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Local protest of Bank of America held
Justin Stormogipson hoists a sign in protest of Bank of America mortgage practices Wednesday in front of the Post Falls branch.
POST FALLS – Jess Sifford said it’s the blue collar working class, not corporate America and CEOs, that could use some breaks and bailouts.
That’s why the Post Falls man was among 13 who participated in a protest along Seltice Way at the Post Falls branch of Bank of America on Wednesday night due to the corporation’s alleged handling of foreclosures and other practices. The protest was part of a nationwide rally organized by MoveOn.org.
“Bank of America is the least likely to help out with the mortgage crisis,” said Sifford, adding that he’s not a MoveOn.org member but a concerned citizen. “We need a bailout, not big corporations.”
The assistant manager of the Post Falls Bank of America referred a call seeking comment to company spokeswoman Britney Sheehan, who declined to comment on the protest.
“We respect people’s right to protest,” Sheehan said of the company’s reason for not commenting.
Sifford said the Post Falls branch was chosen as the protest site simply because it’s centrally located in the region.
“This is a bi-partisan movement and our intent is to not harm this branch,” Sifford said. “But we still want to get our message across to the corporate level.”
Sifford said he recently tried to modify his home loan with Bank of America, but “was run through the ringer.”
“This is a good time for me to say, ‘Enough is enough,’” he said. “It’s near and dear to me.”
Groups organizing the protests call themselves “99 Percent Power,” meaning they represent the lower- and middle classes and not the wealthy.
“There’s a disappearance of the middle class, jobs are being shipped overseas and a lot of people are only making minimum wage,” said Post Falls’ Terry Sherven, a protester. “If that’s our future, then welcome to Third World America.”
Some protests of the bank’s handling of foreclosures, its investments in payday lenders and investments in the coal industry were less peaceful elsewhere.
Four people were arrested Wednesday as they tried to force their way into the annual shareholders’ meeting in Charlotte, N.C. Police used a new ordinance to declare the gathering an extraordinary event subject to special restrictions.
Hundreds of people gathered on the streets as dozens of police officers worked to contain the protest.
On stage, CEO Brian Moynihan’s attempts at sidestepping hard questions or deflecting answers were met with loud jeers. Attendees shouted “amen” after anti-Bank of America statements were made by other shareholders.
At least 20 shareholders spoke at the meeting. Almost all disapproved of various Bank of America practices.
Moynihan said the bank has about 50,000 people dedicated to working with troubled homeowners and has modified more than 1 million loans, but some borrowers say the company doesn’t call back or has lost documents.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Silverwood gamble pays off
Visitors to Silverwood Theme Park race down a "flume" on a log ride as the Corkscrew roller coasters overlooks the ride in the background.
COEUR d’ALENE – Not even Gary Norton knew what the river card would be, but that didn’t stop the entrepreneur from going all in.
That was in 1988, and the self-made businessman turned Silverwood founder was around $1 million in the red after his first season operating the amusement park he had just built.
“We didn’t really know what we were getting into,” said Norton, guest speaker at the Coeur d’Alene Chamber of Commerce’s Upbeat Breakfast on Tuesday. “That was the crazy part.”
Especially since Silverwood started on a whim, in remote North Idaho.
Actually, it started from a collection of antique trains and planes Norton started purchasing after he had sold his business, ISC.
But after one season in the new venture, it was either time to fold “or just go all in,” he said.
Norton went all in.
Twenty-five years later, and Silverwood keeps adding attractions. It has paid $86 million in local payroll and payroll taxes on its way to contributing $1 billion in economic impact across the region. Not bad for the park that has grown into the largest amusement playland in the Pacific Northwest.
Unsurprisingly, North Idaho has developed into a top tourism destination of its own right during that time, said Jerry Jaeger, Hagadone Hospitality president.
The Coeur d’Alene Resort, owned by Hagadone Hospitality, opened around a year before Silverwood did and together the two top-end destinations have helped turn tourism into a thriving industry in North Idaho.
For their part, Norton and Jaeger were awarded the inaugural Kyle M. Walker Champions of Tourism Award by the chamber and visitors bureau. Tuesday’s presentation was also in recognition of National Tourism Week this week.
“Hopefully, we’ll keep this thing growing and get a lot more smiles out there,” Norton said of staying committed to the family-friendly destination.
Norton’s business model is based on two things: Exceeding expectations and attention to details. It can be as simple as loading up a single serve ice cream cone to statue sized proportions as an example of the former, and the lush, landscaped gardens on the grounds as proof of the latter.
“We’re trying to build more than just a park with rides but a real park you can enjoy,” he said.
As tourism continues to play a huge role in the region’s economy, Norton isn’t satisfied with just letting things be. Like The Resort, which recently underwent a huge renovation for its silver anniversary, Silverwood keeps improving. This year, the entrance to the park will be all new. This, after turning the once-summer-only spot into a terrifying haunted house every autumn. Tourism, like any business, is a “painting you keep working on,” he said.
The Kyle Walker award was named after Walker, known as ‘Mr. Coeur d’Alene,’ who served as the chamber manager from 1948 to 1971.
Buy Idaho!
Buy Idaho executive director Sandy Anderson (left) and director of membership services Barbara Dorsey.
Buy Idaho.
Seriously. Because when you do, you’re buying a better future for yourself, your colleagues, your community, your kids.
That’s part of the gospel according to Sandy Anderson. She’s executive director of Buy Idaho, a Boise-based nonprofit that’s mostly soared under North Idaho’s radar for the past quarter century. Anderson is eager to put her organization to work for North Idaho, and she spent several days here in mid-March to make that point.
“I had some great conversations, especially with the three chambers,” Anderson said of her outreach meetings with chamber of commerce leaders from Post Falls, Coeur d’Alene and Wallace. “I was a little disheartened that we aren’t well known up north.”
Through networking, cross-promoting, trade shows and other methods, Buy Idaho has been pushing its members’ services and products since its 1986 inception. Anderson, whose focus has been growing membership since she took the executive director’s helm last October, points out that Buy Idaho has membership programs for businesses and associations of every size and flavor. Membership costs — go to http://buyidaho.org/joinbuyidaho.htm or call (800) 743-9549 — are based on the business’s annual revenue.
