Joanns died b/c of two things - they stocked items no one really wanted, and they doubled down on that by opening way too many stores.
With a focus on fabric and yarn, they would still be here - maybe. Handcock Fabrics went the same way and they died. Hopefully, someone will take a clue and start a new focused venture. Buying fabric over the web is horrendous.
This wasn’t my experience, if anything, they often didn’t have stock in the store and told us to go online to buy the item.
And 800+ stores doesn’t seem like over saturation, it looks like there are more BestBuy and Hobby Lobby stores than that and they both sell stuff that most folks would feel equally comfortable buying online. Where, as you rightly stated, buying fabric online is a non starter for most folks.
My experience was similar to the author, bare shelves and 1 or 2 folks around to help customers…it honestly felt more like purposeful neglect on the part of the owners.
Or more likely, the safety measures were bypassed because they were a PITA. You can put all of safety measures you want on equipment, but humans have this insane mindset of faster = better. Yes, that includes top to bottom of companies.
The subsides were during Clinton and Bush 2. BMW and Mercedes were here long before Biden and Obama. It makes good sense to manufacture your product in the area it is sold - that's the real reason for their mfg base establishment.
Not only the direct jobs, but also the other support ones - automation, suppliers, maintenance, facilities work, etc.
Absolutely, especially with larger/heavier items like cars... I'm frankly somewhat surprised there aren't more assembly plants across the US just to reduce the shipping costs of the final product. Even with a more globalized supply chain of the component parts.
I'm talking of the Biden-era IRA here. BMW had to invest 1.7 billions in 2022 to manufacture most of its EV directly from there as you can compete in the US market without the IRA subsidies and the conditions severely limit even which parts you can import.
That's a significant shift moving from final assembly to forcing most of the supply chain to be relocated.
The NYT has obviously not been to Atlanta, especially in Duluth, where is the heart and soul of Korean food expansion - so much so Google Maps lists it as Koreatown.
This is a worldwide trend - new markets are available everywhere. As a capitalist society, we should embrace the new entrants.
As was the administrations of Clinton and Obama. The real issue is they (whomever is currently in power) can do these things, and there's nothing we can do to stop it from happening.
Because Columbia has some of the best scientific and medical researchers in the world and they apply for competitive grants. That's how scientific and health research is funded in the United States, and we reap massive economic and health benefits from that research. For instance, Eric Kandel, who won a Nobel prize for discovering the biological basis of memory, is a Columbia faculty member. Columbia has a budget of $6.3 billion, so the income from its endowment can only fund a portion of operations. And even then, most endowment income can only be spent for a particular purpose specified by the donor and can't legally be redirected.
With a focus on fabric and yarn, they would still be here - maybe. Handcock Fabrics went the same way and they died. Hopefully, someone will take a clue and start a new focused venture. Buying fabric over the web is horrendous.
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