Most rural towns are suffering the same fate. Competition has made it to where most mature businesses are operating on very slim margins. So you have to handle large amounts of business to earn enough to make a fair living. The average grocery store runs on a 1-2% profit margin. If they are just a little too high the average consumer will price shop only and go somewhere else. These same people will be the first to complain that they have to drive 10-20 miles to buy food after the local closes.
As for finding workers it is becoming hard to do unless you are paying a fairly good wage. It is simple economics. The poorer people now have a government "safety net" that equals the wages many jobs pay. So why would they give up this in return for a low wage part time job with zero benefits??? It is not that many are lazy to start out with the but the programs are stacked so they can not afford to start out with a low wage job even if that is all they are qualified for. A $7-8 dollar per hour job can easily cost them $15 per hour in benefits.
My youngest sister lived in subsidized housing after her dead beat husband left her with two kids. She worked her way through nurse's school. She now is a full RN. She showed me how she had to move when she got her first check/job. She was living in a little crappy two bedroom apartment. Her subsidized rent was $250 plus utilities each month. When she got her job they took her weekly earning and refigured her "NEW" rent. That was $1200 plus utilities. This is in Dubuque not New York. This went into effect the first month she was working. So no ramp up so people can build a nest egg to pay more rent just boom you have to pay now. She borrowed some money as was able to put a deposit on another regular apartment with a $500 a month rent.
Your textile place is an example of where we reduced the tariffs on textile goods and drove almost all textile factories over seas. How do you compete with companies that can hire labor for pennies and hour???? They have many lined up for that pennies and hour job too. They do not have to worry about lazy workers as they can easily get another one that will work.
It all is a balancing act. Our social safety nets have had an effect of lowering people motivation to work to improve themselves. Too many will "settle" for barely getting by with a guaranteed subsidized living. I do not want people starving in the streets but I also realize many will never better themselves once they lock into the subsidy game.
The industrial place is an example of tight margins. The owners are making a good living but are not getting rich. So they would need to sell their business for real market value. That value would make it so any new owner would be hard pressed to make a good living after paying for the business.
Most businesses are like that these days. A gas station can easily cost $500,000. Look at what farm ground is costing. So there are not any business I can think of where you can start out with little money and make a living.
Local hardware store was passed down to the son that is sixty now and has worked there his entire adult life. He had to get another supplier as the old one would not allow him to continue on his Father's contract. They wanted him to buy a minimum of $100,000 each year or they would not do business with him. He said the total gross of the store was under $100,000 let alone selling that much hardware alone.
So the deck is getting stacked against any single business any more. You have to be able to buy in volume and have enough total business to pay a fairly good wage to get workers. Small anything is getting hard to do and make a living doing it. Farming or a gas station it all is becoming the same.
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Today's Featured Article - The Rescue of a Fordson F - by Anthony West. Introduction I live in the UK and have for many years restored Fordson tractors (in the main model N's). I have also restored and shown model F's, E 27N's, Field Marshall Series 2, David Brown Cropmasters and the old rey Fergeson T 20. At one time I had seven restored examples which were shown and used in ploughing matches. As most restorers, I have a number of war stories I can relate on a range of topics that may help other like minded and interested people. Perhaps my first p
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