Hi everyone, It is the end of the year again and this year
has had its happy moments and some hard moments in the business world and in my
life as a person. Everything from new businesses and business closures to some
fun experiences in my own life, and from working on starting my own business,
which consists of selling my art on totebags, notecards, and ornaments which
features the Placerville painting at the beginning of the post, to trying to
gain life skills so I can live on my own. From taking vacations to voting in
elections, this year has had its own unique moments, which I would like to
highlight a few significant ones. Lets start with the hard stuff first to get
it over with.
1. Store Closures and Deaths-
I have these categories mixed in, even though I shouldn’t
treat business closures and people dying as the same thing, since they are not.
But some businesses in my mind felt like people I love and loved and losing
them was hard. This was honestly a hard year for business closures and a harder
year than I thought. Since there were so many business closures this year and
many in our local area, which we fortunately didn't have as many of last year
and thought we wouldn't have this year. I honestly thought that the business
closures would make way for the new businesses we have wanted to see come to
the area for many years and that we would see some amazing remodel and
redevelopment projects on old properties that would make the world a better
place. Even though there have been many of these new developments happening, it
seems like the business closures of this year have been harder than in years
past. And some places just become empty buildings. And maybe even highlight
what places I want to see return. But as this year started with the closure of a
longtime Rite Aid location in Placerville to ending it with the retirement of
Sam Goody, and from the death of a family friend named Jim in August to the death
of our 39th US President, Jimmy Carter (which hadn’t happened when I
started writing this).
In Placerville: Rite Aid at Fair Lane (January 2024),
OfficeMax (March 2024), Walgreens (April 2024), and Big Lots (July 2024)
This year started after Christmas when the impending axe
swung onto the Placerville-Fair Lane Rite Aid when it was announced on the
closure list on December 27th 2023, and we had to say goodbye to this late 90s
drugstore time machine. A week after I had visited this store location with my
ILS worker. Even though there is still a Rite Aid in Placerville on Broadway,
it has been remodeled into the new design and doesn't have the 90s vibe to
it.
When we thought the Rite Aid closure was enough for the year
and looked forward to what would fill Rite Aid, Placerville was dealt with a
much larger blow and even its pride in not being able to continue to support
their office supply store and the part of the experience of keeping going to
In-N-Out Burger the same as it was in 2009. For office supply store shoppers,
there are still Staples in the Sacramento area including the one in Folsom. But
it is hard to see the OfficeMax sign from the freeway blacked out, similar to
how Del Taco's sign was blacked out when it closed, because I know Placerville
is changing and isn't the same place it was. I hope for the better though,
because for the worse stinks.
Then Walgreens decided to close their store at Missouri Flat
Road. It was just a drug store, but why did Placerville have to lose another
store before they would get new stores to replace them. Didn't we just lose
Rite Aid and OfficeMax. The Joe Biden economy really stinks, and is painful to
be reminded about because I just wanted to believe Trump was still running the
economy and hopefully in a couple months, he will again.
Fortunately, the Rite Aid space is getting filled by Grocery
Outlet Bargain Market in the near future. But after we were joyful of hearing
the news about Grocery Outlet filling Rite Aid in July, Big Lots decided to
close their store next to Rite Aid along with what would eventually be the rest
of the chain, evening things out back to what they were, three new empty large
storefronts.
4. McDonald's Iron Point Road Folsom and its 90s PlayPlace
and Carl's Jr at Iron Point Road which formerly had a Playland
Even though I am not a McDonald's fan or haven't even eaten
at a McDonald's in twelve years, it was hard to see an amazing blast of the
past die when they removed their old-school playground in April of this year.
And weirdly, it was good to see the McDonald's restaurant close because it
makes it easier to create a clean slate for a new store or restaurant to
operate there and not keep being reminded of the PlayPlace that used to be
there. Here's my full article about it: https://haydenbusinessblog.blogspot.com/2024/05/the-mysterious-history-of-restaurant.html
5. FYE Yuba City
(Note:Not the Yuba City location, but another closing FYE location)
On our daytrip to Yuba City this past May, we got to visit
the mall with this FYE, the closest one to the Sacramento area, something I
wanted to do a long time ago to hopefully buy some CDs from some of my favorite
bands. Since the closest FYE's to Sacramento, Arden Fair Mall which closed in
2009 and the Galleria at Roseville, which was destroyed in the infamous fire in
2010 and didn't reopen, this was our closest location. Unfortunately, when I
was about to go into the mall, I saw that the store had their red and yellow
store closing, everything must go signs up and I couldn't go in to see it
because it would be too painful to face the fact that FYE would soon be no more
there. Fortunately, it wasn't the end of CD/DVD/Records/Cassette/VHS Stores in
the region. There are still local record stores in the Sacramento area, such as
the Cave in Folsom, Sacramento, and Roseville and many independent record
stores to shop at. FYE still has locations in Modesto, Concord, Milpitas,
San Jose.
6. Kingda Ka
Technically, this was not a business, but a ride. And was
the world's tallest roller coaster. It was at Six Flags Great Adventure in New
Jersey. I never got to ride this ride, which made losing this one maybe a bit
sadder because I will never get to ride it either. This ride lasted from 2005
to this year. But it does sound like the ride will be replaced by a record
breaking roller coaster ride. Hopefully, it is good.
