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America's Love Affair With Small Business Rekindled
Townhall.com ^ | December 25 | Salena Zito

Posted on 12/25/2018 6:08:29 AM PST by Kaslin

WEST NEWTON, Pa. -- Bloom Brewery is the kind of Main Street business that shut its doors a generation ago when shopping malls lured customers to their mega-buildings with well-lit parking lots, extended hours and everything imaginable under one roof.

The brewery, which offers 24 artisanal beers on tap, sits near the Great Allegheny Passage, a 335-mile bike trail that has connected Washington, D.C., to Pittsburgh since 2013. And with it, a new kind of customer is being drawn through its doors, seeking comfort and community instead of big-box discount deals.

"When I first started, we were only open Saturday afternoons," said owner Jeffrey Bloom, 52. "Now we are open Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, and we are growing all of the time. It's a real sense of community when you are here, where conversation and good beer are a given."

When Bloom was scouting different towns to house his brewery, no local officials offered him tax subsidies to entice him here -- a sharp contrast to the estimated $4 billion in subsidies that local and state officials offered Amazon in nearby Pittsburgh to lure its second headquarters there. The new HQ was expected to deliver 50,000 high-paying jobs and an economic reboot.

Despite practically being handed the keys to the farm, Amazon ultimately chose to divide its second headquarters between New York and suburban Washington -- two of the wealthiest cities in the country -- instead.

"There was never a chance they were going to come here," said Joe Mistick, a former Pittsburgh Zoning Board chairman. "But I'd take a bunch of small businesses any day over Amazon. Their contribution to the fabric of the community is more valuable."

A growing number of small-business owners are seeing an opportunity to make a comeback. This summer, a National Federation of Independent Businesses report showed that small businesses are growing and adding the most workers per firm since July 2006. At the same time, the Wells Fargo Small Business Index shows optimism among small business owners growing at a historic clip.

And their commitment to the community goes well beyond their business hours. Bloom sits on his downtown revitalization board, attends city planning meetings and creates events to draw people not just to his brewery but to the town itself. And for now, he does all of it while working a full-time day job as a lineman for Verizon.

A new Amazon headquarters would undoubtedly have brought jobs to the Pittsburgh region, but it also would have brought real-estate speculators, gentrification and soaring housing prices. In addition, Amazon's convenience-through-technology model has caused many of the malls that shuttered Main Street businesses, too. And the bigger companies become, the less they care about the communities they serve.

The 2017 book "Glass House" told the story of Anchor Hocking, a century-old glass tableware company in Lancaster, Ohio, that was originally locally owned. Its corporate leaders served on local community boards. The wives of the leaders were local volunteers. But Anchor Hocking became detached from the city after a hostile takeover in the late 1980s, leading to several bankruptcies and mergers and acquisitions. Eventually, the ownership vanished, and the social capital of the city shrank.

"Larger companies often don't consider their effects on culture or sense of community," said Bloom.

Like Bloom, Mary Lou and Rob Rendulic spotted a business opportunity along the Great Allegheny Passage, opening their Bright Morning Bed-and-Breakfast in 2002. As the trail's popularity surged, so did their profits. Eventually, they purchased the dilapidated homes flanking their bed-and-breakfast, giving them more rooms for guests.

Their booming business has boosted others nearby as well. Rob Rendulic said, "People who stay here also eat at the local pub or rent bikes from the bicycle shop or go to the new distillery across the bridge."

America has always loved its innovators. From the railroads to driverless cars, they all moved commerce and offered endless possibilities. But they also eliminated jobs and created a dependence on them we didn't anticipate. Their senseless growth has led to a revolt -- even in New York City, where leaders have slammed Amazon's plans to colonize Queens, taking millions in subsidies while guaranteeing nothing in return.

But with entrepreneurs like Bloom and Rendulic, it's heartening to see the small-business owners fighting back -- one small store at a time.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: business; economy

1 posted on 12/25/2018 6:08:29 AM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

We have 3 breweries and 2 vape sites in Town. I expect the high school will start growing pot since they have a hydroponics program.


2 posted on 12/25/2018 6:20:18 AM PST by Sacajaweau
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To: Kaslin
"But I'd take a bunch of small businesses any day over Amazon. Their contribution to the fabric of the community is more valuable."

This guy must not be a Democrat, because they usually think the big company's contribution to the tax base is far more important to their vote-buying efforts - not to mention that successful small businesses give the proletariat ideas about their own independence that Democrats would prefer not to see living examples of. :)

3 posted on 12/25/2018 6:54:10 AM PST by Mr. Jeeves ([CTRL]-[GALT]-[DELETE])
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To: Kaslin

A growing number of small-business owners are seeing an opportunity to make a comeback. This summer, a National Federation of Independent Businesses report showed that small businesses are growing and adding the most workers per firm since July 2006. At the same time, the Wells Fargo Small Business Index shows optimism among small business owners growing at a historic clip.

...

