Many Southern Humboldt Businesses Experience a Downturn in Sales
Chautauqua, a natural food store, lit up for the holiday season. [Photo by Kym Kemp]
At the newly opened Souji House, a fresh deli owned by Chatauqua Natural Foods, the manager Sophia Anderson said, “Generally, business is down. It’s a county-wide thing. It’s not busy like it normally is. This is usually the slowest month anyway. If more people can support local business is the only way we’ll stay open and make it last… We can still feel the pulse of the community, just a weaker pulse. There’s still a lot of life here and those of us that believe in supporting our community.”
A store owner who wished to remain anonymous conveyed, “It’s like a roller coaster: one day you make money and the next day you don’t.”
Charlotte Silverstein of the Garden of Beadin on Redwood Drive confirmed that her store’s income is down about twenty percent, but, she said, the business is staying alive through festivals, internet sales, and workshops. She explained, “I’ve always done trade shows. We’ve had a website for quite many years. And that’s just different ways to keep us afloat. Shows averaged out across the whole year have been up. The only thing that’s really down is our own little hamlet of Garberville! It’s been the same steady decline all year. We’re down about twenty percent, give or take some. The summer was somewhat disappointing.”
Next door to the Garden of Beadin, the owner of the Paper Mill was very busy managing and cashiering for her store the day we spoke. Pam Van Metter said, “Everything’s fine, everything’s good. I keep busy. I don’t let the grass grow under my feet, or under my car. The store does fine. It’s a unique store…” Van Metter also illustrated part of the reason goods are not being bought as often in Garberville, explaining “It’s not a big destination. The freight is really expensive to get things here. So business is down everywhere. And, people like to shop online. I’m guilty of that myself. But it doesn’t help the economy of our community; buying from Google or something is money into a monopoly. It’s cheaper, but it’s not better for the overall community.”
Silverstein conveyed similar impressions when she stated, “With the economic downturn, we’re asking the citizens of Southern Humboldt to consider shopping [locally]. It’s hard to go to the post office and see everyone carrying out boxes from Amazon. Who do you want to support? Vote with your dollars. If you want to keep your friends employed in town, then come shop at our stores. Whether me, or shop at the business across the street, or wherever. Consider, even not going to Eureka, even though it’s Humboldt dollars. We’re here in Southern Humboldt, and we’re trying to create community, and keep our community together.”
We visited a centrally-located Garberville Cafe. Two of about a dozen tables were taken around midday. The store manager divulged, “We are at about 50 to 75 percent of normal sales. We’ve gone down quite a bit. It’s been a little rough. We’ve had to cut back hours… We’re open just to keep it open. Last year, we were running with five employees, now we’re running with three. Usually the locals would come out of the woodwork in the winter, but not so much this year. I live in Eureka, and hardly anything’s been affected up there at all.”
Another restaurant in town, located a block away from Redwood Drive, explained how costs there are rising, while returns are diminishing. Beth Bennett-Allen at Amelia’s Cafe and Restaurant shared, “It’s still very very slow. We’re still struggling. We have restructured the restaurant downstairs and lowered prices on the menu. But PG&E went up two hundred dollars per month, vanilla ice cream is eight dollars more per pint. Everything is exceptionally more expensive. Rent is thousands of dollars per month. But we have not brought the quality down. We are being mindful and not raising our prices. .. so if that’s your favorite place to get that sandwich, it may not be there next year. We are all trying to stay. We’ve got to keep our community going.”
Down the block, on a busier street, Redwood Drive, the cooks of the Woodrose said, “It’s been steady, busy. It’s been good.”
Two doors down from the Woodrose, Cathy of the Garberville Thrift Store said, “We’re not out of the woods yet, but we’re still trying.”
Across the street from the Woodrose Cafe, the Organic Grace store of eco-friendly products is still for sale. The clerk, Katy, said on behalf of the store, “We plan to keep going into next year. But it’s hit or miss. Some days are good, some days are not. We are relying on the internet as well.”
Cassady Pancoast who acquired Nacho Mama in the center of Garberville in March 2017 explained, “This year has been slower than last. We’re a tourist-based business. We get lots of business from the influx of summer tourists and expect a lull in the winter. We are contemplating how to expand and bring in more money. We all need to stick together and help each other out and hopefully we’ll make it through this. Change isn’t always bad. It can be good.”
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Good morning read.
Just the beginning the shit is about to hit the fan what happens when the shit does hit the fan well it splatters all over the place of course we must take care of the planet maybe the Oompa Loompas will save us I have a feeling we are going to have to do the work restoring the garden peace is the way
” . . .of course we must take care of the planet .. .” Top priority.
However, with CA’s agenda integrated w/the inbred psychos running the world, thousands have been fried alive, businesses and homeowners losing everything – the land grab is on full-steam ahead. The victims of the “Firenadoes” and “Wildfires” have been told they can never go home. No re-build. Signing off on your land, for pennies on the dollar, is a BIG mistake. Never sign your land away to these monsters.
Well, perhaps we could step back and look around at what other small communities are doing to be successful. Go out of state and look around. We have lots of raw materials, lots of talent. We have aggregates, lumber, timber, etc. Ice cream at $8? Could we have our own dairy here, and make our own.? Cheese, milk, ice cream, sour cream, and other dairy products. One cow produces lots of butter fat, which can be turned into the above products. Or, a small pig farm, and a butcher shop for sausage, bacon, chops, hams. Would these activities employ people? You bet. Some one else grows potatoes, onions, garlic, etc. There is a county supervisor who said we can’t have goat dairies, and no raw goats milk. Oh yeah? Try to stop us. I love goat milk, raw, not pasturized, which is better for you.
How can a pint of vanilla ice cream go UP eight dollars? I can buy a pint for 4.
This stuck out to me too. The premium brand of ice cream costs less than $8 retail, even at Rays crazy prices. Might be time to shop for better deals on ingredients or make it in house from scratch.
The transition into a proper, lawful economy and community will mean that the dope grower money is going to leave.
Think about tourism returning, imagine the redwoods where your car isn’t broken into by some marijuana addict, this is the future.
Sales are down because the people we don’t want in our community are leaving.
Honest, hard working, conservative families will replace dope growing hippies.
The future is looking great!
I get it. You’re goofing on anti-cannabis wackos, right?
Marijuana addicts breaking in the cars, that’s hilarious!
Sad to say, this commenter, is not jokng about Cannabis Addicts, he truly thinks there IS such a thing!!!
Sounds great, but what are they doing for a living?
Maybe it will be possible to hire carpenters for small jobs or get chimneys cleaned or contract with many government projects or run a B&B or sell quilts or redwood art on etsy or raise livestock or rent cabins for stressed San Francisco people or sell fire wood or write books, paint pictures or houses …
It won’t pay the way illegal pot did and may be a lot more effort and creativity but its what people have done to make a rural life possible. They did that or they left for easier livelihoods.
Exactly….
There’s a vision of life after the last dope growing car prowler leaves.
Clean communities don’t include dope addicts and marijuana growers.
There are slums across the nation that suit them better, slums that welcome their type.
In 2019 let’s hope they get the message and leave, marijuana isn’t cool – go find a slum for that garbage.
Stop trolling this site and go back to LoCo Repubs! Trevor.
