Local Business - Some Good, Many Still Failing

It's a mixed bag in local business recovery here in South Riding...on the one hand, the bottom bounceback is generating opportunities for those obtaining cheap rent for new restaurants, for those offering Internet services (lower cost and quicker results for budget-minded new businesses), and for national franchisees whose companies have survived intact through the cost-cutting and layoffs...

On the other hand, many of our local brick-and-mortar businesses are still teetering on the brink, with months of overdue rent sought by remote landlords interested in recouping losses. Our local postal services store is closing soon - sending scores of small business mailbox owners over to the UPS store...more 24-hour services, support and less likely itself to go out of business (even if the franchise fails, corporate will take over). In casual discussion, it appears many of the local retail are in similar predicament - having invested personal savings and struggling to keep paying the rent - business is simply not picking up quick enough to overcome the pile of outstanding debt and rental payments. So we're likely looking at significant turnover soon, unless the holiday season can provide the boost that persists long enough for recovery in fundamental economics.

Economic recovery around here is a starkly market-driven business - more will definitely lose, while a few will squeak through or emerge from long hibernation.