Archive for March, 2010

The Herald of Everett is reporting that John Dickson will no longer serve as president of Everett-based Frontier Bank. Here’s the (link) to the story.

Dickson’s father, Bob Dickson, founded the bank in 1978. John Dickson started working there in 1985, according to the article.

Frontier, which has branches in Lynden and Bellingham, is under a 30-day corrective order from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The bank has until Thursday, April 15 to raise capital.

The National Retail Federation is predicting a slight increase in Easter holiday spending.

According to its 2010 Easter Consumer Intentions Survey, consumers will spend an average of $118.60, up from $116.59 last year but still lower than recent years. Total spending is expected to reach $13.03 billion.
Here is the Average Easter Spending by Year:
2003 $102.75
2004 107.17
2005 96.51
2006 121.62
2007 135.07
2008 135.03
2009 116.59
Est. 2010 118.60

While spending on most items will remain the same as last year, children can expect more candy in their Easter baskets this year. The average person will spend $17.29 on candy, compared to $16.55 last year, and $18.16 on gifts, up from $17.30 last Easter. Other holiday purchases include clothing ($19.03), food ($37.45), flowers ($7.84), decorations ($6.34) and greeting cards ($6.30).

Here’s some stuff that will be in tomorrow’s retail tip sheet:

– The owners of Hammerhead Coffee Roasters and Fools Onion will be taking over the grocery store operations of Greene’s Corner on Thursday, April 1. Both companies reside in Greene’s Corner at the intersection of Smith Road and Northwest Drive.
Mary Burwell and Scott Hartwich of Hammerhead and Kristine Kager and Lance Bailey of Fools Onion have joined forces to form a separate company to operate the grocery store, called OnionHead LLC. Kager and Bailey formerly ran the Cross Roads grocery store.
Hartwich said they plan on bringing in a variety of traditional grocery store products, but it won’t be as extensive as when Greene’s Corner originally opened in 2008.
– Daphnes, which serves beer, wine, cocktails along with a bit of food, opened last week at 1200 10th St., Suite 102, in the Fairhaven Village Inn building. The bar is open from 3 p.m. to midnight every day. For details about the company, visit daphnesbar.com.

– Michelle Whittaker will officially open Veg Express on Tuesday, April 6 at 700 Ohio St. (near Diehl Ford). The vegetarian drive-through stand will offer organic and local products, as well as vegan and gluten free options. The business will be open 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday.

– Lynden Floor & Design will have a grand opening sales event on Saturday, April 17 at its second location in Hannegan Square, near the Bakerview and Hannegan road intersection. The company opened its Bellingham store in January.

An article will be posted in news later today, but Superfeet has announced plans to build a 45,000-square-foot facility near Hovander Park. They have received permit approval and expect to be in the new facility at the end of the year, said Randy Curran, vice president of marketing for the company.

The company employs 80 people and has been growing in recent years, to the point they’ve outgrown their current facility off of Slater Road. This new facility will more than triple the size of the current facility. Curran said this is part of a long-term plan to grow into the new facility.

According to BBJToday (The Bellingham Business Journal’s online site), the grocery store chain, which recently withdrew plans to build a store in Mount Vernon, is considering the former Joe’s Sporting Goods building on East Bellis Fair Parkway. Here’s the link to the post.

WinCo Spokesman Mike Read hasn’t returned a phone message and the company hasn’t applied for building permits, so I don’t know anything more than they continue to be interested in this market. The Joe’s building has been empty about a year, while the nearby buildings (the former Good Guys and Toys R Us) have been empty much longer, about four years each.

Here’s No. 41 for 2010:

Desert Hills Bank of Phoenix was closed, then taken over by New York Community Bank of Westbury, N.Y. Desert Hills had six branches. Estimated cost to the FDIC: $106.7 million.

Georgie Girls, a boutique clothing store on East Holly Street near Railroad Avenue, has a sign on the door saying that it is closed and will re-open on Thursday, April 1 for a closeout sale. The space also has a For Rent sign from Daylight Properties.

Government regulators started off this Friday with three bank closures in Georgia and Florida, bringing the 2010 bank closure total to 40. Details are below, I’ll update with additional posts if more are shut down later today:

No. 38 McIntosh Commercial Bank, Carrollton, Ga. was shut down, taken over by CharterBank of West Point, Ga. McIntosh had four branches. Estimated cost to the FDIC: $123.3 million.

No. 39: Key West Bank, Key West, Fla. was shut down, then taken over by Centennial Bank of Conway, Ark. Key West had one branch. Estimated cost to the FDIC: $23.1 million.

No. 40: Unity National Bank of Cartersville, Ga. was shut down, then taken over by the Bank of the Ozarks in Little Rock, Ark. Unity had five branches. Estimated cost to the FDIC: $67.2 million.

The Burlington Cost Cutter grocery store will be closing at the end of the month.

The Skagit County store, originally built in 1989, would have required a significant reinvestment to meet the company’s new strategy, according to a press release from The Markets LLC, the parent company of the store and based in Bellingham. The Burlington store currently has 43 employees.
“The Markets continually reviews and realigns its real estate assets. The company will coordinate its resources around its other stores that have greater potential for long-term growth,” the company said in press release.

After the closure of the Burlington store, The Markets will have 20 stores in Washington.

This will be posted on the news site as well, but here are some details on what happen with personal income last year:

Hurt by the slowdown in construction, Washington residents posted a decline in personal income last year, according to a new federal report.
In 2009 Washington’s personal income declined 0.9 percent compared to the previous year, according to the latest data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Personal income, as defined by the BEA, is income received by all persons from all sources, including salaries, stock dividends and rental revenue.
Across the U.S., personal income declined by 1.7 percent. Only six states — Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia — posted year-over-year gains. Only three of those states — Maryland, West Virginia and Virginia — saw gains from salary income.
Much of Washington’s declines were in work income and the dividends/interest categories. Transfer receipts —money coming in from the gov-ernment through a variety of sources, including social security and unemployment benefits — posted a gain. In terms of net earnings, construction saw the most significant drop, followed by farming, durable goods, retail trade and finance. Health care, government and information were among the few sectors to post year-over-year gains.
The state with the biggest decline was Nevada, dropping 4.8 percent year-over-year, the second largest drop among states since 1969. It was par-ticularly hard hit by the slowdown in construction and the hotel industry, according to the report.