Members learn pretty quickly that there’s value in Buy Idaho.
“We do a lot with smaller businesses that need our help in networking and getting word out,” Anderson said. For instance, she talked about the success of one of Buy Idaho’s most devout members, Sandee’s Candee’s — creator of
Buy Idaho offers displays like this one for members at its Boise headquarters.
“Spud Fudge” and other specialty products that taste a whole lot better than they might sound.
“She’s been with us for 23 of the 25 years we’ve been in existence,” Anderson said of the Salmon-based business. “That marketing really got her into a lot of stores and specialty shops.”
The trademarked Spud Fudge, by the way, is a creamy fudge that uses potatoes to replace a third of the sugar normally found in fudge.
A little closer to home, the Coeur d’Alene Casino is a Buy Idaho member, and so is Wild West Log Furniture in Coeur d’Alene.
“It’s a great program — we’ve used their logo in our ads in The Press,” said Carol Folda, who owns Wild West Log Furniture with her husband, Clay. “We joined because we’re trying to promote ‘American made’ and buying local.”
Having been members for a year, Carol said she and Clay aren’t certain how much that membership specifically has helped them.
“It’s hard to track how much business comes directly from that,” she said.
To boost businesses’ exposure, Buy Idaho has a showroom in Boise that attracts nearby conventioneers. The showroom is packed with booths and displays from members who not only can make business-to-business connections, but can help drive tourism throughout the state, Anderson said.
Trade shows take place statewide, and as recently as last February, the Capitol rotunda in Boise hosted over 100 Buy Idaho members who had tables displaying their wares. The location not only helped all those businesses network, Anderson said — in many cases, government officials became aware of products and services that government could either purchase or help network further around the state.
Legislators and lobbyists were among the captive Buy Idaho audience in February at the Capitol rotunda in Boise.
“We’re about promoting Idaho businesses,” Anderson said, with Buy Idaho’s focus on helping businesses sell products and services in state and nationally, but not internationally. “When you do that you create jobs, you reinvest in the state — you keep dollars here versus across state lines, which I know is important to people in areas like yours.”
Check it out
buyidaho.org
(208) 343-2582
(800) 743-9549
‘Retain and nurture’
Recruitment is key to economic development, but you live — and die — with the companies that are already here
It takes three years to recruit a company to North Idaho.
That’s what Steve Griffitts says, and he should know. Since August 2003, Griffitts has directed Jobs Plus, Inc., the region’s public-private economic development agency, bringing dozens of companies, hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars in payroll and property taxes along the way.
So it takes roughly three years to land a company. But to lose one? That can happen seemingly overnight. When the threat looms, Griffitts quickly rallies an army to his side and together, they do whatever they can to restore order on the region’s economic battle front. They know that sometimes, a solid defense is even more important than a good offense.
•••
There are bags under Griffitts’ eyes and his normally exuberant stride lacks a little bit of its typical horsepower. He has not just returned from a far-flung recruiting trip; he has capped what annually is a most intense and draining month or more, doing his real job while preparing for the Jobs Plus annual luncheon, and he is alone in the office the day after his meeting went off without a hitch.
Griffitts and Hilde Shetler — the only two Jobs Plus employees — put in seven-day weeks getting ready. Shetler is, Jobs Plus watchers know, a dynamo in her own right. The same can be said for Griffitts, who has won broad support through hard work and his humble, never-a-negative-word, ultra-consistent demeanor.
Consistency took a small but meaningful twist this year, however. For the first time in his nine years at the Jobs Plus helm, Griffitts’ presentation reflected an important but perhaps little noticed shift. Bullet points in the slide titled
In his office, Griffitts weighs the importance of recruiting new businesses and retaining existing ones.
“Jobs Plus — Strategy” were flip-flopped from previous years. This time the second item stated:
• Recruiting companies to our area that sell on a national or international basis, are not location dependent, offer strong wages and benefits and are respectful of our environmental concerns.
Top billing on the slide read:
• Retaining quality companies already operating in Kootenai County.
“It’s never been first,” Griffitts acknowledged of retention’s unprecedented promotion. “None of my recruitment numbers reflect that and never will. We’ll only show new stuff.”
But that doesn’t mean the old stuff — the existing Kootenai County businesses who may or may not have been recruited by Jobs Plus — is junk. In fact, according to Griffitts and others, recent history has reminded many of the importance of taking care of what they’ve already got.
“We were taught a good lesson by this recent, humbling recession,” said Roger Madsen, the state’s Labor Department director and bonafide Steve Griffitts fan.
During an NIBJ phone interview from Boise, Madsen recalled the USA Today front-page story in 2007 that proclaimed Idaho’s economy No. 1 in the nation.
“We were booming,” he said, noting that in North Idaho in particular, construction was fueling the economic frenzy. But when the recession crushed construction and sucked the wind out of Idaho’s economic sails, “You guys got hit really hard,” Madsen said. “And now you’re coming back. There’s a tremendous synergy up there.”
Shetler is the anchor that keeps Griffitts and Jobs Plus from ever floating far from their mission.
Madsen credits Griffitts, Hilde Shetler, the Jobs Plus board and local elected officials like mayors Sandi Bloem of Coeur d’Alene and Clay Larkin of Post Falls with creating much of that synergy. He said all of them understand the critical need to “retain and nurture the small businesses you already have.”
Madsen used a military analogy to explain the importance of that retention.
“It makes complete sense to me that you protect your base and expand your base,” he said. “I think that’s applicable to economic development, too.”
He also said that even if this is the first time retention headed the Jobs Plus strategic plan, it certainly wasn’t the first time the agencies joined forces to keep a great local company from going elsewhere. Back in November 2003, when both men were new to their jobs — Griffitts had been with Jobs Plus just a few months and Madsen, Labor’s leader since 1995, had just been appointed to oversee Commerce — fate brought the two together. And it was no small deal, either. Their mission was to try to save an empire.
•••
As president of Empire Airlines, Tim Komberec didn’t want to abandon the Idaho roots that went clear back to 1977. But Spokane International Airport desperately wanted Empire, its renowned air delivery services and its 50 high-paying jobs, and bluntly, Coeur d’Alene didn’t have the facilities or the infrastructure Komberec needed.