6. Sam Goody and their two last stores
This week, we learned that the two last Sam Goody stores
will apparently be no more by the beginning of next year. Which was 16 years
after most Sam Goody's closed, or converted to FYE locations. As I was just
talking about Kingda Ka, which opened in 2005, Sam Goody's decline started at
the time Kingda Ka opened. The closest Sam Goody locations to Sacramento, at
Sunrise Mall and Downtown Plaza, closed in 2006. And the last store branded Sam
Goody in California, closed in 2012 at the Horton Plaza in San Diego, which is
ironically not a mall anymore. So it was amazing that these Sam Goody have
lasted as long as they have with this name. A time capsule of the past I hoped
we could preserve. So their closing is really sad because it means part of the
happy past has died. Similar to Six Flags removing the world's tallest roller
coaster, a ruthless and careless act toward historic treasures and cultural
icons. A few years ago, I actually set up a pretend Sam Goody storefront in
front of our house when I pretended to run a store at our house, which I
enjoyed doing. Because I was sad about the Family Christian Store’s closure in
2017 and tried to forget about the decline of Christian bookstores and
Christianity by trying to run a Christian bookstore in my house. And trying to drive
people to the store by calling it a store name from the past. Here's more on
that experience: https://haydenbusinessblog.blogspot.com/2022/09/my-experience-selling-christian-books.html
And this is the hard part, we had to say goodbye to a few
famous legends that I don’t particularly want to get deep into. Dickie Betts
from the Alman Brothers, the band that wrote Jessica that I have been playing
on the guitar. Buddy Davis, the famous Answers in Genesis guitarist and singer
who I admired. And did I not mention we just lost the 39th US
President, Jimmy Carter, which I found out as I was just thinking about Sunrise
Record’s way of removing Sam Goody and Coconuts from this world.
Enough of the business closures and doom and gloom. I have to remind myself that the sky hasn't fallen, the retail scene hasn't died and that there are still plenty of brick and mortar retailers to buy different things from and not all of them have a store closing, everything must go, nothing held back signs inside them.
2. New Businesses:
About new businesses, there were a few new businesses we
were fortunately able to get.
Crawdads on the Lake in Folsom, which I haven't tried yet.
But I hear they have amazing cajun food, which I would love to try one of these
days.
Harbor Freight Tools in Placerville: They are located in the
Grocery Outlet/Dollar Tree Center in East Placerville, which has seen a massive
facelift, which I am very happy about because that center has needed a facelift
for a long time.
A brand new shopping center, The Crossings at El Dorado, is
being built in Placerville, California, proposed with Michaels, Five Below,
Ulta, Boot Barn, and Petco. And already has America's Tire, Dutch Bros Coffee,
and 7 Eleven that recently opened in the past year.
Shake Shack in Folsom-This was a restaurant we looked
forward to for months and when the restaurant opened, we weren't rejoicing my
parents went inside. We learned that the chain had stopped selling the dairy
free shakes we enjoyed from Shake Shack and that we started getting months
earlier at other Shake Shack locations before this one opened. It felt like we
had gained nothing from this restaurant. It was a loss at that moment. But I
still hope the best for Shake Shack and for customers that can eat gluten and
dairy, they still have delicious milkshakes for them. Hopefully, they may even
bring back the dairy free shakes someday.
BoxLunch at Palladio in Folsom:
This is a really fun store to visit. They have many fun TV
memorabilia-pins, chains, T-Shirts, and bags. And specifically items pertaining
to Disney films, feeling like the modern-day Disney Store, since there are very
few Disney Stores operating today, with all of them in outlet malls excluding
their Times Square flagship and the World of Disney locations at Disneyland in
Anaheim, California and Disney World in Orlando, Florida. The funny thing about
this is that I started visiting this store right after doing extensive research
on former Disney Store locations studying which malls were premier destinations
in the late 90s-early 2000s, even when they aren’t premier today: https://malls.fandom.com/wiki/Disney_Store/Locations.
And it is fun to see malls that have BoxLunch stores today, because they feel
like the mall still has a fun store to visit in modern times.
3. My personal journey and business
I also have been slowly but surely trying to climb up the personal
growth ladder. Even though I tried very hard to find a job and applied to
several different places and couldn’t actually get one which makes me extremely
frustrated at how things have been going like I was venting about above, I have
been volunteering at the Book House in Cameron Park, California for one day a
week for two hours and one day at the El Dorado County Library for one hour a
week. I enjoy working at both places and I believe the experience of working
there will help me grow in my job skills so I can someday land a job.
4. Fun Experiences
This year, me and my family were able to go to do many
things we hadn't done before. I finally went out on my first ski lesson at
Sierra at Tahoe in April of 2024. Visiting the IFLY in Ogden, Utah doing indoor
skydiving on our vacation. And then visiting the Olympic Park in Park City,
Utah doing the zipline, the alpine coaster, the obstacle course, and a tubing
down the hill. And finally played my first golf games with my dad when we
practiced at Empire Ranch in Folsom for the Special Olympics Golf Tournament at
Haggin Oaks in Sacramento in September of this year. And my family and I went
on a fun vacation to the New England states and Quebec, seeing several
historical and beautiful places.
5. A Favorable Election
And we elected, or re-elected a new president of the United
States, which I mentioned earlier. Which was a pleasant surprise after
everything we have endured in the past year. I enjoyed looking at the county
maps as the results were coming in, especially in California where Trump
managed to flip 10 California counties that were Democrat in 2020. But it
is interesting that Jimmy Carter would retire from this life as Jimmy Carter
the Second (Joe Biden) has been happily voted out of office. One we revere and
mourn, while the other is a person we couldn’t even say his name without
twitching. But anyways, congratulations for Trump and toast to a great four
years for our country!!
References:
Sam Goody Sacramento area
locations: https://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/stories/2006/01/09/daily34.html
Crossings at El
Dorado: https://www.cbre.com/properties/properties-for-lease/commercial-space/details/US-SMPL-129606/crossings-at-el-dorado-nwq-highway-50-missouri-flat-road-placerville-ca-95667