The Evolution of Local Country Stores

On the program today, what this week told us about the economy, Who's in the labor force, who's out, whoo's trying something new And hey, when was the last time you went to a country store from American Public Media This is Marketplace In Portland, Oregon, I'm R Maes in for Ki Rzll. It is Friday, the third of July. Good to have you along with us. All right, now we're just gonna jump right into things. It's a Friday, which means we're reflecting on the week that was And here to do it with me, are Steep Ready from MS Now and Courtney Brown with Axios. Hey, youu Hey Ruma. All right, let's start with the June jobs report. We added fifty seven thousand new jobs last month. Courney in a PC wrote you called it a yellow card for the labor market Tell me what you mean by that Can you tell we're in a World Cup spirit overax? I love it. fifty seven thousand jobs, not horrible, not r and it comes after really strong months of hiring in March, April and May. So one week month does not undo Three you know strong months, but it's a little bit of a warning sign, right? So I think the question is What was the blip? Was June the blip Or was was the last three months of strong hiring blip that we got. And I think we just need more such a boring answer, such a Kevin Warsh answer. We need more data. We need to not over index on a single month of data Well, speaking of Kevin so deep crystal ball, the next few interest rate setting meetings for me. like are we raising, cutting, holding? It kind of feels like we can go in any direction Yeah, the Fed is very clearly going to want a lot more data. They want some trends here that they can operate off of. And the job market is clearly not hot, but it's not in a particularly bad place. the as Courtney said, the job growth has on average been probably better than expected because you have to remember that We were not expecting very high payroll growth for the last year and a half, given that immigration is being choked off. by the Trump administration quite deliberately. And so to see continued job growth, to see that despite what's happening with immigration, despite all of the chatter about AI replacing workers, none of that has happened yet. Those are all perhaps longer term concerns. And so for the Fed, they've got to be still concerned about inflation. They've been above their two percent target for five years. It's not a pretty picture in terms of their credibility right now. And yes, the Iran war may be abating, may not in the ceasefire period, but they also have supply shortages, Apple raising prices due to the cost of ships, a lot of things happening that have got to have consumers And so the Fed needs to figure out how to get that back on target, but they don't want to make any rash moves h at this very moment. Now makes sense I want to take a minute to talk about one of the big headlines of the week. The Supreme Court basically saying, Hey, presresident, go ahead. You can fire the leaders of a lot of these independent agencies just not when it comes to the Fed. The Fed is special Courtney, what should we take away from these rulings and what could they mean for economic policy in this country our takeaway in a nutshell. When we finally got the sllaughter decision and we got the Lisa Cook decision, The Fed is special in the eyes of the Supreme Court. Fed Governor Lisa Cook can keep her job for now, we got a really kind of full throated opinion from the Chief Jice about how important the Fed's independence is to the country However, it feels like Lisa Cook and the Fed's independence generally is still a little bit under threat. What the Supreme Court said essentially was that the Trump administration could not move forward because they didn't do the right legal mechanisms to prove that you know, Lisa Cook could be fired for cause, but they didn't really lay out what cause means. And so it seems like the Trump administration and they've said as much plan to keep pressure on Lisa Cook. they want to try to still remove her from the Federal Reserve Board. And it's not totally clear that they'll fail A little bit of a mixed decision this week from the Supreme Court. Yeah. What do you what do you think Sep? What do you make of this carve out for the Fed You know, all along, it seems like the Supreme Court has been saying, hey, we don't want to be the Banana Republic here. And that's what happens if you take over a central bank. We've seen this in lots of countries. An independent central bank really only exists because elected and appointed officials want it to be independent And clearly here, the appointed officials on the Supreme Court recognize that and recognize the damage that would be done, which is not the intent of Congress in having an independent central bank. They don't want these decisions to be just done on a whim like that because Who knows who the next president will be? and can they wipe everybody out and start over? And then you have hyperinflation? And that's again, we've seen it in so many cases around the world when that happens. And the court seems to just be drawing the line here of what their comfort level is more than anything else in making this decision Yeah We have about a minute. I want to talk about gas prices real quick as we head into this fourth of July weekend. Prices have come down, but still relatively high Courty, how much relief should consumers expect