The drought hits home
My sister has lived in Atlanta all her life, she is 49 years old.
For the past 27 years she has worked for Pike's Nursery. This is the most successful mom-and-pop business you ever saw, started out long ago with one store, now have 20 or more stores all over the Atlanta area. I don't believe they are anywhere but metro Atlanta. These are all big, prosperous stores in the suburbs where rich people live. Anytime you drive past a Pikes, the parking lot is full of Land Rovers, Mercedes etc. The rich people in Atlanta use the Mercedes for a pickup truck, when they need to get two bales of pine straw at Pikes, they leave the Jaguar, and take the Mercedes because it has a big trunk.
I was listening to Atlanta am radio last night, Pike's has gone bankrupt! They said business has crashed due to the drought. Unbelievable.
My sister has two kids and just bought a brand new house, a big expensive 4 bedroom house. Then I realized that her husband is a landscape architect. He always has had a successful business, but I imagine he is just about out of work too.
They certainly may join the list of statistics of house foreclosures.
Two months ago, a woman official with the emergency agency said that if the drought continued, it would be an environmental catastrophe that would be much worse than Katrina. Now I understand what she means.
For the past 27 years she has worked for Pike's Nursery. This is the most successful mom-and-pop business you ever saw, started out long ago with one store, now have 20 or more stores all over the Atlanta area. I don't believe they are anywhere but metro Atlanta. These are all big, prosperous stores in the suburbs where rich people live. Anytime you drive past a Pikes, the parking lot is full of Land Rovers, Mercedes etc. The rich people in Atlanta use the Mercedes for a pickup truck, when they need to get two bales of pine straw at Pikes, they leave the Jaguar, and take the Mercedes because it has a big trunk.
I was listening to Atlanta am radio last night, Pike's has gone bankrupt! They said business has crashed due to the drought. Unbelievable.
My sister has two kids and just bought a brand new house, a big expensive 4 bedroom house. Then I realized that her husband is a landscape architect. He always has had a successful business, but I imagine he is just about out of work too.
They certainly may join the list of statistics of house foreclosures.
Two months ago, a woman official with the emergency agency said that if the drought continued, it would be an environmental catastrophe that would be much worse than Katrina. Now I understand what she means.
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It is raining, "dogs and cats" up here in DC metro (we need it too but not as bad as Atlanta).
Who gets the movie reference?0 -
Sorry to hear about the drought.
We have some drought resistant trees, shrubs, cactus, and flowers if your sister wishes to open her own nursery there. We have a nursery here on Guam and make sure we cover our rainy season and the dry season. We have a supplier in Taiwan that could really get her going if she has an import permit.0 -
allen, my wife works for a landscaping firm here in ATL. One of the biggest reasons that Pike's is filing for bankruptcy is that none of their commercial customers made any summer or fall orders. That is where they make their money. My wifes firm alone does about $1.5 million/year with them in flowers alone, not to mention pine-straw, mulch and other things. It has gotten really tough.
BTW, what company does your BIL work for?0 -
I suggest expand to brick patios...drought proof. 0 -
My brother in law has his own company, just works by himself.
It is, or WAS, pretty lucrative.
Do you know if Pike's is just going out of business or what?
What part of the Great City do you live in? I am from Chamblee.0 -
quote:Originally posted by allen griggs
My brother in law has his own company, just works by himself.
It is, or WAS, pretty lucrative.
Do you know if Pike's is just going out of business or what?
What part of the Great City do you live in? I am from Chamblee.
As far as I know, they are not going out of business, just filing for bankrupcy and laying a bunch of people off.
I live on the other side of the city (from Chamblee) in Hiram (actually my addy is Dallas, but I am closer to Hiram).0 -
Sorry to hear about your sis.
Not everyone realizes the domino effect that is happening.
It is going to get real ugly.0 -
I read an article on Pikes in the Atlanta newspaper this morning at ajc.com
Pikes is "restructuring" and will not lay anybody off. They got a $11.3 million dollar loan. Damn, you must have a pretty good name to get a loan like that in the middle of a bankruptcy.
Pike's has 700 employees. Normally they hire 200 part timers for Christmas, they will hire no part timers this Christmas.
If it doesn't rain by spring, when that $11 million runs out, this little company will cease to exist.
I also found out that my sister's 19 year old son decided to drop out of college, and he now works full time for Pikes also.0 -
quote:Originally posted by allen griggs
I read an article on Pikes in the Atlanta newspaper this morning at ajc.com
Pikes is "restructuring" and will not lay anybody off. They got a $11.3 million dollar loan. Damn, you must have a pretty good name to get a loan like that in the middle of a bankruptcy.
Pike's has 700 employees. Normally they hire 200 part timers for Christmas, they will hire no part timers this Christmas.
If it doesn't rain by spring, when that $11 million runs out, this little company will cease to exist.
I also found out that my sister's 19 year old son decided to drop out of college, and he now works full time for Pikes also.
Tell that to the guy who runs the account for my wife's company. They gave him his pink slip last week. Nice guy, used to give me all sorts of camo clothes with the Pike logo on them.0 -
Ah so, thanks for the info. So Pikes is lying to the newspapers about how bad things are, I am not surprised. I bet they lied to the sucker, I mean bank, who loaned them the $11 mil. 0
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