“I felt that there were no options here,” Komberec said. But Coeur d’Alene Airport manager Greg Delavan convinced Komberec to at least see what Idaho could do.
“It escalated from there,” Komberec said. “I just couldn’t believe the energy behind what started as a simple conversation about possibly staying in Coeur d’Alene.”
Jobs Plus, Panhandle Area Council, officials from Labor and Commerce, even the Idaho governor and lieutenant governor formed a full-court press to address whatever bureaucratic barriers might stand in the way of Empire Airlines continuing to call Coeur d’Alene home. The tug of war between Spokane and Coeur d’Alene finally culminated in both sides submitting written proposals for Komberec and his board of directors to consider.
“The two proposals on paper really weren’t very far apart,” Komberec said.
Spokane’s proposal contained “some nebulous things,” he said, but had a big advantage in being closer to Empire’s customer base.
Idaho’s packed a punch because, Komberec said, in true Idaho fashion they didn’t mess around.
“They basically tied it down and said, ‘This is what we’ll do.’
“To a man the board said, ‘We trust Idaho, so let’s stay here.’
“Jobs Plus was the catalyst. We had 50 jobs then and just under 200 in Coeur d’Alene now, so I think it’s worked out well for everybody.”
“That was the first success we had,” Madsen recalled fondly of working side by side with Griffitts to help Empire Airlines stay where it belonged, where it would flourish. And of Griffitts he added, “There couldn’t be anyone anywhere in the country that’s better than him.”
•••
That was retention then. The battles are still waged now.
Without naming names, Steve Griffitts talks about two local companies that recently encountered difficulties here and/or opportunities elsewhere that could have led to the loss of hundreds of good jobs. The problems with both stemmed from “regulations and [lack of] common sense,” he said, adding that the companies “aren’t trying to usurp anything. They’re just trying to figure out what to do, and do it.”
One of the problems involved a federal agency that erroneously “demanded a much different type of water treatment that was not necessary,” Griffitts said. Out stretched the long arm of Jobs Plus.
On a recruiting trip out of state, Griffitts explained the situation to an old church friend who served as a consultant to the federal agency. The consultant agreed that a simple but important mistake had been made, and in time, the agency’s demand was dropped and a strong local company was saved.
The other company was the target of a fierce recruiting effort from another state. Again, diligent, behind-the-scenes efforts — focused largely on much stronger communication locally — carried the day, Griffitts said.
“Others are coming here to steal our companies,” he acknowledged. The diplomat mulled those words and rephrased: “Some of our companies are experiencing courtships,” he said, “but I’m usually the one who is doing the courting.”
•••
Recruit and retain, retain and recruit: Striking a balance seems to be the key.
Estimating that in the recession’s aftermath he’s spending roughly half his time on each side of that equation, Griffitts said one of the many benefits of retention is holding down costs in Jobs Plus’s already low budget of about $300,000 a year — amazingly, the same as it’s been since the agency opened its doors 25 years ago.
“It sure is cheaper to save companies than it is to go get new ones,” he said. “I sleep in my house and I don’t get on airplanes.”
On the flip side, Griffitts said his goal is “to continue to keep my pipeline as full as possible” by following up leads, cold-calling prospects and so on. “It still takes three years for me to bring a new company here. And once they’re here, we all need to help companies be the best they can be.”
Madsen and his North Idaho staff play a huge role in that, Griffitts said.
“They’re a great partner in helping companies with workforce development training funds, among other things,” he said. “Roger Madsen and Ricia Lasso, they have been amazing partners — responsive and proactive.”
Local partners in both the private and public sectors are also critical to economic development successes. As part of the push for strong retention, Jobs Plus is encouraging the area’s top public officials to communicate directly with local businesses in their communities, make sure everything’s OK and address potential troubles before they become unmanageable.
The retention message has really resonated with the officials.
“It’s urgent,” said Coeur d’Alene Mayor Sandi Bloem, who has frequently worked directly with Griffitts not just to attract new businesses to the region, but to address important issues that arise with existing ones. Bloem, who owns the downtown jewelry store Johannes & Co., said a business analogy applies to the retention model.
“We know that it’s less expensive and probably more productive to maintain a good customer than it is to try to get a new one,” she said.
Bloem, who was instrumental in attracting the Kroc Community Center and its employment power to Coeur d’Alene, also emphasized the importance of teamwork.
“Do we have a good tax base and do we work hard to keep that?” she asked. “I think Steve Griffitts and Jobs Plus certainly do.”
Those who follow the tireless recruitment efforts of Post Falls Mayor Clay Larkin suspect he’s got economic development in his DNA. But he clearly sees need for improvement.
“Unfortunately, all of us take the businesses here for granted, and I’m guilty of that, too,” he said. That’s why he and City Manager Eric Keck have made it “a personal mission” to visit local businesses. In fact, Larkin was interviewed for this story on April 12 just after he’d stopped by Overhead Door Co. in Post Falls, a strong local company that he said has grown and improved their site significantly.
“I just wanted to stop by, give them my card and say, ‘We appreciate you, we respect you and we’re happy to have you here,” he said.
Like Madsen and many others, Larkin is a raving Steve Griffitts fan.
“I was on the Jobs Plus board when we hired Steve,” he said. “I’m even more grateful today than I was then when we hired him.”
Larkin invoked a saying heard often by Griffitts’ predecessor, Bob Potter.
“Every once in awhile a bluebird lands on your shoulder,” Larkin quoted. “Steve was the bluebird that landed on Jobs Plus’s shoulder that day.”
Komberec, the leader of Empire Airlines and Empire Aerospace, now serves on the Jobs Plus board and has witnessed from new perspectives the importance of recruitment and retention.
“Understand, we need both,” he said, “but our best and brightest opportunities are already here.” Komberec walked through all the good that comes from strong local businesses getting stronger: More jobs, higher pay, better benefits, and powerful infusions of property tax dollars that help keep residential property taxes lower and public entities healthy.
The flipside? Stark contrast. When a company moves away, he said, jobs are lost; the company generally takes some employees with it while others stay here but are unemployed. Kids are uprooted from schools, neighborhoods and friends. The housing market can be hurt and the overall economic trickle effect can be devastating.