Guest & Y Knot nails it.
There was a time when 3 little mom & pop grocery stores graced the town of G’ville. (Peter Pan market, Lewis’s, & the one where Napa’s is now). Redway had Mendes and the Liquor Store.
There were churches in Redway & G’ville always cooking up good comradeship fun potlucks, games and meets.
There was a bowling alley.
Many cafe’s and saloons.
Dances every weekend in the summer.
Kids raising money for their school teams by washing cars.
Resorts! There were more resorts and campgrounds than I can shake a stick at. The tourism was crazy bustling.
Rodeos were the big event. Everybody knew somebody who had a ranch.
Bake sales and canning, quilting, and woodworking…
Gas stations pumped your gas, washed your windshields, checked your oil.
Mills were humming, kids were swimming (literally swimming in literal water in the river all summer long), churches were singing, tourists were honking back, shoppers were shopping, campfires were sparkling, marshmallows were roasting…..
and then … something awful began to occur.
Protests, arguments, drugs, vagrants, …
The media changed from news about the grange hall awards to how to evade the camp helicopters.
At least that’s what they tell me.
I grew up here. I remember the grocery stores and churches and bowling alley, cafes and saloons– a lot of wonderful memories. But I also remember that the road to Eureka was rough. I remember that many people drove old beater cars that folks spent a lot of their free time trying to keep running. I remember people poaching to put food on the table, I remember the murder of two of the girls I went to school with. I remember a lot poverty. I think you have forgotten a little of the reality.
I intentionally left those out, because each hardship is individual.
I remember all to well the days of couch surfing, family and friends taking us in, beans and fried potatoes w/eggs the main staple. I remember all too well the break downs on the road, and the friendly people who stopped and helped. I remember the good side of the bad things. Others might only remember the bad sides of the good things. It is what it is.
Finding a place to rent was tough then and it’s tough now.
Having enough money at the end of the month was impossible then and it’s impossible now.
A murder or two in the past is nothing like today where there is a stabbing, robbery, OD, murder, assault, taking place regularly. Back then there were fist fights. The gangs were in the big cities, the rowdy’s were in the sticks. There were more drunk driving accidents back then though.
To be fair, even in poverty people find and cherish love. Back then anyway. I’m not sure about today. I think today everyone demands a paycheck stub.
Thank you Kym for reminding these people that Humboldt had it’s dark side firmly root beyond the recent past in our history. Remember the school teacher Lebow who raped and murdered a 13 yr old autistic girl? It the year that 17 of our community members ( and fathers of our friends…) OD’ed on heroine. Or when the Chinese tryad came to kill us in laraby valley and other eastern areas until a secret war with them culminating and finally ended with 26 asians burning alive in a house in hayfork. Or when that lady waltzed into the bum steer in and blasted her best friend husband and the bartender not for selling the door she asked them to sell but because they made more money than she’d expected them too- she shit the bartender just cuz he was standing there talking to the other teo when she walking in with a loaded 12 gauge. I could go on. Right up to Chelsea od’ing kira fowley being murdered and Jeremy kummel getting shot and torched in his truck my a Mexican over 10 lousy pot plants. Humboldt county being marketing as a hippie lux tourism trade is like taking tourists to Charlie Manson’s house to dine with Lenard Lake and Charles Ing served by Jack the ripper. Have fun with that guys.
You must be very young or very new there in Humboldt. It’s all true, what you say, but it was half a century ago. By 1983 CAMP had come into being and then round about ’84-5 they were using army reserves and other military and federal agencies to detain entire townships at gun point for days while they randomly and destructively searched every inch of the community for pot. They taught us school kids to snitch on our parents/ families for using/growing pot. The ignored the meth influx and rammed full speed up against the handful of back to landers and then the hippies took on and destroyed the logging industry leaving working men unable to feed their children. Out of sheer desperation and a flat refusal to sink so low as to request government aid the loggers suddenly found themselves thinking “if you can’t beat them join them” they threw up hands and threw them back down again into barrels of rich black soil and fish guts. And they came up with green. Sooner fishermen and later dairy farmers followed suit. 225 had past and everyone with a pick up truck or a CPA saw the opportunity of a few good legal loopholes. They flourished, for a time. They got cocky and then belligerent. I laugh manically at the irony that these timber workers and ther spawn once spat on hippies became pot growers to spurn working class stuffs only to go back to spitting on back to landers and hippies while they’re the ones breaking the laws and murdering the trimming staff. Poetic justice. That’s what I see in the decline. When i, a person who is 11th generation native, and a working class stiff could neither find work nor housing because the growers had monopolies on everything I gave a little curse and on a whim and a prayer I left Humboldt and California, on a road trip, and I ain’t never coming back. I cast a sentimental eye back there now and then an smile wryly and the decay…that’s what happens when a whole community defecates where it eats. Y’all can blame my father. He was the first logger turned traitor. Doug Smith. He did so much dirty to people he walk over anyone he could, stole homes and land by offering to help he promised “opportunities” to save ones home from foreclosure if they agreed to grow pot for him. The man made well over 24 million that way. When I left, drummed out because I would not bend to his ways, I said a little prayer. “Dear God, let me live long enough to watch the pot industry fail to see it end in everyone going broke let me live to see Doug Smith grovel on redwood drive holding a cardboard sign that reads ” Will work for food.” Destitute. Glory hallelujah. There is a god. By the way, I’m thriving in Arkansas.
Thank you Guest -good points all. We’re not short on intelligence, we’re not short on labor, and we don’t need no stinkin’ baatches. Becoming sovereign is not an event. It’s a lifestyle, a way of being, that has to be practiced by you (the sovereign), personally, every day. The furthest distance we have to go is within.
“And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed – if all records told the same tale – then the lie passed into history and became truth. “Who controls the past,” ran the Party slogan, “controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.” And yet the past, though of its nature alterable, never had been altered. Whatever was true now was true from everlasting to everlasting. It was quite simple. All that was needed was an unending series of victories over your own memory”. “Reality control,” they called it: Newspeak, “double-think.”
Maybe they’ll become lawyers. 😉
“Woe unto you lawyers! For ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindred.” Luke XI, 52
Moneychangers and lawyers. Just two.
Moneychangers function as the capacitor of the Network, where our labor-energy is vaccuum-siphoned off to, from cradle to casket, in exchange for worthless “Legal Tender” pieces of paper.
Lawyers do not practice law i.e., the Supreme Law of the LAND. The Land jurisdiction. They’ve been steeped in a Matrix of Legal for decades upon decades.
The least we could do is rid our lands of all unconstitutional pestilence behind the transparent veil.
We don’t want equity, we want law!
Like Eric Kirk asks, what will all the hard-working conservatives do to replace the hard-working marijuana growers, the mom-and-pops put out of business by draconian fees, taxes, and regulations that only corporations can afford?
What will the liberals do? Oh Yeah. Offer welfare. There is no magic love affair with liberals wanting to save pot growers. That’s a total misread of what it means to be liberal or conservative. It’s confusing coincidence- hippies being anti establishment (whoa! that word’s a blast from the past) and loving pot so the pot lovers are automatically anti conservative, with cause. That makes them liberal and concluding liberals would love pot growers.
