Outstanding Commentary by MarketWatch’s David Weidner on the Death of Polk County Bank

As David Weidner writes today: “If you want to know how the financial crisis is still wreaking havoc in America, how the government is picking winners and losers, and how the big banks have actually benefited from their own mistakes, you simply need to go to the heartland.”

For the rest of the story, go to “Who Benefits when a bank dies? The life and death of Polk County Bank.”

Woolson to Appear on Canada’s Top-Rated Television Network

Eric Woolson, owner of The Concept Works, Inc., will be interviewed today on Canada’s #1 television in his role as Iowa campaign manager for Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann.

Woolson will appear on a five-minute segment with host Rudyard Griffiths on the network’s flagship program, “National Affairs”. CTV is Canada’s largest private broadcaster, and reaches more than 25 million viewers each week.

Branstad at Plant Expansion Ribbon Cutting: “Accumold is a Home-Grown Iowa Success Story”

ANKENY, Iowa – State and local officials, including Gov. Terry Branstad, joined Accumold’s executives and employees as the high-tech plastic parts manufacturer today opened its $7 million, 44,000-square-foot expansion that adds 43 employees to its workforce.

“Accumold is a home-grown Iowa success story. I’m proud of the role that the State of Iowa has played in Accumold’s success but it pales in comparison to what its employees have done,” Branstad said. “I’ve known Roger Hargens for many, many years and he’s a guy who makes things happen. Accumold is an industry leader because he has infused his determination, vision and pursuit of excellence into every person who works here – and they’ve responded in true Iowa tradition.”

The five-term governor added, “I want to make sure Accumold’s story is an inspiration to established and start-up companies all across our state as we work toward our five-year goal of creating 200,000 jobs so we can provide the best job opportunities for Iowans.”

The ribbon-cutting ceremony, which included Ankeny Mayor Steve Van Oort, took place at the company’s facility at 1711 SE Oralabor Road.

“We congratulate Accumold on their bold vision and success that has led to this impressive expansion,” Van Oort said. “We remain committed to proactively creating a community where businesses like Accumold can thrive and are proud they call Ankeny home.”

Hargens said the expansion reflects the company’s mission as “an innovation leader on a path of sustainable, long-term growth while tapping the creativity, ingenuity and work ethic that represents the best of Iowa.”

“We compete and win every day in a global economy against companies and countries that don’t always play fair. We do it by being nimble, determined and, frankly, smart about what we do,” Hargens said. “Obviously, a company with Accumold’s track record and potential could locate anywhere; we want to be right here. Our work takes us around the world but no matter where we go, there’s no place like Ankeny.”

Since its inception in 1985, Accu-mold’s mission has been on the production of super-micro, ultra-precision, plastic injection-molded parts. Today, Accu-mold is an international leader in tooling and manufacturing complex, micro-size parts and components that often measure in mere microns. To produce those parts, Accu-mold builds specialized molding machines engineered to handle volumes from prototypes to millions per year while maintaining consistent, precise tolerances that are unique in the industry.

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Prolonged Economic Slump Forces Long-time Main Street Retailer, B. Wright Limited, to Sell Entire Line of Men’s Clothing

ZIONSVILLE, Ind. – While praising the community for “many years of incredible support,” the owner of B. Wright Limited said today the local retail will sell its entire line of men’s apparel in a sale that will begin next Wednesday.

“I can’t say enough about how well Zionsville has treated us. We couldn’t have been in a better town,” said Brian Wright, whose family has owned the store since 1968.

The store’s inventory sale will begin next Wednesday. The store, 140 S. Main St., will be open from 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. weekdays, 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Saturday and 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Sunday during the sale. Wright said that he hopes to continue the alterations and tuxedo rental portions of his business.

Wright noted that the store’s original owner opened at the South Main Street location in 1939. Wright’s father moved from Lafayette in 1963 to work at the clothing store. He left the store several years later to operate a local five-and-dime, but returned to the clothing store in 1968 as its new owner.

