News Juxtaposition

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JournalWeirdUpdate
I just received my daily email news update from the Winston-Salem Journal and their lead headline is the crash of a Charlotte-bound US Airways flight into the Hudson River in New York.  Not to make light of that story, which hopefully will find that no one was seriously injured since early reports seem to indicate that the plane seemed to stay atop the water until rescue boats could get to it, but it's what's under the headline and the accompanying photo that was kind of jarring.  It's this sentence: "Also, Midfielder Michael Lahoud of Wake Forest went as the No. 9 pick, to Club Deportivo Chivas USA, based outside Los Angeles."  That's followed by the link to the "Full Story" which is the airplane crash story. (Click on the picture to the left to see what it looked like).

It looks like the wrong description was attached to the headline, which is too bad for Lahoud since it's a happy occassion for him.  It's also a tad confusing because until you click through to the story you think maybe he was on the plane or something.  Why else would he be mentioned?  I suspect that what happened was that the MLS draft story was the lead until the plane crashed and they had to do a last minute switch and forgot to change the description.

But let's end on a positive: kudos to the Journal for highlighting two of Wake's soccer players getting drafted.  All too often the Deacon soccer program is forgotten despite being a national powerhouse.

Abasto

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This is kind of cool: I just read a press release about a new business-to-business magazine being launched by Hispanic Marketing Consultants here in Winston-Salem and targeted to Hispanic store owners and at the bottom I see that a buddy of mine is their contact for buying ad space.  Danny Gelatt is a good guy and we've mixed it up on the tennis courts over the last couple of years.  Here's the scoop on Abasto:

The idea for Abasto magazine came from entrepreneur Dan Calhoun, principal of Hispanic Marketing Consultants. "Our company has worked with a lot of Hispanic business owners who work very hard and have been successful. But we found that there was a knowledge gap for them, one that prohibited them to grow their businesses into greater profitability. First and foremost, our job is to give them the essentials of best business practices that they can apply to their companies. 

"But we also paid attention to the fact that many manufacturers and distributors of Hispanic foods have not had a way to communicate efficiently to this large and growing Hispanic population of business owners," Calhoun continues. "These groups have been virtually untapped — and now this magazine becomes the platform to connect. It's a perfect way to accelerate sales to this significant audience." 

For more information, contact Francisco Camara at editor@abasto.us or 877.817.3674. To discuss advertising opportunities, contact Danny Gelatt at dannyg@abasto.us or 877.817.3674.

Disappearing Realtors

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Back when the real estate bubble was in full swing I had some pretty strong feelings about the real estate business, in particular the idea that realtors were getting paid a 3% commission when they had to do next to nothing because the houses were literally selling themselves.  Of course I ticked off some friends (and strangers) in the real estate business, but even if we disagreed about the merits of the payment structure we did agree that when times got tough a lot of the realtors would disappear because it's tough to make a living when you're getting paid 3% of nothing.

I thought of this when I was speaking with a friend who's a realtor and she was telling me how tough times have been.  She mentioned that this is the time of year for renewing with the realtor association and that the rates had been raised, so she thinks that a LOT of realtors are going to disappear in the next month or so.  I fear she's right.

BB&T’s CEO Elected to the Board of Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond

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BB&T's new CEO has been elected to the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.  From the announcement:

BB&T Corporation (NYSE: BBT) today said that Chief Executive Officer Kelly S. King has been elected to serve on the nine-member board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. 

King was elected to a three-year term as a "Class A director" by the stockholding member banks of the Fifth Federal Reserve District, which is served by the Richmond Fed. 

"This is certainly an honor, but also an important responsibility, particularly during these difficult times," said King, who succeeded John Allison as chief executive officer on Jan. 1. "Monetary policy is critically important. As a representative of BB&T, I'm looking forward to doing whatever I can to contribute to a meaningful dialogue around the economic issues facing us." 