here a little bit more relief. I think just generally speaking, we've asked consumer to deal with so much over the last few years. The Iran war and the energy shock and the higher gasoline prices, especially on a holiday weekend. It's just a lot and we haven't seen demand destruction. We haven't really seen consumers pull back in a way that suggests that you know, they're under extreme pain. but it's just inflation has been so high for so long. And even when you take inflation out of the equation, like price levels are significantly higher than they were before the pandemic. And it's a lot for the consumer to digest. So I think Economists are watching for that for that sign of like demand destruction. When do consumers finally say, we're done. I'm fed up Um or do they just keep swallowing higher prices? We'll have to wait and see So Deep Ready is with MS now. Courtney Brown is with Axios. Thanks, you too Thank. Markets were closed in observance of july fourth, so a road trip. is in our future Details, numbers coming up. So we started the show talking about the June jobs report, which was fine. It was all right. Like we said, the economy added fifty seven thousand jobs last month, fewer than expected. know I want to take a minute now to zoom in a little on another trend in the job market And that is the labor force participation rate It's been drifting lower for several years now. So we asked Marketplaces Justin Ho to take a look What's going on The labor force participation rate keeps track of how many people are either working or actively looking for work So if you're retired or if you're a stay at home parent or you're a young person who maybe hasn't started looking for a job yet, you just wouldn't be included. That's Laura Olrich, director of Economic Research at Indeed. She says one reason the participation rate has been declining is because of the crackdown on immigration And that's because many immigrants come to the United States specifically for work. As a result, she says the number of immigrants in the labor force can affect the labor force participation rate If you have fewer immigrants overall, you're going to have a lower labor force participation rate. Olrich says this tends to affect the participation rate for younger workers, since immigrants typically skew younger The bigger issue that's pushing down participation rates is that the population is getting older. reston Muy, senorconomist with the advocacy Group employ America. As you have a larger portion of your population that's over the age of sixty five, Naturally, you're going to have more people that are retired and you're going to have lower labor force participation The thing is, all those people who've retired still consume goods and services. And Mooy says in order to produce those goods and services, we need people to work So as the population ages, there is potentially an issue where you have fewer workers and you still have to supply A lot of goods and services. Moy says there are a few ways the economy can step up to meet that demand For one, more people in their prime working age could enter the labor force. Existing workers could also become more productive So if you can do more with fewer workers than you need fewer workers in order to supply that consumption. Otherwise, Mui says the economy could slow down I'm Justin How from Marketplace We are trying to build a lot right now. more housing, more factories, more data centers But the thing is, construction companies say they don't have enough people. The trade group associated Builders and C contractors estimates the industry will need more than four hundred fifty thousand new workers next year just to keep up Earlier this year, I went to Durham, North Carolina to meet some of the people training to do that work They're with Hope renovations, a nonprofit that prepares women and non binary people for careers in the trades Before I even walked into the classroom, I could hear them working The trainees were split into small groups, spent over two by fours, while their instructor walked them through how to build wall frames Lower, harder hits. One of the youngest trainees is S Emanuel After graduating from college last year with a degree in biology They hopped around from job to job, working at restaurants, clinics, and retirement centers When you were working different jobs after you graduated, What was your financial situation like After I graduated Um Can I make a sound effect? Yeah. Probably like I'd probably do that with thumbs down Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I went to all the like Networking things and I reached out to my connections, but it was still like I wasn't able to get where I wanted to go or where I thought I was supposed to be Emmanuel likes working with their hands. So they thought Why not check out the trades? I did think that the financial prospects would be way better. Another the thing I'm super over is like working a job that takes everything out of me J to like take home a measly check that. might get me to the next month On the other side of the room, I met fifty one year old Anna Bloodworth She works in property management But lately, she's been thinking about whether she needs a backup plan Was there any skill that you learned that you're like, Ohh, I can do this. I didn't realize that I could. What we're just doing today Yeah, what are you doing today? We're just framing a