One of the region’s greatest retention success stories, Komberec insists recruitment is vital. But he also puts its peril into perspective.
“It’s better to build on a current known producer,” he said, “than bet everything on someone maybe moving in.”
Still in demand
Michael Beaver browses the magazine racks recently at Hastings in Coeur d'Alene. "Since Borders went out of business, this is the only place left where I can find a lot of the western art magazines I read."
It is a weekday afternoon, and Joan Clary is pushing her cart through the aisle of the Coeur d’Alene Hastings.
She has been perusing the books, new and used.
“I love bargain books here,” she said.
On this day, she plans on buying a single book that sits in that cart. “The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business,” by Charles Duhigg.
“This guy was just on Charlie Rose the other night,” Clary says.
The retired professor at Gonzaga University visits the Best Avenue store often. She finds it open and inviting, the staff cordial and friendly. She believes it’s how they’ve built up a steady clientele.
“If I can’t find a book, they’ll try their damnedest to find it for me,” she said. “They really do.”
Clary, an educator for 61 years, says she always gives books as gifts. She’s not a fan of the Kindle and other tablets.
“I’m never going to get one of those because I’ve got a house full of stuff I’ve got to read first,” she said, smiling as she headed toward the checkout counters.
As Clary departed, Hastings remained busy with a steady stream of customers meandering in, milling about, scanning book titles and looking over games. Others are flipping through music CDs, considering which movie to buy or rent for the night or sitting down for a coffee and glancing through a magazine.
Hastings is doing well. It is succeeding in a field where others have failed.
Consider: Print books are losing market share to ebooks to a point that Borders went under last year and the final chapters are being written on book stores in general. DVD store rentals are taking a beating from Redbox and Netflix, and downloading music and burning CDs is cutting in on sales of the hard copies.
Yet, Hastings holds its own.
“It’s not really a secret,” says manager Jason Blodgett as he sits down in the cafe.
He uses two words: Change and adaptability.
“We have a variety of mix to our products,” Blodgett says. “As things kind of decline, we embrace change and grab on to the next big thing.”
A few highlights come to mind.
Nationwide, he notes that print book sales have been declining, so Hastings stepped into the digital realm with ereaders, and launched a Hastings app to download books.
Industry-wise, Hastings was the first to start buying back CDs and selling used product.
“It’s about change,” he said. “It’s about seeing what’s coming up and really going for it.”
Blodgett oversees about 50 employees at the Hastings store, where he has worked for nine months. He came over from a Spokane store, after a year there.
“I’ve always loved Hastings, ever since I was a little boy,” he said.
Growing up in the Spokane Valley, Blodgett shopped at Hastings. He worked at Hollywood Video for about 10 years before it went under about two years ago.
Next stop, Hastings.
“It’s the place to be,” he said.
It has survived the economic downturn, he believes, because it offers thrift and value, “a great value proposition.”
It’s great for buying new and used, and to “recycle your entertainment.” Hastings strives to provide options for customers, Blodgett said.
“People want to feel they are getting a good deal.”
“It creates that loyalty,” he added.
Hastings Entertainment
Hastings Entertainment is a national company that operates about 150 stores, and has more than 5,000 employees, primarily in the Midwestern and western U.S., according to answers.com.
Stores average around 25,000 square feet and usually feature plenty of chairs for reading, listening to music and drinking coffee, and a children’s areas with books, games and space to play.
“It is a fun store to walk in,” Blodgett said.
It also sells posters, novelty items, collectible cards, music instruments, comic books, games, some sports merchandise, figurines and models of popular characters like Wolverine, Green Lantern and Batman.
According to answers.com, Hastings recently posted annual sales of more than $500 million.
Despite being part of a corporation, Hastings’ stores have a local feel, Blodgett said. The Coeur d’Alene Hastings opened about 20 years ago. Its No. 1 seller remains books, followed by music CDs, electronics, boutique novelty items and then video.
Blodgett said Hastings can compete with Redbox and Netflix.
“With Redbox, they only carry a certain amount of movies in that little box, where we have 7,000 of the favorite movies and 3,000 to 4,000 of the new releases. So if you go to Redbox, there’s three things that could happen. They could have the movie you want, they might not, or you get the movie and it doesn’t work.”
Hastings also carries DVD series of shows that have aired on networks and cable.
“You aren’t going to find those at Redbox,” he said.
A customer scans the rentals offerings while walking through Hasting's new release DVD section.
Used movies are always in demand.
“These $9, $7 and $5.99 racks are extremely popular,” he said. “They need refilling constantly.”
Overall, movie sales and rentals are off simply because the movies aren’t that good, Blodgett said
“The general rule is, poor performance at the box office leads to poor performance on rental and sales,” he said.
But there are still people who will wait to rent a movie and watch it at home, rather than go to the theater and pay $10 or $11.
Hastings, he said, has selection, variety, and best of all, real people to answer questions or offer assistance.
“You don’t get that interaction at the Redbox. You just get a little description on the screen,” he said. “It’s that service and personal touch that you get here.”
When it comes to music CDs, he said Hastings is catering to those who want a physical product – “those aficionados who want to have the disc instead of the download.”
He pointed out that industry-wide, CD sales were steady last year, despite naysayers claiming their demise was near.
“This is almost getting boring to report each year – but here we are again,” wrote Andrew Orlowski, on the website, The Register. “Twelve years after sales peaked the music CD format is stubbornly refusing to die. You can shutter the dedicated record shops, hide the CDs behind fondleslabs and video games in the megastores, offer the public instant access to cheaper legal alternatives – but still people go on buying CDs.”
Hastings has embraced online sales, too. At gohastings.com, all inventory of its stores is available.
“So if you can’t find it here in the store, you can find it new or used online,” Blodgett said.
And for those who prefer the in-store experience, welcome.
“It’s that adaptability and change,” he said.
It is the last place in town where one can find a large chunk of store space committed to print products. Displays of the newest and hottest books like “The Hunger Games,” greet customers as they come in. Bargain books fill more shelf space. Used books are mixed with new throughout, offering thousands of titles. Magazines are smartly lined up next to the coffee cafe.
Richard Mills of Coeur d’Alene was quietly checking out books on the Titanic, his interest sparked by the 100th anniversary of the ship’s tragic sinking on April 15, 1912.