It’s more likely conservatives would be the ones object to excessive taxes, regulations and fees even if they objected the nature of the business. They tend to admire incentive and enterprise. Too bad they have so little pull in the face of liberals blaming them for everything. The liberal shtick is more taxes, fees and regulations.
Right!!! Right on theoney honey. Tax evasion being the only major point on which the liberal pot growing conservatives are aligned.
Hardworking tax evading law breaking trimmigants raping murdering filth ? Hopeful the coming floods will wash them away with the refuse.
Pot made me tired and broke. Not much of an economy.illegal interstate still. How about a different feeding system.i don’t mean distribution of extra donuts. But , worldwide distribution of a useful fertilizer for inert medium.distribution, reguardless of social status or religion.inland phytoplankton deposit puts all elements next to necessary elements causing a demonstrateable vitality as micro amounts of many elements act as synergists and catalysts.also logical. Demonstrateable if allowed location for .
Once again, thanks to the California School System. Thanks to the bereft culture, and thanks for the shaking hands, lighting your cigarette. Thanks very much, for keeping it together this long… You go girl, you are furthering the cause, every day!
I predict great things, for the near and far future!
Getting busted made me tired and broke, but that’s the chances one takes. Not sure what your point is. Lots of unexplained money sloshed around the County for 20 or 30 years. Sorry you missed it. Consider going back on weed and giving up the spice or bath salts or Kessler or whatever it is.
I’d have liked to see some more perspective, but very well done article. Sales are down compared to when exactly? Last year? 5 years ago? 10? Some of those businesses have been around for decades. Are the sales just going back to a norm from the past, and not some inflated, unrealistic “norm” from the more recent past?
Generally, winter sales are down at most storefeont businesses I surveyed in Garberville. Even the chance of having a customer has decreased from summer levels, and there are fewer patrons than last year. No one reported regular returns or increasing sales this quarter.
US Postal UPS on track and other delivery services are all running pretty good right now thanks to Amazon eBay and other online markets what they call Brick and mortars are having a hard time all across the country and are especially going to have a hard time here most of us know why and are going to have a hard time coming up more and more time to get back into the garden the OG back to the Earth Er’s
In Garberville, nothing much good happens, ever! What businesses they do have, are mostly concerned with food and drink, and the rest, don’t seem to be about anything at all.
We are regularly exhorted to “shop local”, but what you can buy in Garberville, you can mostly do without..
It’s a town where nothing is under control! Wild dogs roam the street, bums are living among the citizenry, smoking weed on the sidewalks, doing their ablutions in public!
Corvettes crash into buildings, everything is for sale, there are no cops, no local government, no public buildings, and, it appears that the town has been abandoned for years!
Yes, you can buy a gun, some ammunition, some lumber, some organic salad greens, a hemp t-shirt, a tank of gas, a $12 sandwich. But why? Why shop in Garberville, the least charming town in Northern California?
Garberville, the town that strangeness and charm failed! Garberville, where the hospital hires folks from the Philippines and refuses to hire locals, Garberville, where people jump in their cars, shaking their heads, leave and never return. Garberville, where you can score any drug in the Pharmacopeia 24/7 down at the Motel, Garberville, where you can get high, drunk, laid, dosed with Chlamydia and Gonorrhea, get Pseudomonas at the restaurants and Hepatitis at the clinic, where no Doctor will live but where the Federal Clinic does a land office business, where the bums have smartphones and the trimmers ALL come from Spain and hang out until it starts to rain, Garberville, where nothing makes any sense and where they advertise “through the looking glass” as a public promotion…
Through with Garberville. I have steadfastly refused to spend a dime there, since 2012. Clean up your town, if you even want a town! Won’t even get off the freeway, not any more! Too scary, too many creepy guys, too much dog poop, stupid hospital, no reason to go there, ever again…
What to do, Garberville? Go ask Alice, I think she’ll know, when logic, and proportion have fallen sloppy dead, the white knight, talking backwards, the Red Queen, off her head:
Garberville – Best of luck, future endeavors, all that…
So it is basically a sohum version of Arcata?
Arcata. Don’t get me started…
Don’t get him started about Arcata, because it hasn’t experienced a commercial downturn and would totally disprove the point he’s trying to make!
The only reason Arcata stays afloat is because of all the students at HSU.
Well somewhat but mostly because in good times and bad government supported education salaries and receipts and keep growing. Guaranteed. And the spin offs generated by public funds through universities spread to the immediate surroundings.
And ignoring their corporate charter -to steal out of the pockets of their own community- a 1/2% sales tax. So much so, that Arcata and Fortuna (another one of the seven back-stabbing cities), have offered to remodel/repair Garberville’s Vet’s Bldg. – with left-overs from the 2017-2018 fiscal year. What a circle of duwad$.
Ready, set, BANG, I mean, go!
Trevor says what?
Arcata doesn’t have a quarter of the bums and they are much better about keeping them under control. Plus they have lots of restaurants. I live in eureka but I love arcata.
Eureka betrayed it’s citizens by sneaking in a fucking Walmart. We voted against it and the baysore mall went behind our backs. I hope that shithole mall burns to the ground with all the white trash inside.
Ah the warm glow of liberal love…
. . . . . . is waiting for you through the looking glass! Break away from the Dark Side! Renounce Trumpian Conservative Madness. It’s not too late. Move toward the light. Renounce fear and loathing as a religious tenet. You can DO it! For America, for the a World. Time is short.
Talking to yourself again?
You voted against a rezone of a commercial property. Walmart went into a vacant building and is doing a legal business where another business failed. They did not need approval because the property is already zoned for retail. Get your story straight.
There is a reason you are not allowed to decide what business comes to town.
You make me sick Trevor.
Since you’ve called me Trevor two three times, could you please explain the meaning? Do you think I’m Trevor? Is this a reference I should get?
Help me out here
‘Eureka betrayed it’s citizens by sneaking in a fucking Walmart ”
Yes they did. Zoning designation or whatever, the City Council knew beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the people in Eureka – and Humboldt County- by-in-large were opposed to WalMart.
Leave no authority existing not responsible to the people. -Jefferson
A retail store went into a retail space, hardly what you would call sneaking. And there were plenty of vacant storefronts in Eureka before Wally World came to town, so don’t try and blame it all on them.
Actually, I was OK with it in a zoned Industrial area. Sure, I hate Walmart, the VIBE alone before you get into labor issues. BUT, living in a free country demands sacrifice, so we must tolerate the freedom of others within very broad limits.
Walmart or other such store had no business on the waterfront. Not zoned for it for good reason. Tried to vote their way in. A-holes. But out where they are now? OK.
Arcata has the majority of industrial zoned buildings in Humboldt. The innovation zone. Major grocery stores, great food, a city council, a rapidly growing housing market, a college, a high school with access to a college classes, a local police force, a real hospital, multiple elementary and chatter school options, and the marijuana innovation zone has brought literally millions of dollars into the area. Arcata is nothing like garberville and isn’t just a hillbilly grower town with an attitude problem.
Get some help with your Garberville fixation bro.
town needs to get smart, keep gas prices low.. everyone will stop there for a tank. then coordinate local business to take advantage of that traffic flow through advertising
go garberville!
Only place Garberville will go, is down the tubes. Actually, I think it is successfully there already!