floor, which can just be flipped up and be a wall. You like woke up this morning and didn't know how to build a wall and now you do.. Yeah, it's amazing. Bloodworth says she started learning trade skills because she's worried about what AI could mean for her real estate job. There's going to be components of my job that in ten years, maybe less, maybe two, I don't know, are going be wh swamped up So I feel like you have to be smart and you have to learn, okay, these are the things that aren't going to change. Someone's always going need to be doing these things Nationally, more people have been signing up for trade programs and apprenticeships. And at Hope Innovations, founder Nora O Cy Spencer says she's noticing an uptick in white collar workers They're telling us they want a sustainable career. They want something that, whether it's an economic downturn or a change in political regime, it's not going to affect the amount of work that's out there Yeah How if at all, have y'all been impacted by federal policy shifts Last May, I got an email from the Department of Labor saying that our federal grant was being canceled because our program no longer effectuated the priorities of this administration And it specifically pointed to The lines from our grant application that talked about us serving women and people of color and gender expansive folks. so they took away about a third of our program budget The funding cut was part of a broader federal rollback of programs tied to diversity and equity, even as the administration says it wants to expand apprenticeships and workforce training. Hope innovations raised back every dollar it lost, and most of its recent grads have gone on to jobs or continuing education and construction S Emmanuel, the recent college grad, told me that even with the new skills They're staying cautious hoping that this is something that I can pursue and sustain myself. and into my community and also If that doesn't happen, I'm again prepared to pivot. It's just kind of like the way the world is, I'm not I'm not putting my eggs in all all in one basket. becausecause if there's anything C and other workers have learned in this economy It's that it's hard to build stability on ground that keeps shifting And For more stories about life and how money messes with it, check out the weekly markarketplace podcast that I host. It's called This is Uncomfortable. You can listen wherever you get your podcast Coming up Taylor is like cooking. if you don't know how to cook, you're not gonna make good food for one year. You're just gonna mess it up all the time. Who am I to argue with a taillor? The first Let's do the numbers US markets were closed today because of the july fourth holiday. A Long weekend with an early start means a lot of travelers. AAA counts the holiday travel period from Saturday june twenty seventh to Sunday july fifth. About seventy two million folks will go at least fifty miles from home. That's a slight increase from last year The bulk of travelers will take a road trip, nearly sixty one million. And for those hitting the road, like we talked about, they'll get a little relief at the pump. The national average is three dollars and eighty two cents a gallon to fill your tank a month ago. four dollars and twenty six cents And a year ago, one gallon would set you back three dollars and ten cents Diesel today is four dollars eighty one cents Also, let's not forget about those adventure seekers on buses, trains and Yes, cruises That number is about five million. You're listening to Marketplace This is Marketplace. I'm Rim Mahis You can find them all over New England. They're called country stores. Though maybe you call it the general store or the village store, maybe it's just the corner store. Whatever name you give it, they're partark convenience stop, part community center, part local institution And like a lot of local institutions, country stores have been struggling as big box stores and grocery chains have moved in But some of them are trying to hold on, trying to figure out what the next version of the countountry store looks like Jackie Harris from New Hampshire Public Radi As that story Back in the day, meaning one hundred or even two hundred years ago, a town's country store was the nearest place for miles, where you could buy nails, eggs, and a cup of coffee all while catching up with your neighbors When telephones first came out, sometimes the country store was the only place you could make a call There's a lot of emotion that gets evoked with these stores for town for people growing up of what they remember. Beth Richards owns the barrel and basket in Hopkinon. Ththough ownership and names have changed, there's been a store of some kind at the site since seventeen ninety The original wood beams are still in place, and Richard sells penny candy and local maple syrup Both locals and tourists expect that cozy, nostalgic atmosphere when they come in That is something that As an owner I need to balance. with What are the economic realities and how things have changed in the world No one has to go to the store to make a call anymore And it's often just as easy to grab a snack or whatever you need at your local gas stations. So Richards is adapting This is our production area for the meal kits. This is where we are modern. So meal kits go out and get delivered In addition to the meal kits, she's also started an online ordering