He said he has always enjoyed book stores. With the demise of Borders, and the decision of Barnes and Noble to not come here, this is one of the few left in this area.
Service is good, he said, and he usually finds what he’s after.
“It has a very friendly kind of vibe,” Mills said.
Sure enough, as Blodgett walks through the video games area, a customer has a question.
“Nintendo DS isn’t the same as Gameboy, is it?” she asks
“It’s not,” Blodgett answers.
“The first generation DS plays the Gameboy games inside, but the newer ones do not,” he adds.
The customer, satisfied, continues her game search.
Blodgett said the Coeur d’Alene Hastings has repeat customers who know, for instance, that Tuesdays are when new releases come out. He notes, too, they have many longtime employees. The music manager has been there seven years. The shipping manager, 14. The front end manager, 11 years.
“It’s good to have that kind of tenure, people who know what they’re doing,” he said.
He has watched families walk in, then split up. Dad heads to the books, mom to the DVDs and kids to the games.
“Then they kind of all congregate up front and check out,” he said.
Blodgett is confident in Hastings’ future.
“It’s a good value proposition,” he said. “It’s really set for success.”
Popular pies, gourmet style
Jordann Doler prepares one of the new Artisan pizzas Monday at Domino's in Coeur d'Alene.
COEUR d’ALENE – Jim Hightower likes pizza.
He really likes artisan pizza.
Good thing, since he’s Domino’s Pizza franchise co-owner in Coeur d’Alene and Hayden.
“This is not the normal, traditional pizza you’re going to order when you call and say give me a pepperoni and sausage,” he said.
Nope. This one is a little different. Gourmet pizza, they call it. It’s on the lighter side, fewer calories. More of a rectangular shape than round.
People like it.
Since it came last week, the local Domino’s have been sending the gourmet pies out the door every day. They roll in and out of the 509 degree oven every six and a half to seven minutes.
“It’s going over really good,” Hightower said Monday as he created a pizza at his Neider Avenue store.
“Our menu continues to expand and get better, because Domino’s has been listening to what consumers want,” he said. “Our customers have loved our Artisan Pizzas since the beginning, and they asked for an option with premium chicken. We are thrilled to introduce this delicious new product to our customers in North Idaho.”
During the fourth quarter of 2011, Domino’s had global retail sales of nearly $2.2 billion, comprised of $1.1 billion domestically and more than $1.1 billion internationally.
Domino’s Pizza had global retail sales of more than $6.9 billion in 2011, comprised of nearly $3.4 billion domestically and more than $3.5 billion internationally.
The latest pizza includes an inspired blend of marinara and Alfredo sauce, grilled chicken breast, smoked bacon, cheese, diced tomatoes and a dash of oregano on an artisan-style crust.
A spinach and feta artisan pizza is cut after being removed from the oven.
“We had no idea that someday Domino’s would put us in the gourmet pizza business, but today when we look at our operations and our menu, it’s astounding,” Hightower said.
This adds to the three existing Artisan Pizzas: Spinach & Feta, Tuscan Salami & Roasted Veggie and Italian Sausage & Pepper Trio.
“When my wife and co-owner Melissa and I started with Domino’s in the early 1990s, we featured fast delivery as the key to success. Our pizza back then was OK, but few of our customers ever ranted and raved about how great our pizzas were,” Hightower said.
Domino’s concentrated on making pies as fast as it could and delivering them in less than 30 minutes, which is what built its brand.
He said it’s not just the specialty pizzas that they feature on their menu, but the individual customer’s ability to build their own, that makes it great.
There are about a dozen gourmet toppings like feta cheese, roasted red peppers, sliced Italian sausage, deli-style Philly rib eye steak, fresh spinach, garlic, parmesan-asiago and provolone cheeses that can be added to any pie.
“You combine traditional toppings with 5 different kinds of crust, and any customer has a multitude of options to build a pizza that is their own custom dinner project” concluded Hightower.
Domino’s offers customers handcrafted, gourmet Domino’s Artisan Pizzas for $7.99 each, available every day.
Info: www.dominos.com.
Center Partners halts Post Falls operation
Yvonne Stewart assists a customer during a call Tuesday at Center Partners call center in Coeur d'Alene. The business recently closed its Post Falls call center and consolidated operations by moving employees to open spaces in its Coeur d'Alene and Hayden offices.
POST FALLS – Call center company Center Partners has closed its Post Falls site that opened 10 years ago.
Matt Carleton, who also manages the company’s offices in Coeur d’Alene and the Hayden area, said about 450 employees, primarily sales staff, finished up working in Post Falls on Friday and have been split to work out of the two other North Idaho centers.
He cited a slowdown in hiring as a reason for ceasing the Post Falls operation.
“We concluded our lease (in Riverbend Commerce Park in Post Falls) because … it wasn’t healthy for us as a company,” Carleton said. “It was a business decision to not renew that location. The timing was right. We had an opportunity to exit that building in a very easy way.”
Carleton said the company employs about 500 at its Liberty Lake site, which opened last year, 400 in Coeur d’Alene and 200 in the Hayden area.
“We still provide more than 1,000 jobs in the area,” Carleton said.
The company, which started in 2001, opened its Ironwood site in Coeur d’Alene in 2001 and Hayden-area location two years ago.
The Fort Collins, Colo.-based company employed about 1,300 here in 2008.
“That’s not a very large swing in that four-year period,” Carleton said. “We still have a very large footprint in the area.”
Carleton said the recent reduction in workforce was due to a slowdown in hiring after employees moved on and not layoffs.
“I don’t want that word (layoffs) to be put anywhere near us,” Carleton said. “We have not done those. It’s been all normal turnover.”
But Carleton said the company has been hurt by the economy like most others.
“We have multiple clients that are Fortune 500 companies,” Carleton said. “If their business is slower, then their demand for our service is slower. That’s where we get impacted. We’re an extension of their workforce.”
Center Partners offers customer service, sales, outreach and technical support for companies. Among its clients are the TiVo home entertainment company.
Carleton said Center Partners is hiring in “onesies and twosies” – mostly for entry-level customer service jobs that pay $9.50 an hour.
“We’re big enough that we’re doing a little hiring all the time, but we’re not hiring in large amounts,” Carleton said.