In a town with no cohesion, absolutely zero culture, and no message other than “bring cash, buy our dope!”, how could they do better?
I would rather shop in Hoopa! The people have more sense, and the town, at least it exists!
Nobody shops there! The pharmacy at Ray’s actually tried to charge me $230 for 30 pills, and refused to bill my insurance! A chocolate bar at Ray’s: $8.00! Not really going back, with Winco and Target only 70 miles away…
Read my reviews of Garberville businesses on Yelp! Yes, I really said that!
Your sort of town, is peculiar in that, hell, it doesn’t really exist! It’s just a bump in the road through a cloud of pot-smoke. Sensible people will not shop, not eat, not buy gas, not go at all where they don’t feel safe, where creepy guys comb the streets muttering dark epithets, where dogs run free, and where the hollow-eyed locals hate everyone from the outside world!
Garberville: wanking in the dark, getting high and believing something will happen today, where nothing changes but everyone talks about what needs to change, where the good-old-boys refuse to loose the reins of the times gone far behind, and also refuse to die, and, where the folks that do locate here, get discouraged or just plain disgusted, and flee with their real estate profits…
Garberville. You can’t fix it, can’t explain it, and nobody needs it. Where you only hear excuses and blame…
It was a place once. No more.
This is the most truthful and well-written overview of Garberville I have read yet. Thank you for your honesty. It will not be appreciated, but Truth Tellers rarely are.
Go talk to yourself somewhere else Trevor.
Can eureka have garbagevilles stop light for in n out burger, since they will not need it in the near future.
Go harass me on LoCo Trevor.
No wait,…
you got banned there.
Come on Kym I know you can do the same.
It’s useful to look at the restaurants as an economic indicator.. When folks here have money, they eat out.. Garberville has lost several.. House of B, Paradise Cafe, Waterwheel.. Others seem to be struggling.. An interesting new feature are the food trucks around town.. If we look at the entire community, Myers Flat has lost The Grove and Knight’s.. Miranda long ago lost Tarantino’s but the Avenue Cafe is thriving.. No more Mexican food (or food at all) at The Riverwood in Phillipsville but Chimney Tree seems to thrive.. when they are open.. Redway has The Frenchman and Deb’s, both really popular as far as I can see.. We need to find new ways to encourage tourism.. The number of cars on the Avenue of the Giants is phenomenal, every year.. How can they be lured into Garberville..?
Easy, stop hiring trimigrants and enforce the law. Main problem is the homeless drug addicts.
He has a personality disorder.
Yep….An impressive new entry in the local scene. All the best to Sam and Mary Jo in their new endeavor.
Even with recent price increases, the best deals for prepared food in SoHum are at Redway Liquor. It seems to be staying busy there.
If business owners want us to shop locally, they need to offer good value and/or something that can’t be found elsewhere.
A place that tries to profit on ice cream they buy at an already outrageous price, for instance, is going to have a tough time.
I’ll bet Milt’s Saw Shop is still busy.
Another Trevor name.
Dude who is this Trevor person you keep talking about and what’s the obsession ? I’m here trying to sift through your garbage comments about Trevor to find interesting comments about this article . Jesus
Wasn’t Milts just bought out? Busy like the complaints department? I’m going to start a new business. I will hire a secretary. If ye’all is fed up with this miserable county come visit my secretary go see HELLAN WAITE.
Don’t forget Hometown cooking, best prices in town on pizza. And very nice people that own it..
more parking would help out a bunch but good luck with that.bulldoze the ol bank of america make some parking there.
Yes!
Hi Pam Van Meter, happy to hear your store is doing great. I wish you the very best for the new year. Have not noticed CJ in the sports news. I bet he is a good basketball player also. Have a nice day.
First came to Garberville as a tourist from Pismo Beach area, staying at the Benbow RV park. The area grabbed me with it’s beauty. I had my wife and children in a 25′ motorhome. Heading north from there, I stopped at Ray’s in Garberville. A rough looking character approached us screaming about how much gasoline we burned… scared my kids. Left an impression.
We go to Garberville maybe 4-5 times per year. We trade with a local acupuncturist there. It is a nice town in my opinion, with some nice people. The culture us unique. I believe I could fit in there.
The first impression for a traveler entering from the north or parking near the “square” could be improved. Spooky transients and all. I’m sure this is being addressed at some level.
Best wishes to Garberville.
We keep the scary and odd folks around to scare off the straight people who are the ones who will really screw a community up. Evidence: just look at what they are doing to the marijuana world!
I thought the green-rushers effed it up with headaches, greed and self-indulgence, but they were mere child’s play.
Anyway, since you see past the surface noise, you probably awright. Lotta locals can’t even do that. Silly.
BTW while we are on the topic of economy:
those out of town carpet bagging legalizers are strident in their certainty that the problem with their market isn’t the taxes and regulations. They completely and openly blame the black market grower who cannot even enter their ziptie tent.
I say let the freak flag fly and run off as many of the straight People possible. Before they suck our souls away and we are all walking around town with a buzz cut and a stick up our ass [edit].
Good to hear this Lotta.
The downturn in the local economy has been going on for years. Legalization has exacerbated that. I work at the Blue Moon on Fridays and still have a hard time finding parking at that end of town. It seems to me that the places hit hardest are places that sell high end merchandise. The impact of Amazon et al cannot be understated. As far as tourism goes the town will have to reorient itself. It is hard to find food in Gville on a weekend afternoon and gas prices in Humboldt continue to be ridiculous. Richardson Grove State Park seems to be the biggest local draw for shoppers at the Blue Moon. We have families that have been shopping at the Blue Moon for generations while staying in the grove. A previous comment stated that he/she hadn’t seen any decline in business in Eureka…that’s not what I hear and the folks at the co-op can confirm that. I assure you the impact of the losses in the canabis sector will impact the entire region and competition from online retailers will only continue to grow.
As the dust (or kief 😉 ) settles, a deliberative, well designed campaign to encourage people to…
SHOP LOCALLY
and
SPEND MONEY WITH INDEPENDENT BUSINESSES
…would benefit all of us in So Hum!
Board of supervisors hands down are destroying our communitys throughout the entire county!!! Like the president there’s too much time before the next election for damage control!!! There a wrecking ball to the people and economy !!!!!!
The other end of the spectrum is Oregon where they made it cheaper and easier to get a permit. The latest survey estimates the legal grows are now producing 100% more product than domestic buyer demand. As this trend continues and prices fall accordingly the mega growers will take over the market anyway. Cannabis is becoming just another AG product.
Seriously. If ANY town in America should have businesses where tourists (and locals, I suppose) can consume cannabis products in a legal, comfortable, casual and contemporary environment, it should be Garberville! Same, in general for HUMBOLDT COUNTY. It’s like…. ‘Duh!!”
Mega breweries and distilleries control the alcohol market, but boutique, artisanal, small batch outfits still thrive. Same will happen with weed, as long as States don’t adopt the California attitude of wring-‘em-dry like we saw in Humboldt.
Trevor?
Not doing well on LoCo since they got rid of thunder Dome?
The pendulum is swinging to behead as many egos as it can.
DUCK! Oops. Sorry. Your second most favorite organ. Sad.
Glad you can see humor in what many of us see as horrific nightmares taking place in our nation.
I thought you made your “last click into this website” just over a day ago.