“I did chores at the store at an earlier age but started waiting on customers when I was 15. Dad taught me how to do alterations when I was 15, too. At the time I thought, ‘Why are you showing me this? But it turned out to be a blessing.”

Brian did leave the family business in 1978 for a brief time, moving to Arizona for five months to work in the landscaping industry. He returned to the area and worked for as a bricklayer’s assistant before returning to the store.
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After 45 Years in Business, Wells Big & Tall Store in Marion to Close its Doors

MARION, Ill. – Sabrina Yearack, owner of the Wells Big & Tall Store, might be thinking of that old Kenny Rogers song “The Gambler” as she announced today that she will close the store her family founded in 1966.

Yearack, who persuaded her father to move exclusively to big and tall clothing in 1990, has known when to hold her cards and now she’s decided it’s time to fold them.

“For 21 years, we’ve had a great run in the big and tall clothing business and I feel like I’m going out on top. Our store is in an excellent financial position and I’m getting out now because I’ve seen too many of my peers forced out,” Yearack said. “We’re having the sale because I’ve chosen to move on to my next adventure. I’m not sure what that adventure is yet, but I plan on making it as fun and memorable as these years have been.”

The public sale of the store’s inventory will begin Thursday. The store, 1010 East Dickinson St., will be open from 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. weekdays, 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Saturday and 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Sunday during the quitting-business sale.

The Wells family, including Yearack’s grandparents, father and brother moved to Marion from California, opening a used clothing store called Wells California Clothing in 1966.

“Back in those days, thrift stores were something new in Southern Illinois. My Dad and Grandpa used to travel back and forth to California every other month to buy merchandise from donation centers in Beverly Hills,” she explained.

As her grandparents retired in 1968, Yearack’s parents, Chuck and Bobbie, shifted the store’s focus to new men’s wear and ladies’ wear, buying clothes from the then-flourishing garment district in St. Louis. She joined the family business in 1988.

“I had never wanted to work in the business because I had grown up in it and saw firsthand how hard my parents worked, but joined thinking I would do it to help them until I found something else. I found out I really loved it,” Yearack said. “Dad let me take on most of the business and it really flourished.”

Her family had first ventured into the big and tall niche in the mid-1980s as a number of chain stores – “all the biggies,” as Yearack notes – began to set up shop in the area. On her advice, her father discontinued regular menswear and moved strictly to big and tall clothing in 1990. “He knew it was the right decision,” she said.

Since then, the specialty store has provided dress and casual apparel for big and tall men throughout southern Illinois, southern Indiana, Kentucky and southeast Missouri.

“The trend toward casual clothes has hurt mom-and-pop clothing stores all over the country and a lot of those stores went away in the 1990s because new malls sprang up in every neighborhood, but we’ve done well,” Yearack said. “We have clients who have shopped with us for 40 years. They’ve brought their children and grandchildren in and they’re still shopping with us. They’re going to miss our store and we’re going to miss them.”

She noted her building will be available for lease after the store’s merchandise has been sold.

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Des Moines Register: Bachmann campaign hires Iowa strategist Eric Woolson

By Jennifer Jacobs

Iowa Republican political operative Eric Woolson has been hired to lead communications for presidential candidate Michele Bachmann’s Iowa campaign.

In a statement, the Minnesota congresswoman said: “Eric Woolson is well-known not only by Iowa reporters and party activists but he has also earned a reputation among the national media as someone who works hard, knows his state and gets things done.

“We’re very happy to have someone with his experience and can-do attitude join us as we begin the critical push to win the Iowa caucuses.”

Woolson handled Iowa communications for former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty until he dropped out of the presidential race Aug. 14.

Woolson is best known for managing the 2008 presidential campaign in Iowa for Mike Huckabee, who claimed a surprise second-place in the Iowa Straw Poll in summer 2007 then surged to victory in the caucuses in winter 2008.