Success in the lumber industry
Brad Corkill, owner of Whiteman Lumber Company, walks past the stacks of freshly cut timber awaiting processing through the sawmill.
CATALDO — Neither rain nor snow nor a rotten economy — heck, not even a disastrous fire — could keep a good lumber business down.
The saga of Whiteman Lumber Co., stretching back four generations and countless changes in the industry, marches forward as a success story in the North Idaho business world with few peers.
Never mind that the timber industry, once a stalwart with mining atop Idaho’s economic hierarchy, has fallen on hard times that have engraved RIP on the headstones of many of its businesses and suppliers.
Not Whiteman.
Even after fire razed the mill on Jan. 5, 2009, the facility is up, running and grinding out fine wood products that look and smell an awful lot like money.
Owner Brad Corkill explained that mills producing wood products as commodities have to increase production almost daily to stay viable.
“The production level doesn’t change here; it’s the same every day,” he said during an NIBJ tour of the operation in late February. “Where we make our living is finding some new corner in the marketplace. And we’ve been pretty good at it.”
Corkill, 60, was walking past two highly efficient dehumidifying kilns as he said that. In those kilns were a couple truckloads of prime Douglas-fir timbers — some eventually headed for a new home in Kansas, and some for Gibbs Lumber in Hayden — enjoying some eight days of heat and humidity while Whiteman’s 12 full-time employees labored in 25-degree temperatures.
And nobody was complaining.
“This is more than a job — it’s a family,” said Terry Groth, the mill foreman and a fourth-generation Whiteman employee who started when Corkill bought the operation in 1988. “Everybody gets along because we have to. We’ve got to have low-key personalities and everyone has to want to work hard, and they do. I probably enjoy this crew more than any I’ve had here.”
Corkill takes good care of his mill family. New employees start at $12 an hour and can move into the $20 an hour range. But Corkill is particularly proud of Whiteman’s benefits. The company pays the entire health insurance premiums for its employees and offers a 401k program that fully vests employees on their first day of work, with 6 percent matching contributions from the company.
In retrospect, the blaze that leveled the mill proved to be a Phoenix. Rather than mourn his loss and do something else for a living, Corkill brought in modern new equipment and built a 16,000 square-foot roof over the operation.
“I can’t believe we made a living in that place,” he said of the pre-fire mill, which was down for about six and half months before rising anew. “Since it burned down and we built this one, this has got another three generations in it.”
Whiteman is thriving, Corkill says, by filling important niches in high demand.
One of those is the mining industry — like timber, one that slumped badly but has enjoyed a resurgence in recent years. A major Whiteman project now keeping two craftsmen fully occupied for two months is filling an order from Con-Sil Mine for 120 three-compartment shaft sets. But just a few yards away, the mill’s diversity is on display as a rare circle saw — frowned upon because the width of its cut is not considered efficient — rips through huge blocks of Douglas fir.
Corkill keeps the circle saw busy because customers love the rough, rustic look it gives. And despite its reputation for inefficiency, Corkill points out that the prolific sawdust pouring down from the cuts is never wasted. Some of it goes to a company that burns it to generate electricity, and some goes to a plant that uses it to make products like the one you’re holding in your hands right now.
“Everything gets used,” Corkill said.
Groth says he’s bullish on the business because of Corkill’s ingenuity and rugged persistence.
“I’m very optimistic,” Groth said. “We’ve been through it all, seen it all. When the mines weren’t there, he’d find another niche.”
The way he fills those niches is another secret to Corkill’s success.
“Here’s the difference in my mill: Every log that comes to the head rig is there for a specific product, a specific order,” Corkill said. “I’ve already sold everything before I make it. Other mills you make something and then you try to sell it.”
Quality of craftsmanship also counts.
“In most sawmills the machinery does all the work,” he said. “It’s all automated. By comparison, the production per person per hour here is small. But everybody in this operations is essential because we make so many different products.”
Corkill, a logging foreman and land buyer for Potlatch and then manager of a stud mill in St. Maries before buying Whiteman in 1988, says he still isn’t sure why he made that leap almost a quarter century ago and moved his family from St. Maries to Rose Lake.
“If my life had been about money I never would’ve bought this place,” he said. “But it’s worked out well. I could do this for another 20 years.”
Groth, who lives a couple miles down the road and also plans to stick around for a long, long time, feels the same way.
“If I left here,” he said, “it would be like leaving a piece of my home.”
Healthy forests lead to clean air
Coeur d’Alene firefighters dig a fire line on the west side of a 1/2-acre fire on Tubbs Hill. About 20 firefighters worked to contain the blaze that started near a lower trail on the east side of the hill.
There is more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than at any time in the last 400,000 years.
“That’s not in dispute,” says Dr. Jay O’Laughlin. “What is in dispute is the role of carbon dioxide emissions in affecting global warming.”
No, the good doctor isn’t going to go there. He has better things to do than step gingerly between an SUV and a Prius speeding toward a head-on collision in the ongoing global warming dispute. But he will say this:
“I think we can all agree that there are better places to store carbon dioxide than in the atmosphere.”
O’Laughlin should know.
He can see the forest for the trees.
•••
Dr. Jay O’Laughlin displays a clump of woody biomass near Post Falls.
Dr. Jay O’Laughlin is a professor of forestry and policy sciences, and since 1989, he’s been director of the Policy Analysis Group in the College of Natural Resources for the University of Idaho.
In 2010, O’Laughlin received the prestigious national SAF Award in Forest Science, which recognizes individual research leading to the advancement of forestry.
As Idaho forestry experts go, particularly when it comes to the symbiotic relationships between trees and mankind, perhaps none stands taller than O’Laughlin. His works and manifold publications focus on public land management policies, endangered species
conservation, sustainable forest management, risk analysis, water quality best management practices, and the focal point of our story today, air quality and prescribed fire emissions policies.
Remember that trees are basically 50 percent carbon, and imagine, then, the impact of carbon-belching forest fires on the atmosphere. No, don’t imagine: Consider a few of O’Laughlin’s facts.
• Each year between 2002 and 2006, forest fires in the lower 48 states emitted an average of 59 million metric tonnes of carbon as carbon dioxide, and 2 million metric tonnes as particulate matter. A metric tonne is equal to 1,000 kilograms; a kilogram weighs 2.2 pounds.
