Area businesses keep hope

Despite a dismal report from the U.S. Census Bureau indicating dropping sales numbers and flagging consumer confidence nationwide, members of the greater Crescenta-Cañada business community remain confident about the local economy.

The report, released Oct. 15, showed national retail sales in September were down 1.2% from the month before, and were down 1.4% from September 2007. The numbers for October won’t be released until Nov. 14, but analysts are predicting sales will continue to drop even as the holiday season approaches.

In the Foothills, business owners are treading through the economic downturn with cautious optimism. Jean Maluccio, a board member of the La Crescenta Valley Chamber of Commerce, recently conducted a study of about ten La Crescenta businesses to asses the local impact of the financial crisis. The economic downturn is hurting retailers and service providers, Maluccio said, but so far they have not been forced to make any drastic operational changes.

“I think [business owners] are hopeful that this will go over and things will be fine,” Maluccio said. “I think they are holding on, but it is not easy.”

Businesses that are struggling the most are the “in between” stores that can’t compete with the low prices of chains like ? Walmart or the high-end branding of stores like Macy’s, Maluccio said. Owners and managers are making small changes in order to cut costs and attract more revenue, including trimming employees’ hours and adding new products.

Pat Anderson, president and CEO of the La Cañada Flintridge Chamber of Commerce, said business owners in La Cañada are being encouraged to hold off on major decisions and to continue to work to the best of their ability.

“I don’t believe [past economic downturns have] been as deep as it has been this time,” Anderson said. “We will come out of this and we will survive, but it is going to take a tremendous amount of discipline and effort to get through the next two years.”

Floyd Walters of BWA Mortgages in La Cañada said the recent economic downturn has brought an end to the freewheeling era of no-down-payment home loans.

“[Mortgage businesses] are still here and we are still viable. But in my 23 years [in the industry] this is by far the most challenging of the 23 years. We have not seen this kind of economic climate.”