He also worked for George W. Bush’s presidential campaign, Sioux City Republican Bob Vander Plaats’ gubernatorial campaign, Mariannette Miller-Meeks’ congressional campaign and U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley’s re-election campaign.

Woolson started his career in newspapers, including time at the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier. He was later press secretary for Republican Gov. Terry Branstad’s first administration.

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Time’s Halperin: The Great Communicator

Bachmann Hires Iowa Campaign Veteran Eric Woolson to Communications Team in Iowa

Urbandale, Iowa – Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann announced today that her team has retained Iowa campaign veteran Eric Woolson to lead its communications efforts in the first-in-the-nation caucus state.

“Eric Woolson is well-known not only by Iowa reporters and party activists but he has also earned a reputation among the national media as someone who works hard, knows his state and gets things done,” Bachmann said. “We’re very happy to have someone with his experience and can-do attitude join us as we begin the critical push to win the Iowa caucuses.”

Woolson managed Gov. Mike Huckabee’s campaign in Iowa in 2008, and most recently, he was a senior adviser to the presidential campaign of former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty. With more than 20 years of experience as a print journalist in Iowa, Woolson went on to serve as Gov. Terry Branstad’s communications director and press secretary.

Prior to his service in the governor’s office, Woolson was the Iowa communications director for George W. Bush’s 2000 presidential campaign, and served on the communications teams of the previous three Republican National Conventions. In 2010, he provided counsel to Iowa gubernatorial candidate Bob Vander Plaats and congressional candidate Mariannette Miller-Meeks in addition to serving as the spokesman for U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley’s re-election campaign.

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Read more: http://thepage.time.com/2011/09/21/the-great-communicator/#ixzz1ZXX7cyPb

After 27 Years on Brownsburg’s Main Street, Laughlin’s Menswear Announces Quitting Business Sale

BROWNSBURG, Ind. – Citing the prolonged weak economy and changing consumer trends, the owner of Laughlin’s Menswear said today that he will close the store he has owned for 27 years and sell its entire inventory with a quitting-business sale that begins next week.

“I almost did it a year ago but decided to hang in there and keep going. I might have stuck it out had we not had this recession,” Steve Laughlin said. “I’ve been here since 1984 so this was not a decision that comes lightly.”

The public sale of the store’s inventory will begin Thursday. The store, 1032 East Main St., will be open from 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. weekdays, 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Saturday and 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Sunday during the quitting-business sale.

Laughlin, who was raised on a farm near Rushville, earned a bachelor’s degree in natural resources at Ball State University and went to work for the Indiana Department of Fish and Wildlife. He moved to California and worked in sales for several years before returning to Indiana. He worked in the Brownsburg store before purchasing it for the owner.

“All those years I’d been looking for something I liked and I found I really liked talking to people and really liked the retail business,” said Laughlin, who borrowed money from his father to buy the store.

Laughlin’s forte was word-of-mouth marketing and he captured attention for his store’s tuxedo rental section by hiring high school students to wear formal wear to classes as proms neared each year. “It was the least expensive thing I could do and it had the most punch,” he explained. “The store’s main focus was on the everyday men’s wear but I think high school kids are a blast because they just want to have fun. I’d hired one high school student each year, usually a football player at the end of that season, train them in time for the Christmas shopping season and they’d work at the store until the end of the school year.”

Like many independent men’s clothing stores around the country, Laughlin’s business flourished during the 1980s but began a long cycle of ups and downs through the early 1990s that stretched through the 2000s. Laughlin said sales slowed in 2006 with the arrival of the Kohl’s store in Brownsburg and dropped again in 2009 as the recession hit.

With chain stores purchasing massive lots of clothes from shops in China and India at lower prices, Laughlin and other independent retailers have seen their suppliers struggle and go out of business over the past decade. Compounding the store’s challenges were two other national trends: more consumers are also purchasing their clothes online, and more men are wearing increasingly casual clothes in the workplace and at previously formal events such as weddings.