I don’t shop at Amazon because it’s cheaper. Any local business can get me to shop at their store instead of Amazon. All they have to do is create a simple website that stays up to date with their current inventory, and provide the same level of service that amazon offers when it comes to returns.
I would rather pay more locally but I have to be able to check what’s in stock without waiting on the phone or driving all the way to the store. Time is money.
Also I do not do business with anyone that allows vagrants to congregate outside of their business.
The real way to detect a downturn in the local economy in SoHum is restaurants and they are hurting.
People are not going to pay a 40 to 100%+ markup when they can order the same Chinese crap over the internet and have it delivered directly to their home. Businesses in town are going to have to tighten their belts and accept a smaller profit margin if they want to stay in business. There are many successful businesses that have been around for decades because they provide a decent product at a reasonable price. I have a 15% rule, if a business is marking it up over 15% I will simply wait a few extra days and buy it somewhere else.. But I am willing to pay that extra 15% to have something on the same day.
The fact is that sites like Amazon are hit and miss when in comes to pricing. Amazon is thriving because of selection and convenience. Last year I bought a new attic ladder. The exact same ladder was $60.00 cheaper when I ordered from a hardware outfit than what Amazon was asking. Independents can’t compete with the wholesale buying power of the big players so we try to offer more in personal service.
Have boycotted Chinese made crap for over 40 years. F-ck Wal-Mart!
Don’t think you realize just how many products are made in China. Was in line at Sears when the guy in front of me went off when he saw “made in China” on the Craftsman tool he was buying. Was treating a burn several years ago when I realized the Johnson and Johnson bandages I was using were “made in China”. Back when I was a kid “made in Japan” was looked down on. I thought about that when I was standing in line at the Saigon BX waiting for the next shipment of Canon cameras to arrive at the exchange. All depends on where you’re standing.
It’s a global economy now.
When I go to costco and spend 2 or 3 hundred dollars I save save enough to go out to dinner and pay for my gas.
Yes…I take a number of meds and the money I save at Costco is well worth the drive.
Dave. Serious question: Don’t local So Hum businesses suffer when you spend your ‘So Hum money’ at Costco? Or, is it mainly the non-independent businesses (Rays, gas stations, and….?) where your dollars spent at Costco would have gone?
I can’t afford to buy my food supplies locally. I go to Winco/Costco twice a month.
Don’t feel bad. The people who work at the local groceries can’t afford to buy there either…
The pharmacist has some sort of legal problem.
Sadly he is the only one who was interested in buying the business.
He has been in trouble before and that’s why he doesn’t take most insurance.
Your a reporter or was one so go ahead and research him.
It won’t take long to find malfeasance.
He *was* taking insurance but not filling out the paperwork so some insurances would cover some rx’s. Then he “didn’t take” some because those insurances wouldn’t work with him anymore- they discontinued him, and sort of fined him for rx’s that patients had to pay. Now I guess he’s “taking” them again, but after having several rx’s refused over the years because of him, including one that could have killed me if I didn’t get it, and another that would have cost me hundreds because he didn’t fill out the paperwork… I’ll wait till I hear from a good source that he’s filling out the paperwork right before I go back. Hopefully he is and will continue to do so now.
Because he is crooked and insurance won’t pay him anymore.
Thanks, I will look into that accusation 😉
I find that many, many, of today’s manufactured products are designed and built to be replaced asap. Some lamps have built-in lights – built-in, as, throw the lamp away when the bulb burns out. Water heaters -4 years tops. Electric water heaters come w/a heating element that is “Extreme'” -too many volts. Within four years the water turns to a bright white gel that grows in the bottom of the tank. -in case anyone is interested 😀
https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/how-to-flush-your-hot-water-heater/
Why thank you Lynn.
You can also install a filter, before the water goes into your hot water heater.
The board of supervisors, with 10 hands, have done more to damage the local economy than all the crime, all the dope, and all the whores. Blame where it belongs.
I’m with you ‘Merican.
Go away Trevor.
Garberville, Garberville, Garberville. Me love you long time… my first exposure to Garberville was around 1990 when the Redwood Run was thriving so hard. You would come up to Garberville and literally you couldn’t drive the streets the town was packed bikes everywhere all of the merchants singing and happy to embrace the infusion of much-needed funds. Many a local Merchant made enough money during this Redwood Run and Reggae on the River season to sustain themselves through the lean times of winter.
About 2007 I took up employment with a local traveling physician. We saw many a patient in Garberville, Redway, Arcata, Etc. People would literally pour in the doors it wasn’t unusual for us to see 60 to 65 patients in a day all laying down $200 a pop for their paperwork and possibly a get-out-of-jail-free card if the local sheriff cooperated. We churned out permits 5 days a week.
Business in Garberville was booming the line for Nacho Mama was down the street, Favors was always packed at lunch time the Art Gallery next door did a brisk business of people buying locally made trinkets and thank you items. If you needed a quick tanning session before you took off to Maui or any other tropical place instead of winter wonderland here you can always drop in for a few minutes on the tanning bed at Humboldt Hunnies. Many of the local clothing stores sold ridiculously expensive hundred dollar jeans $50 t-shirts and pricey handbags. Trimmigrants were not as plentiful the hire locals stance held hard!❤
Then it really started around 2009 that all of a sudden there weren’t as many people coming in for appointments. We tried to consolidate days and not come up to the north is often so that we would have a full schedule none the less. One time we even came and our office next to the hospital had burnt down. The owner of Cecil’s at the time was kind enough to let us convene with the patients that day in the lobby. Many of our patients that were so inclined to play piano twinkled on the keys and muffled the conversations the doctor had with his incoming patients. It didn’t take much longer than this maybe another year that we entirely stopped coming north to see patients and started trying to consolidate everyone down to one or two local offices. Sure there’s some booming money to be made in the cannaidustry, population boom, trustfunders backing it. Just remember many a young CEO with diamonds in their eyes are still cutting their teeth! The industry has had so many ups and downs over the years. But I will say that it has been a damn lucrative run while it lasted. Now’s the time to pull up our bootstraps and figure out what our next plan of attack is going to be for sustainability in our Northern California area. It’s not even Northern California it is the whole state everything is kind of crumbling. It’s all gone soft and limp needs an dose of of Viagra so to say. It had been a while since I looked at the Rolling Hills and the giant trees and beautiful colors in the Eel driving up the 101. I decided that I would go and visit Garberville a few weeks ago just to jog the memory banks. I was surprised at how dirty the Town Plaza had been a couple different trimmigrants hanging in the corner in extremely soiled clothes, too tired to beg for anything. No line at the restaurants. Art Gallery closed. It really surprised me the amount of life that has been sucked out of this place. In spite of this current climate time, temerity and tenacity…that’s the only thing that will tell in the end. For some of us it is soul deep good, bad, ugly or golden there is NO PLACE LIKE HOME ❤ NorMendoCo/SoHumCo! ❤
Yep, been here since late ’60s& still love it- the good, bad, ugly& beauty. Beneath the current veneer that trolls complain about, there lies the heart of why it’s so great here. Slow down, look deeper, meditate. Add to the sum total of positive energy, not negative energy. Smile and above all, be kind!