• In an average year in Idaho, carbon dioxide emissions from wildfires are the equivalent of 3.6 million cars.
• In 2006 — a bad year for Idaho forest fires — Idaho wildfire emissions were the equivalent of 6.4 million cars.
One more fact that might let you exhale:
• Because of tree growth, Idaho’s forests will offset 88 percent of all fossil fuel combustion emissions in the state in an average year.
If you added up all those numbers and concluded that healthy forests in Idaho are a good thing, Dr. O’Laughlin will give you an A and you may continue reading this story.
•••
Wildfires in 11 western states.
Forests are better off today than they were, say, 20 or 30 years ago because environmentalists, scientists and the timber industry aren’t fighting like they used to, O’Laughlin says. He estimates that eight diverse groups are piloting projects statewide that could further bring disparate interests to many of the same conclusions and practices.
“The idea of forest health is much more widely accepted now,” he said, adding something an environmentalist told him: “‘Stumps are OK but not if you can stand on them.’ The idea is, it’s OK to trim small-diameter trees.”
Further: “Active forest management can improve the situation out there on the lands. We can’t stop all forest fires, but we can reduce the size and intensity of some of them.”
Small-growth trees, shrubs and other renewable energy sources, called woody biomass, are part of the problem, O’Laughlin says. When they form dense undergrowth they become “ladder fuels” that propel fires on the ground up toward the crowns of trees. And that’s the crown of forest fire disaster.
But the woody biomass is also part of the solution, according to O’Laughlin.
“We need active management to trim those forests and reduce those ladder fuels,” he said, openly disagreeing with people who believe Mother Nature should be the sole manager of forestlands.
So what does active forest management look like? Three things, O’Laughlin said, with the added big bonus of reduced carbon emissions in the atmosphere.
Wildfire, fuels & emissions.
1. Active management improves the forest conditions and makes them more resilient to fires. Yes, fires will still happen but with active management, they won’t be as big or as severe.
2. Active management creates valuable renewable energy resources — woody biomass. From an economic perspective as well as environmental, generating and using more biomass makes sense, he says. Fossil fuels, powering vehicles and many manufacturing plants, are dirty and expensive. By comparison, biomass is abundant, cheap and, properly managed, much more clean. O’Laughlin says 2 percent of U.S. energy today comes from the combustion of wood; Idaho taxpayers save about $2 million a year because UI heats the campus by burning sawmill residue.
3. Active management creates jobs: “It puts people to work,” O’Laughlin says. Those are powerful words anytime, but considering today’s economy, it’s particularly pertinent.
O’Laughlin calls those three points “triple win,” helping virtually everybody — and everything.
Restaurant Survival 101
Recipes for success
Brix bombed.
The proprietor of Bistro on Spruce, Chris Mueller.
Las Palmitas in downtown Coeur d’Alene and Casa de Oro with its high visibility on U.S. 95? Both bit the big, bad burrito.
Post Falls mainstay Hot Rod Cafe went away.
Takara? Sayonara.
The beat goes on in the restaurant biz. Or is that the beatings?
Between appetite-killing economic downturns and, in North Idaho’s case, the cold abandonment of sorely needed visitors during the winter months, folks have bid farewell to some of their favorite eating establishments.
But spring is here and with it comes optimism — and perhaps a little more wisdom for those who have survived in an industry wholly dependent upon the unpredictable gastronomic urges of humans with disposable income and growling tummies.
How did they do it? What do they know that perhaps their competitors forgot? Is the mortality rate really that much higher for restaurants than other businesses? And how many of Jimmy’s amazing pecan rolls can a guy eat before a camera-weilding Morgan Spurlock chows down on Supersize Me, the Sequel?
•••
Let’s take the easy question first.
Three. That’s our best guess at how many pecan rolls from Jimmy’s Down the Street a guy could consume in one sitting before film and ambulance crews came crashing through the door.
Next, research suggests that restaurants don’t necessarily face a fate more grim than do most other new businesses, despite what American Express claimed in a TV commercial nine years ago: “90 percent of restaurants fail in the first year of operation.” That “fact” and a buck or so can buy you a side of frijoles.
According to a May 17, 2011, Wall Street Journal story, the federal government gave out more guaranteed loans — by far — to full-service restaurants in the first decade of the 21st century than to any other industry. The second greatest beneficiary? Limited-service restaurants. The article suggests that restaurants get the biggest slices of the pie because there are so darn many of them. But back to that basic premise of an astronomical failure rate: Is it true?
“To be sure, plenty of restaurants shutter every year,” the article says. “But research seems to indicate that the number of closings isn’t stratospheric. Establishments in the leisure and hospitality sector have survival rates that are on par with other industries, according to a 2005 study from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.”
And of the 1,128 industries receiving SBA loans between Oct. 1, 2000, and Sept. 30, 2010, only 4.4 percent of full-service restaurant SBA loans were written off as a loss. By comparison, women’s clothing stores were written off at a 12 percent rate.
But those are just appetizers. Let’s get to the main meal.
•••
Jerry Jaeger, president of Hagadone Hospitality, discusses the remodel and new amenities that were added to Whispers to make it a focal point for visitors.
What you want is a stool.
What you don’t want is a fool.
That’s how Jerald J. Jaeger, president and co-owner of Hagadone Hospitality Inc., summarizes the most important do’s and don’ts of surviving in the restaurant business.
“You need three fundamental things: Great food. Great service. Great value,” said Jaeger, who has managed 10 or more restaurants consecutively since 1971. “But you have to have all three. If you don’t, it’s like having one or two legs of a three-legged stool, and you’re going to fall over.”
Jaeger, managing director of 10 restaurants under Western Frontiers Inc. starting in 1971 and a dozen as head of Hagadone Hospitality today, said some people foolishly get into the restaurant business for the wrong reasons.
“‘I love food so I’m going to open a restaurant,’ or ‘my wife is a great cook so I’m going to open a restaurant’ are not good reasons to open a restaurant,” he said. When he’s asked the right way to go about it, Jaeger emphasizes the need to put in lots of time and effort, just as any good business plan requires.
