The only constant is change
Lead Summary
By
Jim Thompson-
The evening of June 14 found me high atop the Hampton Inn (seventh floor) at the corner of U.S. 41 and I-70 in beautiful Terre Haute, Ind. My view was south, looking toward Honey Creek Mall, or what is left of it.
From my vantage point, I can see a defunct Sears and an even “defuncter” Toys “R” Us.
There are a number of cars parked in front of the Friday’s, so food must still be in vogue. Just on the horizon to the southwest, as twilight comes, I can see the lights at the federal prison where Timothy McVeigh met his Maker. One could become genuinely depressed around here if they allowed themselves to sink so low.
Ironically, this trip, culminating here before I return to Atlanta, is primarily related to facilities I am working with who are all smiles in today’s retail climate. I was not smart enough to figure this out years ago, and neither, perhaps, was my client, but we got lucky and have been riding a wave of expansion related to making more container-board paper, which is used to make all those boxes you like to have delivered to your door containing all the things you used to buy at the shuttering stores.
Since about 1992, I have worked in one capacity or another on approximately 15 different paper mills whose sole purpose is to make the paper to make the boxes today’s consumers demand. The irony in all of this is that you don’t even think about the boxes; it is the contents that you are after. Yet I can tell you that the demand for those boxes has created over 5,000 great-paying American jobs in just one company alone in the last 20-plus years.
If one looked across the industry, I’ll bet at least 50,000 American jobs have been created to make empty boxes for your personal pleasure.
So, I sit here this evening, looking out the window at the other side of this personal delivery phenomenon.
If you worked at Sears, Toys “R” Us, the Kmart in Hillsboro or many other places, you may think it is the end of the world. Let me assure you it is only temporary.
At the same time, let me assure you that I do not say this glibly, for if you are staring at a missing job and paycheck, you are not thinking of it lightheartedly.
All throughout my life, there has been change like this. Business sectors rise, business sectors fall. Look at the Dow Jones Index. It used to be called the Dow Jones 30 Industrials.
How many industrial companies are left on that index now?
We adapt, we change and the economy continues to produce jobs, more jobs than ever before, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
Yet, the story is not over – the front end of this very same trip was instructive. I was picked up by a Lyft driver at 4:30 a.m. at my home on Wednesday. I used to drive to the Atlanta airport, but it has become too much of a hassle to find a parking spot there. So, instead of putting my money toward paying off the loan on a parking garage owned by the airport authority, I gave it to a working person.
At the airport, I often take a wheelchair these days. The woman who pushed me to my gate (and got a $10 tip for about 20 minutes' work) was an engaging woman. She told me she is going to school to be an airplane mechanic (this is now called Tech Ops) for Delta.
She is pushing a wheelchair for Delta, and Delta is putting her through school for a high-paying job in airplane maintenance. She said she will graduate in a year. How few years ago would she have been stuck in a dead-end job as a wheelchair attendant for life? Sadly, not that many. She’s happy there are airplanes whizzing around, and although the ones she is close to carry more people than brown paper packages, she is availing herself of the opportunities of the modern airline phenomenon.
And just up U.S. 62 from that old Kmart in Hillsboro is a company heavily involved in the modern air travel phenomenon, too. I think their business could be classified as “Tech Ops,” too.
Look around if you are currently feeling like a victim. There may be something better for you just across the horizon – a more promising horizon than I saw in Terre Haute, Ind.
Jim Thompson, formerly of Marshall, is a graduate of Hillsboro High School and the University of Cincinnati. He resides in Duluth, Ga. and is a columnist for The Highland County Press.
From my vantage point, I can see a defunct Sears and an even “defuncter” Toys “R” Us.
There are a number of cars parked in front of the Friday’s, so food must still be in vogue. Just on the horizon to the southwest, as twilight comes, I can see the lights at the federal prison where Timothy McVeigh met his Maker. One could become genuinely depressed around here if they allowed themselves to sink so low.
Ironically, this trip, culminating here before I return to Atlanta, is primarily related to facilities I am working with who are all smiles in today’s retail climate. I was not smart enough to figure this out years ago, and neither, perhaps, was my client, but we got lucky and have been riding a wave of expansion related to making more container-board paper, which is used to make all those boxes you like to have delivered to your door containing all the things you used to buy at the shuttering stores.
Since about 1992, I have worked in one capacity or another on approximately 15 different paper mills whose sole purpose is to make the paper to make the boxes today’s consumers demand. The irony in all of this is that you don’t even think about the boxes; it is the contents that you are after. Yet I can tell you that the demand for those boxes has created over 5,000 great-paying American jobs in just one company alone in the last 20-plus years.
If one looked across the industry, I’ll bet at least 50,000 American jobs have been created to make empty boxes for your personal pleasure.
So, I sit here this evening, looking out the window at the other side of this personal delivery phenomenon.
If you worked at Sears, Toys “R” Us, the Kmart in Hillsboro or many other places, you may think it is the end of the world. Let me assure you it is only temporary.
At the same time, let me assure you that I do not say this glibly, for if you are staring at a missing job and paycheck, you are not thinking of it lightheartedly.
All throughout my life, there has been change like this. Business sectors rise, business sectors fall. Look at the Dow Jones Index. It used to be called the Dow Jones 30 Industrials.
How many industrial companies are left on that index now?
We adapt, we change and the economy continues to produce jobs, more jobs than ever before, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
Yet, the story is not over – the front end of this very same trip was instructive. I was picked up by a Lyft driver at 4:30 a.m. at my home on Wednesday. I used to drive to the Atlanta airport, but it has become too much of a hassle to find a parking spot there. So, instead of putting my money toward paying off the loan on a parking garage owned by the airport authority, I gave it to a working person.
At the airport, I often take a wheelchair these days. The woman who pushed me to my gate (and got a $10 tip for about 20 minutes' work) was an engaging woman. She told me she is going to school to be an airplane mechanic (this is now called Tech Ops) for Delta.
She is pushing a wheelchair for Delta, and Delta is putting her through school for a high-paying job in airplane maintenance. She said she will graduate in a year. How few years ago would she have been stuck in a dead-end job as a wheelchair attendant for life? Sadly, not that many. She’s happy there are airplanes whizzing around, and although the ones she is close to carry more people than brown paper packages, she is availing herself of the opportunities of the modern airline phenomenon.
And just up U.S. 62 from that old Kmart in Hillsboro is a company heavily involved in the modern air travel phenomenon, too. I think their business could be classified as “Tech Ops,” too.
Look around if you are currently feeling like a victim. There may be something better for you just across the horizon – a more promising horizon than I saw in Terre Haute, Ind.
Jim Thompson, formerly of Marshall, is a graduate of Hillsboro High School and the University of Cincinnati. He resides in Duluth, Ga. and is a columnist for The Highland County Press.