More Blogmeister Stories

It is quite enjoyable for me to be a Blogmeister. It is a lot of fun for me to sit in front of my computer and dictate a story that will appear in front of you, dear reader. I have some software that makes it so much easier for me to produce articles by dictating rather than sitting here and typing.

One of the unfortunate parts of this is that my software is much older and I have not upgraded it because the cost of doing so is quite expensive. However, there is no real reason for me to do so in any event. My use of the particular software that I am using is rather basic with no real need for me to have all the features that new software offers. Why would I go out and spend so much money upgrading to the newer versions when there is no real need for me to do so?

Regretfully, it becomes much more difficult to use my old software on the newer computers with all of their features. There will come the time I am sure when it will be almost impossible for me to use my software on the newer computer. Oh well, I will look for alternative software then to use and hope that I can find something comparable. In addition, I hope I can find "freeware" so that I do not have to spend a lot of money buying the newer software.

Now let me tell you about some matters that have interested me recently.

UNEMPLOYMENT

Perhaps you have learned a lesson. One can do all kinds of things with numbers, especially to make one look superior and to have accomplished wonderful results. Just take a look at this lovely unemployment number in our area and the way it was described:

"There was drop in the local unemployment rate in June.

It came in at 5.8%, compared to 6.0 in May…" (Windsorite.ca, July6, 2018) 

Not bad right? True until one reads the rest of the sentence:

“...5.5% in April, 5.2% in March, 4.9% in February and 4.6% in January.”

However, there's something a little bit more interesting that you ought to know about. Here is another jobs statistic that I just saw that should be quite troubling to you:

"The unemployment rate in Windsor dipped slightly last month, but so too did the labour participation rate.

Statistics Canada’s Labour Force Survey says the jobless rate in June was down 0.1% from May to 5.8%.

However, the labour participation rate suggests the city had the lowest rate of labour participation or people who are employed, in the country. It fell 0.8% from May to 59.8% in June. The rate has hovered at, or just above 60% since January.” (Adelle Loiselle, Blackburn News, July 6, 2018) 

In other words, dear reader, we still have a lot of problems in our area with respect to employment.

I find it very interesting that, for some reason, I have not seen these statistics before publicized anywhere. Maybe I missed them. However, they certainly would not help politicians, especially in an election year, getting re-elected if we see every month that our employment situation is still so terrible.

Election day is coming up very shortly. Now is the perfect time to start asking politicians what they are going to do to increase the number of jobs in this area. Their answer better be a good one if they want to have a seat in a City Hall chair in one of the municipalities in our region.

Make sure, dear reader, that your questions and demands for answer are the toughest on people who are seeking re-election since it seems that some of the numbers as disclosed above are not very positive. Why then should they come back into office unless they give you a very good response to your concerns.

MALL VACANCIES

I just saw this in Wikipedia in the “Shopping Mall” section which may explain why we are not seeing a lot of closings down here in them unlike what is happening in the US these days:

“In parts of Canada, it is now rare for new shopping malls to be built. The Vaughan Mills Shopping Centre, opened in 2004, Crossiron Mills, opened in 2009, and Tsawwassen Mills Mall in 2016, are the only malls built in Canada since 1992... the traditional enclosed shopping mall is still in demand by those seeking weather-protected, all-under-one-roof shopping.”

I have to admit that I don't understand why people don't like going to shopping malls if they want to buy something. Apparently the big alternative these days is that people are buying products over the Internet. Here are some numbers in the US that I found very interesting:

"Malls are the emptiest they’ve been since 2012, when the U.S. economy was still struggling to recover from the last recession.

The vacancy rate reached 8.6% in the second quarter, up from 8.4% in the first quarter, as more consumers shifted their shopping online, according to data from real-estate research firm Reis Inc. REIS 1.35% The highest postrecession vacancy was in the third quarter of 2011, when it hit 9.4%, Reis said.

The shopping slowdown is being felt in all types of brick-and-mortar retail outlets throughout the country. Vacancies in open-air shopping centers, for example, increased during the last quarter in 55 of the 77 metropolitan areas studied by Reis.

The impact is especially severe among strip malls and other neighborhood  and community shopping centers, which suffered their worst quarter in nine years.” (Ester Fung, Wall Street Journal, July 2, 2018) 

It appears as if we have suffered a bit in our area as well but perhaps not enough to force a close-down. Take a look at what is happening in Tecumseh Mall that hopefully will make things look better for that plaza after so many years of emptiness:

“Tecumseh Mall filling up big vacancies left by departed anchors Sobeys, Zellers

“We’ll have a new tenant in the new year,” Tecumseh Mall general manager Colleen Conlin said Thursday.

The welcome news for east-end shoppers is part of a revitalization for the mall and the area around Tecumseh Road East and Lauzon..

The closure of Zellers in 2013 and Sobeys in 2014 left two large anchor locations empty at Tecumseh Mall.” (Sharon Hill , Windsor Star, July 5, 2018) 

As for Devonshire Mall, it has had problems as well especially now after the closing down of Sears. Importantly, they have had to act in a very positive fashion even before they became aware of the financial difficulties of Sears. Here is the big reason why which was announced in August, 2016 in one of their Media Releases:

“Devonshire Mall announced today a $70M redevelopment and renovation program. This exciting program will bring new shopping and dining options for Windsor consumers and will modernize the interior of the shopping mall with a bright and open new experience.

This will be the largest and most comprehensive renovation of Devonshire Mall in the last 20 years.”

As you know, the restaurants area in the Plaza was just recently opened. The rest should be opened relatively soon I expect. Let us see how it all does and whether it will still make money and remain open.