Oughbamanuts: Krispy Kreme Giving Away Doughnuts on Inauguration Day

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Krispy Kreme announced that they are giving away doughnuts next Tuesday.  What was that day again?  Oh yeah, some dude's officially starting his new job.  From the press release:

"Krispy Kreme is taking the inaugural festivities nationwide," said Ron Rupocinski, executive chef for Krispy Kreme. "We're inviting our fans in cities across the country, including Washington, D.C., to commemorate this historic day with a favorite American treat." 

The Inauguration Day promotional offer is good for one doughnut of choice per customer on Jan. 20. No purchase is necessary. To find a participating store near you, visit http://www.krispykreme.com/storelocator.html. 

Senator Burr Has a Blog

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Republican US Senator, and Winston-Salem home boy, Richard Burr has a blog.  He started it on New Years Eve and he's posted consistently since then.  Since things are just getting started for the year in Washington he hasn't really had anything exciting to post about, but once the inauguration is over next Tuesday I think things will heat up and I hope that Sen. Burr gives us some of his viewpoints without the filter of the press or a ghost/staff writer.

Mud or Poop? UNC or Duke?

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Ed Cone, a big UNC fan who otherwise is a very fine fellow, was asked by his wife why a UNC loss to Wake is just another loss while a UNC loss to Duke was like "drinking lye."  After getting over the fact that she actually asked him this after 20 years of marriage he came up with this: "It's like the difference between stepping in mud and stepping in dog poop, that's why."

Well I have to concur that Duke is like poop, but in my world UNC is mud. 

Dead Pool

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Esbee's post about various states of local small businesses, some moving and some gone out of business, coincided with my discovery that the Back Yard Burgers in Lewisville has been closed since last month. Given that the Back Yard Burger website says "Under construction" I'm wondering if the whole chain went under.  After seeing that I'm tempted to start a "Dead Pool" for area businesses, but considering how depressing most of the economic news is these days it just feels too "icky."  

I will go so far as to say that my personal feeling is that the bloodletting in retail has just begun, and it hurts me to say that.  I love and respect entrepreneurs.  To me they're the true heroes in business, far more so than the titans who run the mammoth corporations.  Entrepreneurs put their financial lives on the line every day, while the corporate chieftains merely face public failure and perhaps losing their jobs.  Sure that's hard, but at the end of the day they still have their golden portfolios and they probably aren't facing the loss of their homes since they didn't have to put them up for collateral to finance their companies.

So let me say this loud and clear: Save the entrepreneurs and shop local.

Shows What I Know

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Over the last few weeks I've had multiple conversations with fellow basketball fans about Wake Forest's young and very talented basketball team.  My take was that they were a good team, but they're young and I didn't think they'd played the kind of schedule that merited their high ranking.  When North Carolina lost to Boston College I figured that was their wake up call and they'd come into the Joel with a chip on their shoulders and beat the Deacs in a hard fought game with about a 10 point margin.  Although I thought that Wake Forest's win at BYU was a great win, and a big deal for a young team, I also thought that UNC would be the first real test for them and that their youth would betray them.  Happily I'm eating my words.

Is Winston-Salem Pursuing GMAC? If Not, Should They?

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Talk about coincidence: a couple of days ago I was talking with some friends and we were discussing GMAC restructuring so they could get some of the government's bailout funds.  Someone asked where GMAC was headquartered and we all agreed that it was probably Detroit, but we weren't sure (we were in a bar and not inclined to do a quick online search).  The next morning I read that GMAC was indeed headquartered in Detroit, but they were considering a move to Charlotte because they already have operations there, the CEO used to be a Bank of America exec and kept his home in Charlotte after taking the position at GMAC, and they figure there will be some banking professionals looking for work when Wells Fargo starts laying people off.  (Since GMAC has restructured as a bank holding company they need to hire bankers).

So, are our economic development people here in Winston-Salem thinking about going after GMAC?  I think they should and here's why:
  • We have our own banking professionals suffering from the financial industry turmoil.
  • We have lots of nice office space ready and waiting. 
  • They'll be a bigger fish in our pond, thus more likely to get attention from our local leaders.  Businesses love that. 

Sure it's a long shot, but it's one of the better opportunities our community will probably see for a while so why not go for it?  And if someone says that we should play nice with our neighbors to the south my reply is, "Remember the Alamo merger!"