Go to the mobile version of this Web site.

Login | Contact Us | Site Map | Paid archives | Electronic edition | Subscription Questions | Extras

GRIEGO: Shop owners stay upbeat amid drumbeats of doom

By Tina Griego, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published October 2, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

Text size  

More News Columns & Blogs

More stories »

We move now, as cliche would have it, from Wall Street to Main Street. In this case, Tennyson Street, which was once like Main Street of north Denver and still evokes small-town nostalgia. Larry Kort and his mom are still running the hardware store. Chuck Floyd is still cutting hair at the barbershop - 45 years in the same spot and going strong.

Sherilyn and Mike Thompson continue to resist modernity - unless, Sherilyn says, you count the credit card machine - at Yankee Trader, where the shelves are full of antique and collectible toys and military trappings.

They keep tabs on one another on this long block between 39th and 41st avenues, which is one way this remains Main Street. The other is that every business is a small business. I count 31 storefronts, all but a few occupied and open, restaurants, galleries, hair salons, a bookstore, coffee shop, the barber, purring little engines of the economy. If the financial crisis leads to withering credit lines or less consumer spending, you figure some of them will be among the first to feel it.

So, I'm here to take the temperature. It doesn't take long. In a word: Hot. This should come as no surprise to anyone who lives and dies by the bottom line or who does not believe in federal government as fairy godmother. Privatize profit, nationalize loss; there might be a word for that, but it's not capitalism.

Here's Hoss Orwat, the owner of Big Hoss Bar-B-Q: "If I ran this business the way the government runs tax and economic policy, I would have never been able to open the doors."

And here's Ken Anderson, senior vice president of Flesher-Hinton Music, which has been in business here more than 50 years: "In a free- market economy, if you can't make it, you fail."

And Terry Linden, working at Tennyson Hardware: "I'm watching news and I'm thinking, 'What the hell is going on in this country.' "

But . . .

The bitter pill now. With the Senate having approved and the House preparing to vote Friday on the bailout or stabilization plan or whatever it's being called these days, the consensus forming here is that government intervention - undesirable as it may be - is necessary.

It's not that people here have been persuaded $700 billion is actually going to fix what's wrong. It's that $700 billion may buy what these small business owners believe is most crucial at this moment: confidence.

What you find when talking to the small business owner about the precarious state of the economy is that the small business owner doesn't like to talk about the precarious state of the economy. The small business owner is determined to remain upbeat, to counsel patience and calm. The psychology of fear is as much a concern as the economy itself. Talk influences behavior. Behavior influences outcome. The self-fulfilling prophecy.

"Both parties are scaring everybody, which I don't appreciate," says Jason Kirwood, who in June opened MaryJayz, a head shop, specializing in hand-blown pipes and hemp clothing.

"My question is, can you defer fear by taking some action?" says David Aulik, an owner of Lapis Gallery. "Seven hundred billion dollars might be cheap compared to a recession."

"What we need to do now is find enough money to stimulate the economy," Hoss says. "When the economy is back on its feet, then we need to balance our books again. . . . Let's find someone in government we have confidence in to bring confidence back to the people. If they don't solve it in Washington, the American people will solve it for them through elections or hard choices, the way we've always done it."

None of the business owners I met have experienced any immediate consequence of the financial meltdown. Most tell me they don't rely on bank lines of credit, where they would be most likely to feel the first pinch.

As far as the general economy goes, at Lapis, which specializes in high-end home and restaurant design and remodels, they're seeing more remodeling jobs than new construction. Hoss has seen more customers using cash than credit. Anderson at the music store says business has been slow since late 2006, and in the summer of 2007, the company referred $96,000 in unpaid instrument rental fees to a collection agency. Most of those unpaid bills, he said, come from families facing foreclosure and the bulk came out of Highlands Ranch and Parker.

The mood on Tennyson is not simply hot. It's somber. It's reflective. From this vantage point, it's as if America, its government and people, have been drunk on free credit - no-doc mortgage loans! - and is finally sobering up. On this business-minded street, such sobriety, tenuous as it may be, is welcomed.

At Botticelli Hair Design, owner Jill Kuntupis, stylist Colleen Apodaca and client Lisa Anderson speak of the culture of debt and how they are getting their own financial houses in order. Apodaca describes the financial market meltdown as "a humbling." Yes, Kuntupis says, that's perfect. It's a humbling.

griegot@RockyMountainNews.com

Comments

  • October 2, 2008

    4:17 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    mrfxx writes:

    Too bad it won't humble either the upper management OR the government entities that allowed the mess to get this bad! For them it is business as usual - any bets that the so-called bans on "golden parachutes" have loopholes one could drive a Mack truck thru? Or - if the profits materialize that Congress has been conned into believing may result from the bailout will be poured down holes - costing the average taxpayer - and their kids and grandkids? There had to have been a better way.

  • October 2, 2008

    11:25 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    GILPINMAN writes:

    I think the bail out is a bad idea and sends the wrong mesage to these execs that make milions every year. they will just keep doing things the same way if they don't have consequences for the lack of oversite and what they have done to so many americans. as far as the economy personaly it has helped my buisness alot. 2 years ago if a persons car had problems they would trade it in but now they fix it instead because they dont have the $ to buy a new one. my buisness has doubled in production and the cars are backing up in front of the shop. a bad economy isn't all bad for all buisnesses some like me it helps.

  • October 2, 2008

    2:58 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    HopiMedicineMan writes:

    The problem is found in the Caymans, where $2-trillion has flowed out of this country from those avoiding scrutiny such as the Congress and certain execs. It's no coincidence the economy is in
    a melt down during an election season.

  • October 4, 2008

    9:35 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    arby writes:

    When I was a child in the 1950's Tennyson St. was indeed the main street of Highlands. It was mostly small shops as it is today. There were two big stores. Piggly Wiggly Grocery and Ben Franklin 5 & 10. Those two chains don't exist any longer. A lot of the changes attributed to the various main streets in the metro area. Highlands, Arvada, Wheat Ridge, etc can be attributed to the increased mobility we enjoy. My family had one car and that was used to get my Dad to work. Most people were the same way. No one felt underpriviledged. You just walked to the store or took the bus. When I was old enough to get a paper route my Mom would give me her list and the cash and send me to Piggly Wiggly. I could carry the groceries home in my paper bags. I imagine it took a load off her. After she scanned the receipt I would get either 1 or 2 quarters depending on how good my shopping choices were. It was a win win. I learned and made money, she didn't have to go to the store.
    I no longer live in the area but I like to drive down Tennyson when I'm in the neighborhood and see that it is still thriving. Olde Town Arvada is making a great comeback too.

  • October 6, 2008

    10:43 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    BetterEducated writes:

    I'm with you, arby.
    I was a "TUG" (what others might call a "Candy Striper") at St Anthony Hospital as a young girl -- met an orderly who had graduated from Holy Family -- and fell in love with him AND his neighborhood.
    Having come from Arvada, the place was so green -- so lovely -- I later married someone else and we lived in the area for years, finally at 32/Raleigh which we could NEVER afford again -- but alas, had to make a decision for our children about education, and moved into the mountains for that specific purpose.
    Kids are gone off to college now, and HOW I MISS MY NW Denver GARDEN (sniff!).

  • October 7, 2008

    9:56 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    arby writes:

    The 1st three comments on this post have nothing to do with the article and I have requested their removal.