Wall Street vs. Main Street

Paul Demyanik owns Paul’s Motors Inc. at Main Street and Northeast Hazel Dell Avenue. (COURTNEY SHERWOOD/The Columbian)

Victoria Wakefield, owner of Newsies Coffee House & More, 603 Main St. (COURTNEY SHERWOOD/The Columbian)

Proponents of last week’s financial industry bailout argued that $700 billion would not just help Wall Street — it would be good for Main Street too.

So as politicians voted on the bill and the president signed it, The Columbian
visited business owners and managers up and down Vancouver’s Main Street.

Here’s what they had to say about the bailout and the financial pressures they face.

“Summers are always quieter for my business, so it’s hard to know if it’s been hard lately because of the summer or because of the downturn. In September it started to pick up, but times are still tight. There isn’t anything I purchase that hasn’t gone up in price. For example, I buy tuna, the good white albacore. When I started offering it a year and a half ago a good-size can was $9. Last week it was $17.67. But I haven’t raised my prices very much. I’d rather take a little loss from my profit margin than lose a customer.”

"I've been 15 years here, and this is the worst that I've been through.
Sales are slow. People aren’t buying cars like they used to.
They get a fix only if it’s really needed. At the best times, we had six people. I laid off three people six months ago.
I’m not worried. I have hope. I have experience from the Soviet Union, which was a much worse time. I don’t have too much to lose.
I will make enough money for myself, for my family.”

“The conception has always been that pawnshops do well in bad times. It can hurt as well as help us. The downturn affects our customers. We have a lot of people coming in because they need money for gas. We’re also seeing an influx of tools. My guess is, people are out of work. We have to be careful about what we loan on. You can only have so many Skil saws before you can’t sell them all.
“I’m not crazy about the bailout. I don’t want to see fat cats with $100 million golden parachutes. If I run my business into the ground, I end up with nothing. The federal government has to do something — I just think they’ll screw it up.”

“We’ve been pretty busy — we have loyal customers. But a lot of our customers are in construction and development. If people can’t take out loans to get houses, if contractors can’t take out loans to start construction, that could affect our customers and it would affect us.
“Personally, as a homeowner, I’m worried about my home devaluing. But we just moved in and don’t plan on going anywhere soon. We live within our means. Most of the people who are hurting right now were living outside their means.
“I believe something needs to be done about the economy, but I prefer small government, not big government. I’m not totally against the bailout, but I don’t agree with giving out a golden parachute.”

“I’m nervous about the economy, but more on a personal basis than as a business owner. You’re not informed if you’re not nervous. A lot of our interpreting and translation service is based on contracts. We haven’t noticed a hit yet; we’re flat. Our costs are all up, but we’re not raising our prices at all.
“The real estate market might affect us, as building
owners, if we were planning on selling, but we aren’t.
We have long-term tenants.”

“We have a 401(k) and my son has a trust fund, and I’m worried about both. I hate to say it, but I think we just have to trust the government.”

“It’s been normal for us to tick up 10 percent in a year. Instead of growth this year, we’ve been even. I would be
perfectly happy to be steady next year. We’re trying real hard to keep the staff we’ve had, but we did have one layoff out of 45 employees.
“We do a lot of work for the building industry, and the building industry in Southwest Washington is off. So we’ve been doing more commercial work and less residential work. We’ve got a lot of long-term clients, so we’re confident that we’ll do just fine, but there is a degree of uncertainty about how fine.
“I think we need the bailout to instill confidence, because it’s important that we avoid a deep recession. Doing nothing isn’t a very good option. I have been disappointed by both potential presidents. I don’t see the future leadership in this country taking the right steps for our economy.”

“We’re going out of business. We’ve never made a lot of money — it was a hobby and a business. The competition with big box stores has gotten really rough, and with the economy it has gotten too expensive to hire people to run the store. I’m too old for this amount of work.”

“We don’t buy in to fear and uncertainty. I don’t focus on Wall Street. If you take care of your own life, the rest
happens around you. We are going to add fudge to our store (selection), because this is a time when you need to feel good. And we are going ahead with our plans to get our new product out there, Altar Affirmations, which my husband and I developed. It is about faith and hope.”

“When people get locked out of a house or car or
need to replace a key, they will still come to us. When they’re considering whether to repair something that’s not quite broken they may take a while longer. But I’m not concerned about the business — we’re busy.
“I am personally concerned. I have a house and it’s
depreciating. I have money in the stock market. I hope this is cyclical. I’m hopeful that with a new administration things will improve, although I don’t know who I’ll
vote for.”

“People’s spending habits have changed. They fix
just what’s absolutely necessary, and there’s a lot less
maintenance.
“We import Japanese engines. Scrap metal prices are higher and the dollar is weak, which increases our prices. I’ve tried not to make changes to pricing, even though it does cut into the profit. That’s OK. Everybody’s pinching. We have to help each other.
“Personally, I’m spending less, trying to save. Some people are losing their life savings, their retirement plans.
I think this will continue for a while. It’s going to take time to implement the bailout plan.”