avenue had a fire sale of designer clothes. Others sold jewelry and clothing to liquidators for pennies on the dollar. Some, such as Circuit City, went out of business. And the woes still linger.

Retail hiring for the season hasn’t rebounded to its 2005 pre-recession peak of 642,000 workers, according to the National Retail Federation, the nation’s largest trade group. About 480,000 to 500,000 workers are expected to be hired this season, about even with the 496,000 workers hired in 2010. However, the 2011 forecast is still well above the recessionary low of 239,000 in 2008, according to the trade group.

Stores, scared they’ll be stuck again with too much holiday leftovers, have also kept their inventories lean. And they’re still being forced to push big discounts as shoppers contend with a 9 percent jobless rate and gloomy confidence.

The NRF expects total holiday sales to be up 2.8 percent to $465.6 billion, less than the 5.2 percent increase a year ago but slightly more than the 2.6 percent average increase over the past decade.

Among those watching nervously is Pamela Kebe, a partner at Piccolo Piggies of Georgetown, an upscale children’s clothing store in Washington, D.C., that derives 40 percent of its annual sales from November and December.

Her business is down from 40-50 percent from its 2007 peak. At one point, she liked the challenge of getting shoppers with discounts. But it’s not fun anymore.

Kebe said if she doesn’t have a good holiday season, she’ll have to cut inventory for next year and work with vendors to negotiate more flexible payment terms.

“I am very nervous,” she said. “This is the first time I feel like that.”

Anne D’Innocenzio can be reached at http://twitter.com/ADInnocenzio.

COEUR d’ALENE - Three dentists are better than one.

Especially when they’ve known each other for years, respect one another and happen to have a modern facility with the latest technology and a terrific staff.

The eight-person North Idaho Dental Group was created this summer when Dr. Ben Gates welcomed to the practice Dr. Jim Landers and Dr. Paige Landers. Jim Landers is Paige’s father in law, and Ben and Paige have known each other since childhood.

The facility is state-of-the-art and beautifully appointed, designed to make patients feel as comfortable as possible.

But don’t let that scare you.

“I had built a practice which for whatever reason, mostly my location, had the public perceiving it as exclusive or expensive,” said Dr. Gates, who grew up in the Coeur d’Alene area and has been practicing dentistry since 1998. “That’s not the case at all. We’re accessible to our community and we do everything.”

“Everything” includes keeping costs affordable despite offering top service with superior technology and expert care – especially when the lingering effects of the recession haven’t lost their impact on patients.

Dr. Jim Landers, a Coeur d’Alene dentist for more than 35 years, said the rationale behind taking care of your teeth isn’t much different than properly maintaining your car.

“People say ‘I can’t afford it now,” he said.

He begs to differ.

Dr. Landers explained that filling a cavity costs about $150 – not chump change for most people, but a sound investment compared to the alternative.

“If they don’t get the filling,” he said, “that cavity turns into a root canal at $800 or $900,” he said. The root canal is followed by a post and a crown, bringing the total cost of a neglected $150 cavity to about $3,000.

“And the thing is, that filling is the best treatment for the cavity,” he said. “If you wait, you pay so much more for a lesser result.”

Dr. Paige Landers, who graduated from dental school in 2008, said that for those who haven’t seen a dentist in some time, a good starting point is to simply make an appointment for a check-up to get teeth examined and cleaned.

Dr. Gates said North Idaho Dental Group serves young children, the elderly and everyone in between – in other words, entire families.

He explained that opening five days a week and being available 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. has helped make the practice more accessible to patients. Further, he said, the staff at North Idaho Dental Group works hard to help patients understand their treatment and insurance options.

“With good communication we can use benefits plans to assist in achieving good care and dental health for our patients,” he said.

Scrud’s Gourmet Grub cafe to open soon

Perhaps the strange variety of words, the menu and special decor will attract a variety of customers as Scrud’s Gourmet Grub cafe opens soon at 206 N. Fourth St., Coeur d’Alene.

Using his teenage nickname Scrud, Brett Lyman and his wife, Emily, will specialize in stuffed burgers that can include cheese, bacon and an onion-mushroom-garlic sauce. They’ll also have hot wings, fresh-cut fries and desserts that include fried zingers and blueberry creamcheese-topped coconut cream pie (called a Sicka Pie). They’ll also have waiver-required five-pound stuffed burgers and hot wings.

Seating 38 customers at tables, booths and the counter, the theme combines baseball, vintage sodas and ’50s and ’60s music. Hours will be 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday. With five employees, they’ll also offer take-outs and limited catering.

The Lymans came through Cd’A on a vacation from Mountain View, Wyo., and decided to bring their restaurant business here. Phone 667-6000.

Bakery opens in Athol

Grandma Louise’s sticky cinnamon rolls with raisins and walnuts are the hit of the new Knead n’ Dough Bakery in the little white house with the green roof at 5787 W. Highway 54 in Athol.

Other items include cookies, doughnuts, muffins, cupcakes, pies, homemade soups and sandwiches. Holiday orders can include fruit pies and pumpkin cheesecake.

