Sacramento: One in seven businesses has closed

[Newsjock]

Source: Sacramento Bee

An empty shell occupies 9,500 addresses across the Sacramento region – one closed business for every six still open, according to a Bee analysis of U.S. Postal Service data.

That's more dormant businesses than in 17 entire states, including Utah, Arkansas and New Mexico.

... No California county has a higher proportion of shuttered businesses than Sacramento, according to the data. Placer County ranks third.

As of September, the number of dormant addresses in Sacramento, Yolo, Placer and El Dorado counties had jumped more than 50 percent during the recession, according to the postal service data, which logs formerly occupied commercial addresses – office and retail – where mail has not been picked up for more than 90 days.

There is some hope. Besides a nebulous optimism that the economy may have bottomed out, commercial rents have fallen sharply as supply exceeds demand. Entrepreneurs with cash can get a deal and jump-start a new business.

But cautious and troubled banks aren't granting many loans to launch enterprises. Many businesses and offices are stuck with rents they can't afford, while relocation costs keep them from moving. And consumers and companies have changed their spending patterns, growing accustomed to smaller offices and brown-bag lunches.

Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/topstories/story/2536025.html

[FreakinDJ]

1. Stupid Shits banking on endless rising home prices

Ya - I live here in Stupidville Sactown USA

Talk about Developers Run Wild and the Dipshits who think they will profit from it. We have whole housing tracks built 35' below the river level built right along side the levee - which fails some where in the State about every 10 years.

The sad part is most of these "New Businesses" were opened with some guy's life savings (401K) from the job he lost due to "Out-Sourced Jobs".

[rpannier]

2. I'd be interested how many of the businesses that haven't closed are named

Mc Donald's, KFC, Burger King and Taco Bell?

[izquierdista]

3. Who would want to start a business?

Starting a business in that climate, an entrepreneur soon finds himself entre-manure.

[sharesunited]

4. Ha ha, entre-manure. That's a plate full of poo as your main course.

[FirstLight]

5. well it is comforting that it isn't *just* us

and yes, i am being sarcastic this morning.

Here in Tahoe (ElDorado County) the recession is more & more obvious every day... I have thought about driving down the main drag and taking a tally of how many places are vacant.The pictures would be shocking for a place that calls itself "the world's playground." It is becoming common to see a business open and close within a couple months time. If a place stays open a year, it's chances of survival go up...however, with the "redevelopment" thing going on around here, rents have quadrupled and it has driven most businesses belly up.

Add to the fact that the city council is in dire straits as well and most of our public works people have been laid of, city employees are forced to do furloughs, and there is a multi-million "convention center" at stateline that the developer bankrupted out of...so now we have a huge HOLE of rebar and concrete in the center of downtown. nice.

To survive here you need to have an angle...either work 3 jobs or be a doctor or something indispensible. The rest of us are just trying to stay afloat, maybe looking for jobs "off the hill" and trying to figure out how to make that transition...or if you are too poor to move elsewhere, you just wait till things get better. Or take a $8/hour job at the ski resort for a few months...

[Paper Roses]

6. I think I live in "Everytown", USA. Last week, 2 more stores

closed. It seems to be our weekly average. There are so many for rent or sale signs all over commercial buildings. This same town was a vibrant community before the 1990's. Each week our newspaper posts the list of foreclosures and it breaks my heart. Years ago-pre-****, this was a rarity.

The other towns near me are the same. I think it is week to week with many of these small businesses.

I would love to support my hometown businesses and did for a long time. Along with most others, I have had to adjust my lifestyle so much that I have to head out of town to find more reasonably priced foods. I am not a big consumer of goods. Every penny goes to pay for insurance, utilities, food, gas, Medical. There is just nothing left.

Of course, the fact that I don't have a job now does not help. I keep looking.

I would like to invite any powerful politico to stay with me for a week and see just how I live. I am struggling to keep my house. Maybe if someone jumped in first hand, the idiot decision makers in DC would have a better grasp on reality in "Everytown"