I can’t but think that Trump has something to do with that. The Swamp has always hated small business.


4 posted on 12/25/2018 7:15:24 AM PST by Moonman62 (Give a man a fish and he'll be a Democrat. Teach a man to fish and he'll be a responsible citizen.)
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To: Kaslin

Woked....

******

“There was never a chance they were going to come here,” said Joe Mistick, a former Pittsburgh Zoning Board chairman. “But I’d take a bunch of small businesses any day over Amazon. Their contribution to the fabric of the community is more valuable.”


5 posted on 12/25/2018 7:16:35 AM PST by 2banana (Were you)
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To: Moonman62
"A growing number of small-business owners are seeing an opportunity to make a comeback."

Our family made an honest effort to shop local. We soon discovered that if we were to suffer poor service, we might as well suffer that poor service at a big box and save some money. In our area, shop owners and clerks just simply seemed inconvenienced that we darkened their doors.

6 posted on 12/25/2018 7:39:29 AM PST by buckalfa (I was so much older then, but I'am younger than that now.)
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To: Kaslin

It is nice when you can go to small businesses and talk about what is the best products for X. ConservaTeen bike is expansive, but I know that it was put together correctly. A WalMart bike you need to tighten before you ride it...


7 posted on 12/25/2018 12:00:36 PM PST by Deplorable American1776 (Proud to be a DeplorableAmerican with a Deplorable Family...even the dog is, too. :-))
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To: Sacajaweau
🍺 beer is always good business - brewer. From 1992 to 2000
8 posted on 12/25/2018 12:20:40 PM PST by Truthoverpower (The guvmint you get is the Trump winning express !)
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To: Kaslin

bump


9 posted on 12/25/2018 4:15:58 PM PST by foreverfree
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To: Sacajaweau
A new vape store just opened in Centreville, MD.
10 posted on 12/25/2018 4:17:05 PM PST by foreverfree
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To: foreverfree

A new marijuana shop opened in suburban Des Moines!


11 posted on 12/25/2018 4:20:39 PM PST by jjotto (Next week, BOOM!, for sure!)
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To: foreverfree

I’m in Upstate. I expect a marijuana store in the next year. The gov is pushing through legislation.


12 posted on 12/25/2018 4:24:23 PM PST by Sacajaweau
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To: buckalfa

Not in my town; even the grocery clerks know my name and I don’t go in very often.
I am ashamed to say that I am a transplant, and never was very good with names anyway.
I recognize them all on the street and wave and say howdy, but remembering their names for some reason seems beyond me.
I walk into the hardware store and they always say “HI MIKE, WHAT CAN WE DO FOR YOU TODAY”, I’ve been going in there the last 10 years and still cant remember their names!

DAMNIT!


13 posted on 12/25/2018 9:03:09 PM PST by 5th MEB (Progressives in the open; --- FIRE FOR EFFECT!!)
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To: Kaslin
I come from five generations of small business owners.

Your biggest problem - in the 19th Century all the way to the 21st Century - is hiring and retaining good employees.

As intelligent software and labor saving machines become more and more sophisticated and affordable, small business will expand faster and faster.

When people discover that they can operate a successful business with just family members or members of their church, they will do it.

14 posted on 12/25/2018 10:20:04 PM PST by zeestephen
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To: 5th MEB

I have the same problem. I recognize faces, but names attached to them elude me. They always remember my name.

I’ve been through Chemotherapy four times in the last twelve years for my Leukemia and my recognition of names gets worse every time.

I think there may be something they refer to as Chemo Brain, or I’ve always been dumber than a sack of Hammers and never realized it.


15 posted on 12/25/2018 10:32:19 PM PST by Kickass Conservative (Democracy, two Wolves and one Sheep deciding what's for Dinner.)
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To: 5th MEB

I learned a memory trick to help with names

Next time you do catch their name, associate that
Name with someone with same name that you
Can recall

Can be friend, relative, actor,someone you do
Not even know, doesn’t matter .
Once you link them to another person whose
Name you can remember, it’ll come back to you.
My wife works with a guy named Clint, every time
I see him , I think clint eastwood, boom, got it.

Give it a try


16 posted on 12/26/2018 3:12:23 AM PST by tm61 (Election 2012: we find it IS possible, to polish a turd.)
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To: Kickass Conservative
It is not smarts that helps you remember names. My husband is the smartest man I know, he scored 96% when he took his SAT, 3 years after dropping out of High School. That was 40 years ago, when SAT's were thorough and hard.

He is the very worst with names, yet he has a photographic memory and can recite hundreds of Bible verses when he needs them on command, but peoples names, he cannot remember them very well at all.

17 posted on 12/26/2018 7:00:12 AM PST by thirst4truth (America, What difference does it make?)
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To: thirst4truth

The Human Brain is a miracle to behold.


18 posted on 12/26/2018 8:46:04 AM PST by Kickass Conservative (Democracy, two Wolves and one Sheep deciding what's for Dinner.)
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