Owners are the mother-daughter team of Louise Voves and Gwen Bakie, who 15 years ago had their bakery in Spirit Lake.

“Our mom could bake anything with very little,” Gwen said. “Her homemade items were well known. One of her secrets is using potato water.”

Hours are 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays and 9 to 3 Saturdays. Phone 683-9051.

Cd’A Dog Co. in Harbor Plaza

Pet supplies and Invisible Fence are at Coeur d’Alene Dog Co. in Unit 114 of Harbor Plaza at Northwest Boulevard and Hubbard Avenue. The store primarily has dog items, pet doors, high quality food and treats, toys, bark control, remote trainers, harnesses, leads and Invisible Fence pet containment.

Owners Steve and Catherine Van Keirsbulck had a similar business in Atlanta and came to North Idaho in 2008.

“I’ve learned that pro-active responsible pet ownership is the way to go, and our store is geared behind that concept,” Steve said. “We also can find items and get them here for you.”

Hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays and eventually Saturdays. Phone 664-9111. Check www.cdadogco.com.

Vivid Tattoo & Art opens nearby

Idaho natives Cody Reisenauer and Paige DeMers offer tattoos, piercings, portraits, paintings and Lucid Tree Design custom jewelry at the new Vivid Tattoo & Art Studio in Unit 106 of Harbor Plaza.

“Our main goal is to support the art community and show that we’re a clean and classy establishment that caters to all ages – not your usual tattoo shop,” Cody said.

Hours are 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. Phone 457-2563.

Tackle these torrid tidbits

• Close to Harbor Plaza mentioned above, Phase 2 of road construction for the new Education Corridor will include a traffic light at Northwest Boulevard and River Avenue now that North Idaho College purchased the former Robin Hood Campground and neighboring Burlington Northern property. NIC enrollment has grown 45 percent in four years.

• On up Northwest Boulevard, new news for Riverstone should be in this space next week.

• And we’re checking out news from a spy that a formerly “for sale” restaurant in downtown Cd’A has a new owner and plan.

• While in the Southeast last week, we bought gas for $3.15 in South Carolina. More notes on that trip later.

• News-style note: Avoid double prepositions such as “at around” and “off of.” Just one of those words works.

• Contact Nils Rosdahl at nrosdahl@cdapress.com.

The Hedmans have been busy lately.

Really, they’re busy all the time.

Marla is occupied with running the family’s two stores in Silver Lake Mall. She and her daughter, Ellisa, make the business’ baked goods from scratch, her son, Larch, whips up jams and barbecue sauce from their secret recipes, and her youngest, Clancy, helps sell their tasty products.

Even her husband, Al, pieces together gift boxes.

“It’s a way of life for us. That’s all we do,” Marla said. “Most of us work seven days a week.”

It’s worth it to provide a quality product, she said. The Hedmans offer homemade, organic desserts, jams, and sundry other goodies, often featuring the region’s popular purple berry.

The family sells gift products at Elle’s Northwest, and also runs a cafe, Huckleberry Thicket, serving up espresso, desserts, soup and sandwiches.

Products have low or no sugar content, are never made from mixes, and boast a long list of natural ingredients, Marla said.

Even the bread for sandwiches is, you guessed it, made from scratch.

“We’re all-natural and organic,” Marla said. “We have a goal to serve foods that are good for you.”

But since the Montana natives opened the shops in Coeur d’Alene this July, word hasn’t spread as fast as the family would prefer.

“It’s not as busy as we’d want it to be,” Marla said.

So to help promote the store and the family’s vision, the Hedmans are throwing a grand opening this weekend that will allow folks to sample enough products to add huckleberry as a new food group.

On Saturday and Sunday, visitors can indulge in free treats like little smokies, ice cream, pie, brownies, pumpkin rolls and cookies. Folks can sign up for prizes, and can choose from 15 kinds of jams to dress up free pancakes. There will be free espresso or fresh brewed coffee.

“We would do an open house where we come from every year, and had a lot of fun,” Marla said, adding that the business relocated when sales slowed down in Montana. “It will be that way.”

Fun has been the priority since the family business, Larchwood Farms, began in 1986, she said.

She started the company with the intention of running it at home in Trout Creek, Mont., she said, to spend time with her children.

“They started helping me when they were just little kids, when they could barely pack a jar,” she said.

At fairs and shows, she let the kids take money, but only when they turned 8.

“They couldn’t wait to be 8, just to take the money,” she said with a laugh. “When they figured out how to do it, they wanted to move on to something else.”

Operating a family business is ideal, she added.

Her children are her best friends, she said.

“We all get along really well, and it’s nice to be able to see them every day,” she said.

She recommended folks stop by to order pies, rolls and buns for the holidays.

Their products are good options for any day, she added. That’s why she isn’t worried about owning a business in a challenging economy.

“I think people are going back to the simple pleasures,” she said. “They can’t afford a big trip, but they can still afford jam.”