“Men don’t dress up as much for work us they used to do years ago. First it was casual Friday and then the whole work week became much more casual. That’s when the trend toward buying clothes really moved from the independent men’s stores to the big box stores,” Laughlin said. “We’ve really battled that by delivering a higher level of customer service but the time has come to call it quits.”

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In the Face of a Weak Economy and Changing Consumer Trends, Big & Tall Men’s Shop in El Paso Anounces Quitting Business Sale

EL PASO – Citing the prolonged weak economy and changing consumer trends, Big & Tall Men’s Shop owner David Schecter said today that he will close his store and sell its entire inventory with a quitting-business sale that begins next week.

“It’s a really tough decision but it was one that had to be made,” Schecter said. “My father and uncle started the business in 1979 and I’ve been here since 1984. I have a lot of good relationships with clients and have made a lot of great friendships over the years but it’s one of those things where the business just can’t go on.”

The public sale of the store’s inventory will begin on Thursday, July 21. The store, 6800 Gateway Boulevard East, Suite 1B, will be open from 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. weekdays, 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Saturday and 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Sunday during the quitting-business sale.

Schecter noted the store opened in 1979 after his father and uncle closed their regular menswear store several years earlier in the wake of the 1976 devaluation of the Mexican peso, which hit the local economy hard.

“They saw the need for a big-and-tall store. At first, we were a unique business and there really wasn’t any competition so business was very good from 1979 to 1989,” Schecter explained. “We started to see the discounters and department stores moving into our market sector after that and cutting into the pie. Even then, we continued to succeed for a long time because our advantage was customer service.”

However, as the chains purchased massive lots of clothes from shops in China and India at lower prices, Schecter and other independent retailers saw their suppliers struggle and go out of business. Compounding the store’s others challenges were two national trends: more consumers are also purchasing their clothes online, and more men are wearing increasingly casual clothes in the workplace and at previously formal events such as weddings.

“Ultimately, with the economy down the past couple years, internet retailers not having the kind of overhead that we have and everyone going casual, our business has simply been down too much,” Schecter said.

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Raven’s Men’s Women’s and Shoes Quitting Business After More Than Two Decades as Ludington Downtown Anchor

LUDINGTON, Mich. – Raven’s Men’s Women’s and Shoes, a local retail mainstay for more than two decades, is quitting business and will sell its entire inventory, owner Chris Raven said today.

“It’s such an emotional decision, it really is, but I know in my heart that it’s the right decision for my family,” he said.

The public sale of the store’s inventory will begin on Thursday, June 16. The store, 117 E. Ludington Ave., will be open from 9:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. weekdays, 9:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Saturday and 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Sunday during the quitting-business sale.

Raven began his retail career in Manistee in 1982 after playing professional basketball in Argentina. “When I came home, my dad asked, ‘Would you like to buy a clothing store?’ I really knew nothing about running a store at the time but we made the deal and the business was a real success for us.”

Raven met his future wife, who also was in the retail clothing business, in Manistee. After they married, she bought the women’s clothing to stock the stores while Raven purchased the men’s clothing. Raven Men’s Wear opened in Ludington in 1986 when the building where the store is located came up for rent. The couple operated both stores until 2006 when they closed the Manistee location.

“I had some regrets when we closed the Manistee store but not as much as with this one. I’m more tied to the area. I grew up in the county,” Raven said. “My family is here. My wife’s family is here. Our customers have just been the best any retailer could hope for. So, all of that makes the decision to close the Ludington store just that much harder.”

He continued, “I’d hoped to continue for a few more years, especially because the business remains strong. But, there’s a time for everything and after a terrific run it’s time to slow down a little and do something else.”

Raven noted that a smaller store the couple owns, Ludington Gear, will continue business as normal.

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