This morning's Olympian had a nice feature on several Thurston County businesses that are finding success right now, even in troubled economic times.
Yesterday, the Thurston County Economic Development Council toured several South Sound employers yesterday, including the outdoor store (and AWB member) Cabela's. The store's training administrator, Ed Smith, told reporter Rolf Boone the store continues to outperform other stores in the chain, although business has slowed a bit for the Lacey store.
Boone also interviewed another AWB member: Jeff Gerbing of Gerbing's Heated Clothing, Inc., which manufactures heated clothes for motorsports and outdoor markets. Gerbing consolidated his operations into a 29,000 square-foot space south of the Olympia Regional Airport in Tumwater, but almost set up shop in South Carolina rather than the South Puget Sound because the cost of doing business was so much lower there:
Gerbing told the board that more needs to be done to control the cost of doing business in Washington....
As the economy in our state continues to weather tough times, larger business like Cabela's and smaller business like Gerbing's will no doubt keep a close eye on the Legislature and its efforts to attract and retain new and existing businesses. Bills like the employer gag rule (SB 5446) and cap and trade (HB 1819) send the wrong message to businesses struggling to keep their doors open and could give them added incentive to search for a new home outside of Washington state.