Maybe you can refresh my memory of the name of that grocery store at the north entrance to freeway, across from the laundry mat that had a billiards room above. The grocery store is now a Napa auto parts store. It used to be my favorite grocery store for candy and soda. The prices were great and the clerks were always in good spirits. It bugs me that I can’t remember the name.
Shak
It was originally flaherty’s Market, then Courtesy market, then Kash market. Then Napa Auto Parts.
Ernie, thanks! Flaherty’s was the one I loved. They were great. (while I was in there).
Garberville, since the first time we rolled through on our way to Carlotta in the early 80s, has been and still is a special place to me.
Will Garberville ever be the way it was back in the day? No. But then neither will Paradise, Redding, and parts of Santa Rosa.
California is taking hits from above, below, inside, outside, up, down, and around.
i haven,t shopped for food for 4 years locally.they are constanlly raising prices.
Garberville? Change the name- right now- to Cannabis Town or WeedLand and turn it into a theme town. Really it’s all you got. You were the epicenter of a resistance, then a greedrush but originally a resistance that refused to knuckle under to authoritarian rule. Now weed is legal in multiple states and countries, soon to be federally legal in the USA. Take pride in that! Wear it! You deserve it!! And since your real town got blown out and destroyed in the process you should just step up and make it a theme, since it already has been….just acknowledge what was already here, pay homage to the good parts of the past and go with it. People are building pot theme tours all over now but…it is actually real right here! You don’t have to build fake growhouses or drying sheds- you have the real ones- right here! I’m surprised y’all are sleeping on this. Honestly…your past is your only future at this point.
Yeah the gas stations in g ville and the grocery stores need to realize that the money milking is over. We need some competitive pricing here or people are gonna go hungry due to our sad political representatives !!!!! Flush the feces in 2020!!!!!!!!!
Didn’t you say you weren’t going the hector the sheeple ever again?
And it wasn’t the supervisors that wrecked Southern Humboldt, not at all…
Like Jimi Hendrix said: You’ll never hear surf music, again…
Pot tourists hell, you can get pot by mail order.
And Dave, Costco will MAIL you those pills!
The Supes. w/out balloting a tax, without the consent of the governed, imposed taxation without representation, on a targeted sector of the population. Hell, since Meas. Z supposedly passed (on an unlawful majority vote), and COUNTYWIDE, how hard was it to push a mj tax the following year?
Kinda hard to believe that five other cities in California, and three other states voted the same day w/wage initiatives on the ballots – they all passed. Eureka, on the other hand, combined with a friviolous1/2% sales tax sold to the people as Safety in Humboldt (particularly stationing deputies in Garberville substation), adding “And Other Essential Necessities”, said,”No, no we don’t want more income, but we do want to pay more taxes”. Really??
A General Law county (unincorporated), has specific rules spelled out about adding more duties on a Sheriff – it’s NO. Two subjects on a ballot title – NO. ALL taxztion OF ANY SORT, goes before the people for a vote.
The Supervisors and seven City Councils are as guilty as sin.
CH…You might want to read up on what types of taxes are required to be voted on and what percentage of yes votes are required. Virtually everything you posted in your last post is false.
This down turn began several years back. Getting completely gouged on groceries was the last straw. When we found that 120 dollars of groceries at WinCo would fill the car. Yet 120 at Sentry or shop smart barely filled 2 or 3 grocery bags. And as long as we were in Eureka, we simply did all out shopping there. When disposeable income became an issue, then everything changed. And the homeless derilects and crazy looking fools, lack of available parking, and just a general bad vibe. Stopped us and many other people I knew from ever going to G-Ville for anything.
I used to stop in Garberville on almost every trip south. Gas, coffee, breakfast, dinner.
After numerous hassles and disgusting episodes including a smashed window during breakfast, I no longer stop.
Now I just cruise on by. I do hit the Miranda cafe every chance I get though. Nice place
Mr.Bear, also known as Trevor.
Since you’ve called me Trevor two or three times, could you please explain the meaning? Do you think I’m Trevor? Is this a reference I should get?
Help me out here
alleviate the magic….that’s what the markee outside the old theatre should really say
It’s so bad this year Garberville didn’t put up the usual Christmas lights.
“It’s hard to go to the post office and see everyone carrying out boxes from amazon” – I without a doubt agree with this, however there is literally millions of items on amazon that you couldn’t find locally if you tried. Not to mention if you could find it locally it would cost you OVER twice as much as it would if you ordered online. Prices need to drop on ALL goods in town and I garantee there would be a surge of sales.
Like I said before, who do you want to support? The richest guy in the country or your local folks who are working in your local stores. I am sorry, when friend told me she bought toilet paper from Amazon, I almost flipped out. I know our grocery store is over priced but remember, who do you want to support?
Well….first and foremost I would like to feed my family and allow us to wipe our asses while not losing our property! Your comment was so incredibly …umm…privileged and classist and frankly out of touch with most people I know. We didn’t make a killing with mega-grows. We are not rich. We don’t have the option of making your ‘conscious” or “enlightened” decisions about “who we support”! Give me a break! Must be nice to be so special and heady like you. We are simply trying to hang on.
Ray’s and ShopSmart can lower their prices. They are both part of the same company based in Medford.
They are highest profits come from the stores here and one in Mount Shasta I don’t think they have plans on lowering their prices although they do shut down once in awhile trying to keep up with Safeway’s and other bigger stores
Yes, so are we shopping local when we shop at Ray’s and Shop Smart?
Before there was competition from places like Winco, the rich people were the local business owners who sold at Aspen prices and paid employees Stockton wages. There were families who controlled this small market like a fiefdom, keeping their hands on the Board of Supervisors and keeping competition out.
Separating the wants from the needs can be a challenge, and i’m sure it has something to do with age. and what one has ‘had to have’ in the past, and maybe didn’t get. And/or the size of your living space. Nevertheless, the age of accumulation ended years ago. Think of the extra living space available in, say, a pyramid w/a bed, table, frig, and a stove to cook on. Complete w/books, computer and printer of course.
Too much sh!t is the way i see the majority of my things that now surround me.
Taurus…almost everything you wrote is incorrect. Talk about your Fake News. Talk about bias. Against Everything! I hope 2019 brings you piece of mind.
It sucks the Christmas lights disappeared.
Undoubtedly due to a severe economic downturn.
Gee, I have never, ever said one thing about Garberville that was not strictly true, and everything I learned about it, I learned from working and living in the area!
The phoniest thing about Garberville is the Phony Hippies who act so groovy, but who are actually Trump-loving Republicans who hate everyone! Like you Bonnie!
Garberville is as ugly and decayed of a place as I have ever been, even worse than Willits, your sister place to the South. Evolution and the eventual deaths of the oldest may result in improvements, but from the direction your town is headed, I don’t hold out a lot of hope!
You may have been born at your hospital, you may draw your last breath down in Long Term Care, but Jerold Phelps Hospital is the rotten core of your town, and the best example of what is wrong in SoHum.
You can love it, but a quick indoctrination tour of your town suffices to educate. A town with nothing but selfish little bigots, provincial and paranoid persons, druggie stringers, professional level homeless addicts, and a few tired, sad businesses.
The gal who owns the day spa and a couple of clothing stores there, is the only one who knows what she is doing, and, one sensible person will not save your culture-less community!