One word of warning: Jaeger said restaurants are busiest when most people are at leisure.
“If you’re not willing to work weekends, holidays and on special occasions, it’s probably not the right business for you,” he said.
Hagadone Hospitality’s restaurants thrive, he said, because those three basics applied to all 12 restaurants meet the demands of locals and visitors alike. Acknowledging that “America travels on its stomach,” Jaeger said, “We’re blessed that, while visitors are very important to us, we have a strong local following. That’s part of the 12-month program” that sees HH restaurants through the much slower visitor months of October through April.
“These past couple, three years though have been a challenge for everybody,” he said. “Nobody could just do business as usual.”
Responding to the challenges, Hagadone Hospitality made important changes like adding a prime rib special at Cedars Floating Restaurant, an all-you-can-eat Sushi offering at Bonsai Bistro, and completely revamping Tito Macaroni’s with a new chef, new menu and extensive wine offering.
•••
Michael DePasquale, owner of Michael D's Eatery in Coeur d'Alene, visits with Brett Rehard who frequents the popular breakfast restaurant.
Michael DePasquale is grateful for a lot of things.
The high price of gas is not one of them.
Since his November 1998 opening of the popular Michael D’s Eatery near Sherman Avenue on Lakeshore Drive, Michael has risen with the tide of good times and suffered along with other local businesses — not just restaurants — during the bad times. But he’s always banked on one truth.
“It’s all about trust,” he said. “Trusting our loyal customers.”
Like others, great food and great service are keys to success, Michael believes. But he also says there is no way to guarantee survival in the dog-eat-dog world of restaurants. “There is no magic formula. There’s no one thing that does it,” he said.
When he’s looking at a glass half full, Michael says businesses all benefit from each others’ success. He give the Coeur d’Alene Resort big kudos, again not just for restaurants but for many other businesses that benefit from its magnetic ability to attract people with money to spend.
“When the Resort is full, the trickle-down effect is real and it’s community-wide,” he said. “I’m thankful for that.”
And when the Resort — sorry, the glass — is half empty?
“When the town is slow, we’re all hurting. We all share customer base. A common denominator is we all need local support.”
What’s making Michael uncomfortable lately is what gripes us all.
Gas.
“I’m no genius, but if gas is an extra $20 a month, $50 a month, people have less money to spend on other things, like eating out,” he said. And the high price of gas creates an unsavory trickle-down effect itself, he added.
“People in general think restaurant owners purchase goods much cheaper than they can,” he said. But largely because of higher gas prices, he said, “We’re paying as much for our food as you are in the grocery store. I think that’s a big surprise to a lot of people.”
•••
Jim Purtee, owner Jimmy's Down the Street in Coeur d'Alene.
Jimmy’s Down the Street is, well, just down the street from Michael D’s. Both do breakfast and lunch with gusto but leave dinner up to others to provide. For Jimmy — that’s Jim Purtee — business could hardly be better. He reports that since he opened 30 months ago, sales have doubled.
“Three things,” he said, invoking Jaeger’s stool rule with only slightly different legs.
“Being involved with your customers out in the service area,” Jimmy said, is No. 1. He said customers “like to invite you to sit down and have a cup of coffee and talk with them.”
They like to see the owner, chat with him or her, feel like they have access to the boss. The antithesis to Rule No. 1? “If your head is buried under an exhaust hood in the kitchen,” he warned, customers will stay away in droves.
Jimmy also said of the restaurant business that it’s, well, a business. And owners with poor business brains lead to Rule No. 2.
“You must have a thorough understanding of food, paper and labor costs,” he said. “That’s two thirds of it. If you can’t manage those, you’ll have a hard time staying in business very long.”
Jimmy got his start in 1965 as a fry cook at a restaurant in San Jose, Calif. You might have heard of it: It’s called McDonald’s. Since then, he’s opened his own restaurants in Kansas, Texas and throughout the South. That enduring passion probably has something to do with a breakfast and lunch place doubling its business in two and a half tough years — and for Rule No. 3.
“You need to enjoy the business,” he said. “If it’s a drudgery, you need to get out.”
•••
Chris Mueller got out.
He loved the business so he got out of one of Jerry Jaeger’s prized places and started his own.
After three years, Chris left Beverly’s as manager of the seventh floor Coeur d’Alene Resort icon and created Bistro on Spruce, bucking the odds by converting an old Chevy dealership into a nice restaurant well off the beaten tourist path. And his timing could not have been worse.
“I opened on Nov. 1, 2007,” he said, “the eve of economic doom.”
But you’ve survived and things have gone well lately, right?
“It’s Year 5 and we just work on fear and adrenaline,” he said.
That’s Chris. Customers love his self-deprecating style and his sense of humor, but he’ll tell you that he built a restaurant like he’d want to visit, and that’s why the “Open” sign is still facing out.
“I’d want to find the little mom and pop places, the quaint little place that has a real chef making real food,” he said. “The grassroots mom and pop businesses get it. People are more and more passionate about food and wine. They want to see it, feel it and taste it.”
The Food Channel has helped grow the nation’s appetite for better food and wine, he said. And so have the social media offerings that welcome customer reviews, particularly for travelers seeking a nice place to enjoy a meal and a bottle of wine. Chris said he’s amazed at how often guests tell him they found Bistro on Spruce by using Yelp or other similar services. But he also knows what he doesn’t want: Groupon users.
“There is a segment of the population that goes out to be miserable,” he said, adding that Groupon attracts some of them.
“They go out because they bought a cheap gift certificate and they have to use it,” he said. “That is not my business model.”
Asked to share other secrets for restaurant horror stories, Chris said some unfortunate souls fail because of “landlord issues,” but like Jaeger, he said more common is people getting into the business for all the wrong reasons. And one big killer is thinking it’s going to be easy.
It’s not.
“You open the doors, you cook the food, you take the money. Done,” he said of those who underestimate what it takes to survive, let alone succeed. Much of it, he said, comes down to basics like personnel and maintenance — wisdom passed along to him when he managed Luna on Spokane’s South Hill for eight years prior to joining Beverly’s. And of course, he has his own solution.
“I don’t expect to get rich. I just want to be happy,” he said. The key? “Hire people who are smarter than you and let ‘em work.”