option for customers She has to carefully balance expectations from the past and the economic realities of the present Richard says her profit margins are tight sometometimes as low as half a percent For another struggling general store in Harrisville, New Hampshire, the solution was to get out of the for profit realm altogether You know, we're historic preservation organization. So running a general store wasn't the original plan John Knight is the executive director of Historic Harrisville a nonprofit that works to preserve the town's historic buildings the Harrisville General Store in two thousand eight and hired a manager to operate it like any other shop But the nonprofit also runs a campaign each year raaising forty to fifty thousand dollars specifically for the store That brings the bottom line to about zero at the end of the year. And since we're a nonprofit, if we're breaking even and serving a community purpose, then that's really considered a success for us. Of course, most country stores operate on a more traditional for profit model Dameris Graham and her sister, Marianna Gibaldi, are planning to reopen the Gilsom Village store in a couple months The last owner closed it a few years ago, but it first opened in the eighteen hundreds This is Graham I live right down the street and I drive past the store every day. It's just been sitting empty. So when I saw the ferent sign I thought, This is what I'm meant to do. The sisters plan to stock basic grocery and convenience items like milk and toilet paper. The area is rural. Some people in the region have to drive an hour round trip to get to a grocery store in the nearest city. Logistically, it's easier to have a general store right down the street that you can get all your essential stuff at you can also chat with neighbors and everyone knows everyone and To me, it's just deeper than going in and out of a store. Graham is counting on what was true two hundred years ago to still be true today There's no need to sh up to the big city when you can just stop by your local country store I'm Jackie Harris for Marketplace One way to describe the tailoring business right now Forgive the pun here is that it's feeling some strain at the seams The number of tailors in this country is down about thirty percent over the last decade, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Part of that is pretty simple. A lot of tailors are aging out of the business. But demand is still strong. Turns out people still need pants hemmed and waistlines taken in And that brings us to the next installment of our series My economy My name is Dy Camareinna. We work in a alteration show called Ds My sister and I are the ones who found it Six years ago I was working in an alteration shop and we just realized alteration had like a big gap And then we ask dec side, hey, I think we can do this. We have been doing this for twenty years. We know how to sew, we know how Carmon work, measurement. Broom So I think it's time The ammount of clothes and alteration in people wanted to feel good and look good is increasing. However we don't have their im business are closing. You know, I saw that we bought this business from old people to old couple. they were sixty years old. No, sorry, we were eighty six years old. Teaching how to sow is not exactly teaching how to cut vegetables. You teach five minutes, they're gonna cut it even if not as good. Tailloring is like cooking. and if you don't know how to cook, you're not gonna make good food for one year. You're just gonna mess it up all the time. So we decide to just hire people who has experience The solution we have right now with the few ones we have is instead working, the shop is open from ten in the morning to six PM, but with them they come seven in the morning Summer is here and summer is a lot So we are looking for one more person. They're very happy to work to come seven in the morning. They just make more money bu a business. If they decide to leave or they just change you need a backup We feel that we are already growing every day a little bit, att least that is the idea I don't want to just have a shop that make money I think that is you see, a little bit I am a little bit more ambitious and I think I can do better, which is, hey, let me see what I can do. This is not aar. you just need to think and to work and everybody need to do that And yes do it, you know That was Daisy Camarena in Salt Lake City, Utah. You know, we can't make this segment without you, so please tell us about your economy over on marketplace. org This final note on the way O today can file it under. Yeah, yeah no. that sounds about right. As long weekend gets underway, a new report out from Equal Futures. that's a nonprofit policy research group It says that the US is one of only nine countries in the world that does not guarantee workers some kind of paid annual leave. The US is the only major economy in the bunch Most countries, according to the report, guarantee at least twenty days of paid annual leave a year Whereas here in the US, whether you get paid vacation Well, that's mostly left up to the employers Our theme music was composed by BJ Leedermman, Marketplace's executive producer is Nancy Fergali. Joanne Griffith is the Chief content Officer. Neil Scarborough is the vice president and general manager And I'm Ra Mres. Have a great weekend, happappy fourth. We'll be back on Monday This is APM.