I won’t repeat what I said previously, about ignorance and hicks, but, clean up your town, if you want anybody to shop there!
Lakeport, another town with nothing, has far more charm and value, although it is in generally the same condition. Lakeport is going the same way as Garberville, Arcata, Weaverville, Willits and Fort Bragg.
Enjoy the North Coast, expect it to change!
You must be fun at parties.
You are real cute, yourself…
If you had no balls you’d be a little cranky to
I was very unexpectedly laid off in July. I was an employee owner, or so I thought. I didn’t see it coming and wasn’t prepared in the least. Since that day I’ve been struggling to find the kind of stable work that I had there. It’s very hard to think you’ve found a career only to be told 2+ years in that the company can no longer afford you. I’m just one of several people that thought that they’d saved themselves by getting out of the industry before the downturn, only to find out that no matter where you work, the failing economy will find you. I have prayers that I won’t lose my entire 401k before I’m eligible to move it out of an employer match program to my own IRA. I have hopes that my friends that have blown their entire savings going legal can actually find a return on all their investments. All I know is that we’re all in this together and we need to help each other out as much as possible.
I myself was laid off, during the recent economic unpleasantness in 2007-2013, after 10 years with a 50,000 employee company with revenues around 10 Billion$/year, so I feel for you.
It is remarkable that you had a career in Humboldt with benefits, but, when the economy tanks, locally or worldwide, this is the solution that large employers follow, and it’s as American as America…
Life goes on, and, there is always the next thing! You just don’t see it yet! It’s a big country, and opportunity is everywhere, just maybe not on the North Coast!
Don’t give up, and hold on to that 401K a little longer, if you can. Check out positions in Ukiah, Lake County, Yuba City or even Sacramento, Vacaville, East Bay or even Reno. There’s other places, other towns, other states. The company you worked for may have locations in Oregon, Redding, Salinas. Have a look! Look at similar companies, look on Indeed.com, look around! Work on a resume, think for a minute and go for it! Chances are excellent that your experience, outlook and personal brand will appeal to another employer.
Work at it! This is easy. Keep a positive outlook and move forward. If you have to move, then move! Life is long, and a career takes a lifetime. Hang in there!
Um there’s a dope homeless problem across the country. Just Google SF junkies or Ohio Junkies or any location & junkies together and it’s across the whole board. Y’all act like it’s only Garberville. Sure it’s taken it’s downturn just like the rest of the country but that doesn’t mean there’s not a light at the end if the tunnel.
As for shopping, the complainers sound like it’s been decades since they shopped in town.
I always buy my boots from The Bootleg each year, my art supplies from The Papermill, Homemade chocolates from The Blue Moon Gift Shop. Funny T shirt gifts from Roberto’s Tees, my papers from The Caterpillar, pay my insurance at Farmers, my gas at Renner& the other stations depending how busy. I found non toxic music instruments, for the new toddler in the family, at Organic Grace. Haven’t bought any yet but there’s really cool antiques at Old Stuff antiques. Yummy smoothies at The Woodrose. Around back Emerald tech has saved my butt when my laptop died. The Stonery has nice affordable jewelry, while decorating and going all out for Santa & the Kids. Amillias upstairs restaurants breakfast burrito is to die for, while their new dinner menu & breakfast downstairs has been accommodated towards a tighter pocketbook. Ray’s food place, ya it’s expensive but if they weren’t there open till 11pm, I’d have a few unfinished wasted receipes if it wasn’t for them. Hemp Connection is spendy but maybe now that Hemp is legal, their prices might come down since they won’t have to import Hemp fabric anymore. I received a good haircut from Bombshell beauties, my cell at RadioShack/Branscomb center, California eggs Benedict at The Eel River with it’s nostalgia of what town looked like decades ago. Humm sorry if I missed any of you along with Redway & other exterior towns.
So maybe next time………..
try to look up and learn to find the beauty in life, even when it’s on hard times. If we all followed your mottos, life just sounds like it would be miserable giving up like your opinions have expressed.
I’m with you Tisk tisk tisk. The only place you missed was Chataqua. The fruit and veggies are fresher and CHEAPER than any other place in town!!! And the fact that have senior day every day is a real blessing for me. The cost of Dave’s bread is cheaper with no discount at Chataqua than the other two grocery stores. I get tired of hearing Chataqua is too expensive because it’s not!!!
Thank You Tanya for both your stories about So Hum. They show a love for our community and how much you really care. Thank You Kym for sharing them.
[…] Kym writes excellently about the collateral damage in the present incarnation of the pot […]
Tanya wrote it. I just published it.
Would you please shitcan Trevor and all his dozens of identities Kym?
Who the F is Trevor?
I’d sure like to know. Mr Lining keeps telling me I’m Trevor whenever I post.
P.S. I’m not Trevor
Yes, silence Trevor and throw him in the pit LOL. If you don’t like his comments don’t read them…
Who is Trevor?
Thanks again, Kym! I represented the central ideas of those who spoke with me. Make of it what you will, dear readers, friends and trolls..
I’m aware of that. I was speaking more or less to the Negative Nancy’s.
P.s. Silver lining who u talking bout? Lone opinion here, I’m afraid your no Sherlock.
This is just a little tiny slice of it, but i want to remind business owners that “clean” never really went out of style, especially for restaurants, and that i for one would be more tempted to stop and eat in Garberville/Redway if i found that cleanliness were a priority.
I can get a sort of grungy feeling sometimes just walking around outside if there is a lot of trash on the street and offensive smells; but when i go into an eating establishment, i expect to find clean glasses, tabletops, silverware, etc. For quite a long time, at just about every place i try in that area, they don’t seem to find it worthwhile to make sure the eating environment feels clean and safe. Not to mention the restrooms.
I know that some of the places probably are clean most of the time–and i generally like Garberville… i have fond memories. But i usually lose my appetite there nowadays. With such a heavy population of down-and-out and/or homeless people around, maybe businesses need to try even harder to make sure patrons can feel that they’ve left that behind, and are in an oasis of civilized cleanliness and hygiene, when they come into their places.
Not only 101 travelers, but Humboldt locals with business or friends down that way would be more tempted to drop some dollars if “clean” were a watchword for businesses there.
Maybe if business is slow and employees have some extra time, they could be reminded of that old saying, “If there’s time to lean, there’s time to clean.”
Laura, I have to agree.
For a small town ( both Garberville-Redway) we have a lot of houseless.
And don’t know of any small town anywhere that has as many houseless as we do.
At the most in REDWAY we have a half dozen that I know by site.
The ones that I don’t roll into town and do not respect it.
The other day one pulled it out and urinated on a building next to the liquor store where the houseless sit sometimes.
The houseless are pretty low right now but I wonder why we have as many as some actual cities sometimes.
Right now it’s down to the ones who have been here for years for the most part and if it was just them it would be manageable.
Rents for retail spaces will have to go down. Otherwise some of the businesses will go out of business even if they stay away from high end. Then the store fronts will remain empty until the owners decide to lower the rents. Might as well lower them now and not have to weather “no rent” for a while. It takes quite a while for people to get enough courage to open up a new business after seeing too many empty store fronts. I saw that during the recession in N.E.. Back then it took 2 years for store fronts to start to filling again. Commercial landlords were hurting bad.
The people who were making good money 10 – 15 years ago are not always the same people who were making good money 5 years ago. And a lot of the people who were making good money 5 or even just 1-2 years ago are now leaving the area.
Your post makes lovable sense until we stop to consider who really owns the buildings and the marketable goods.
The same ones who keep raising the interest rates are the same ones that get to foreclose on you.
Those who rent out their buildings also owe the banks and have to pay the interest. If it’s an old building, they had to retrofit for every new regulation that the bankers? lobbied into place. Not too many building owners had the cash on hand to retrofit every new regulatory action against them. Some also had to pay huge fines until their bank loans could be approved.
Rents went up. Prices of goods went up. Prices of hauling the goods went up.
Taxed when they stock up, taxed when the inventory has sold, & even taxed when the inventory hasn’t sold believe it or not.
The prices of goods had to go up, they couldn’t go down.
That’s the price we pay for a ‘perfect’ world I guess.
We try to purchase locally whenever practical. And that sometimes means paying more and maybe not getting exactly what we want, when we want. And it also sometimes means that we get greater value and availability than we could get through other means. We often get excellent help, service and advise in the process, and it feels good to support our local businesses.
You know Trevor trashed the thread right Kym?
Trevor will never be homeless. He lives in your head.
👍
I hope all the businesses pick up enough to make it through yet another season.
I’d keep a sharp eye on the news about the Feds (reserves) salivating for a 2% interest hike.
If they get their way, the avg price of everything from rent to food will increase by about $200.00 per month overall. The costs always trickle down to the consumers. I pity anyone who has to rely on a loan.
But, the good news is, if POTUS has his way, we’ll return to the gold standard and tell the feds and their irs goons where to shove it. Just the savings from that alone should help most pull through the rough times.
But then, there’s greedy Calif politicians who want to raise your gas taxes, tax your text mssgs retro 5 years, tax your air, tax your water…
You win some you lose some I reckon.
143 comments. Even ol E.K. has a link to here on his blog. I think the article title should be Exploitation, tell it like it is. Airing dirty laundry.
Poor Garberville receiving so many negative thoughts about business economics. Scare-city. Lack of this and lack of that.
Remember, this is not an economic evolution, its a spiritual evolution.
Culture isn’t based on money.
Eden is burning and California’s land is being divied up between the Corporatist land barons. Brown, Newsome, Trump, Kennedy, and Ron Howard didn’t visit Malibu, or Redding, or Santa Rosa.
We must NEVER STOP talking about Paradise.
Paradise Lost #47 Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Visits Paradise
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxdqulADpXQ&t=132s
CH, I discovered a little bit of info on the Ferndale FEMA fence you and a few others mentioned the other day. It’s probably definitely set up that way on purpose, to detain.
https://www.globalresearch.ca/rex-84-fema-s-blueprint-for-martial-law-in-america/3010
Remember the splc list that called all non commies opposition to their “democracy”?
Remember how they never thought she would lose?
Notice how terrified everyone became after he won?
The REX 84 spills the beans.
“This is why FEMA could not respond immediately to the Hurricane Katrina disaster ~ humanitarian efforts were no longer part of its job description under the Department of Homeland Security.”
Welcome to the data beast.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8-rwzItf9-o
Catherine Austin Fitts said the largest land holders in America have doubled their holdings. This woman is on point and spent 11 years fighting the Justice Dept in court.
This is a good interview with greg hunter.
In a nutshell, the government, and it’s contracted corporations can legally cook their books, with absolutely no legal action against them.
Yet, look at what happens when you don’t feed the tax assessing beast…you can have your life taken from you.
I think the people who question your logic should really open their eyes and do more research into this pyramid scheme called life.
Here’s a Jeff Rense interview…from a few weeks ago….titled, “How it will all go down.”
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qejloNrwhDg&feature=youtu.be
Sid,
Lots of info. on those two links. Gotta wonder how many ways there are to say the same thing? And, how many times does the truth have to be repeated? How long shall we discuss how we are being destroyed?
I was light on the percentage we pay in taxes when i said 56%. On the Jeff Rense interview, the guy says 80-85%.
~oh, and – “Yet, look at what happens when you don’t feed the tax assessing beast” I had to educate Strawn, and then Bartholomew. Eleven years now. There’s more than one way to skin a hide.
1. Property tax is unconstitutional -takes lots of explaining.
2. “In this state” “In the state.” gets your property off the tax roll, if you know what you’re doing.
3. NO ONE has my permission to use a name that phonetically sounds like the one i go by, in commerce.
4. The Tax Asser’s “Office” is listed as a private corporation – Humboldt Leasing. Using the United States Post Office (not usps) for mailing fraudulent statements can lead to mail fraud.
5. Mailing out fraudulent statements from a private Office into the public realm –
So corrupt, i could list more.
Well said, CH.
After watching the informative interviews, I listened to Stefan’s audio all the way through. It was very sobering. All they/we had to do was to heed the warning and prepare as best as possible. Odd isn’t it how Hollywood took a similar theme and turned into a comedy. (Fun with Dick & Jane). Knowing what we know now about Hollywood, I guess ‘odd’ isn’t the descriptive word to be used.
This song popped up and fits the theme to a tee. We can debate the ‘timing’ of the Son in the song, but all in all, the song rings true. I wish we’d all been ready, by DC Talk. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSW5uO4kKto
Off subject.
Hey shak and Sid,
I don’t know if you’ve watched or read about guillotines (made in China), being distributed, most to Texas. I just got this email from Canada group; ”Did you all see the video where they are talking about distributing guillotines throughout America, with the most being sent to Texas so they can take them down first because they are the best armed?
Americans, don’t give up your guns
We, in Canada are helpless without guns”
~Hasn’t crossed my mind about Canadians not being armed.
CH, There were rumors on that a few years ago, but until the proof is in the pudding… purchase tracking, shipping tracking, FOIA reports, …
It’s no surprise though, what they’ve been ‘planning’ for years. It’s not like t was hidden.
Fortunately, they were foiled yet again.
Check this thread out.
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1078917666889297920.html
Both go hand in hand with the solar flare warning scare don’t they.
Thank you for the links of info, Sid.
Although POTUS (any POTUS) doesn’t have the power of authority to abolish some of the outfits that need abolishing, he does have the power of authority to restructure.
The comments of the viewers were enlightening. They spotted symbolism in both the interviewer and the interviewee.
Recall the sad little theiving troll that’s representing the southern Humboldt region !!!!!! She’s doing a great job isn’t she lol !!!! Things are going great during her term for the residents aren’t they. !!!!!!!!
Documenting the proof would be helpful.
Winco my not be around much longer from what I read about companies folding.
What are you reading? The loss of Winco would be big.
WinCo Foods, Inc. is a privately held, majority employee-owned American supermarket chain based in Boise, Idaho with retail stores in Arizona, California, Idaho, Nevada, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Utah, and Washington.
they have no plans on folding and made a nice profit last year. 4.5 billion in sales last year.
We’ve all been told that, but even the workers have questioned that slogan.
Sears and Kmart are most likely going to all closed down across the country today was the last day they were taking bids for a rehab and nobody put in a bid
In the last minute somebody stepped up and put in a bid so Sears and Kmart will most likely stay open for a little while longer
Stage two collapse.