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Times Advocate, 1999-09-01, Page 6Mai ""dig Editoriai&Opinion IMES-AM/0C,11 f. PURL/CATIONS MAIL REGISTRATION NUMBER 07511 - jinn Beckett Publisher and Editor Don Smith Deb Lord General Manager Production Manager Published by J.W. Eedy Publications Limited 424 Main Street South, P.O. Box 850 Exeter, Ontario NOM 1S6 • (519) 235-1331 EDITORIAL The rise and fall of a Canadian retail business Should Canadians laugh or cry over the dismantling of the Eaton retail empire? Both, really. Cry over the loss of a great Canadian business corporation and laugh at the stupidity of vain and decadent ownership. Last week's announcement that the T. Eaton Co Ltd.'s wtII seek protection under federal bank- ruptcy, and liquidate all of their stock and real estate is essentially the culmination of years of poor business management. 44.:-11Y A company that once operated 87 department stores and employed 70,000 people across Canada, after 130 years of operation the T. Eaton Ltd. disintegrated into a poorly managed, debt - ridden company that could barely keep 55 stores open and 12,000 people empiarid. Started by an Irish immigrant turned merchant in the rural southern Ontario hamlet of Kirkton, the Eaton Co. grew into an retail empire that Canadians proudly patronized as one of their own. The catalogue of household goods and clothing initiated by Timothy Eaton was used by almost every Canadian house- hold for decades. The impact and role of the Eaton catalogue is perhaps best described by the Globe & Mail as "a bible of Canadian middle class life" which made a wide range of products acces- sible to small and distant communities. If. Timothy Eaton's successors had the sante vision and wisdom of the company founder, they would have maintained the catalogue business instead of closing it as they did in 1976. They might .have adapted the catalogue business to the changing retail climate - maybe even offering it as an internet service. However, by the time the 1990s economic recession hit and the Big Box stores became the movers and shakers of the retail market, T. Eaton Co. was beginning what would become an unstoppable trend of declining profits and store closures. That is the sad part of the Eaton saga. The funny side of the story is the absurd way the suc- ceeding generations of Eaton family members managed to undo a ,strong, nation-wide. business operation. Rather than adapting to retail develop- ment trends, aggressive marketing.. and other sen- sible business strategies, the Eatons didn't even seem to care that their ship was sinking. Reports indicate the Eaton brothers had no interest in the More empire, preferring to commute to their cot- tages in private jets, build estates north of Toronto, pursue expensive sports like Formula I driving and hobnobbing with British royalty. It is reported the Eaton family's head office has been described as a `ghost town' for the past number of. years - whole floors unoccupied, none of the own- ers even wanting to report to work to save their family's sinking business. . Timothy Eaton's greatest legacy may have been his business philosophy - 'Goods sold or money refunded". The founder understood and valued his customers and he built his business on meet- ing customer needs and demands. Unfortunately this philosophy was not shared by his heirs. In the end, the behavior of these arrogant and; spoiled brats was reflected in the T. Eaton Co. Ltd.'s bot- tom line. In 1930, Eaton's had controlled 58 per- cent of the Canadian department store market. By 1997, it had 10.6 port:fnt. And the moral of the Eaton story is expressed succinctly in the old say- ing: "It takes the first generation to build a busi- ness, the second to run it and thi, third to run it to the ground." —" This week we in the weekly news business are in that funny time frame between the dog days of summer and the bustle of back to school. Summer is generally a slow period for news hounds and a less intense time for sports scribes. :�„44, 4, September not only marks the beginning of school and therefore board of education news and school sports and activities, it also paves the way for the return of normal, busier municipal council business. Junior hocle6y training camps have either begun or will Avon, meaning the regular season will start within several days; school court sports like basketball and volleyball and the fall field sport, field hockey, are about a month away; curlers are dusting off their brooms. Winter sports enthusiasts are hankering for the thermometer mercury to plunge and the snow to fly. This lull we're in now allows mae to vent en a few topics before I lose my train of thought trying to keep warm in one of the ffve arenas I'll haunt for the next eight months. Here it goes... Sell- it. Sell it all... Exeter council and the Exeter Hydro Electric Commission (HEC) are contemplating selling the hydro utility to one of the splintered parts of the former Ontario Hydro. 4-ot.9 = I say sell, baby. The influx of millions of dol- lars from the sale would be a welcome buffer for the town with pending amalgamation and further grant cuts and downloading from the province. The yet -to -be -determined worth of Exeter Hydro (a. firm has been hired to come up with a number) could be turned into new or improved recreational facilities in Exeter like a second . ice pad, an indof ) r pool, the much talked about but always stalled skateboard park or even the much needed improvements and lighting of Alvin Willerts Field. The money could also be squirreled away in a trust fund. Council would dole out the interest each year to assorted community groups or projects. Ontario Hydro . has been gobbling up small municipal utilities over recent months. If anybody knows how to handle electricity and serve its customers, its Ontario Hydro. Just forget about that titanic size debt. The HEC doesn't need to sell out to Ontario Hydro either. There are other corporations, like the former Union Gas and other deregulated natural gas compa- other odds and ends k. . - ��+,..i:r is.2t�.2. '•,x+tr .c4..�fri_o'F,�zl, nies, that could also -bug our lines. The money could also be used to give. E*eter'S - paYepw' a much deserved rate break. *The other option, albeit simplified for this column, is to set up our own `WireCo' (wire company) or merge the HEC with other nearby ones. I say daft go there. We're looking to simplify, create e"encies andsave • our taxpayers/hydro customers money. Setting up another bureaucracy wont do any of those. Those"that argue for our own separately run private WireCo are suffering from that xenophobic craze that gets into small town heads. The globalization trend will leave those who want to make Exeter an island in a sea of progress in the proverbial dust. The draw up the ram- parts and fill the moat with burning oil approach just doesn't work anymore (if it ever did). Getting trashed Exeter has a golden opportunity to turn someone else's garbage into. cash. Exeter and Winghain are negotiating a deal where Exeter's dtmap will take in Wingham's waste since Wingham's landfill is set to close soon. Exeter's landfill could also soon start accept- ing waste from the surrounding townships and other Huron municipalities. Exeter's landfill' has the capacity to., take in outside trash while seeing to the future of our own waste needs. In fact, taking in more garbage is exactly what the Exeter dump needs to remain viable — recent declines in coinmer- cial business coupled with increased operation costs have left the dump in the red. -4041.!,--01"-',. No, the people responsible for our dump aren't con- sidering taking The Big Smoke's garbage or mortgag- ing future growth through our waste handling capacity for a quick buck. It's a no-brainer to me. Let's welcome the out of town .L trash with a smile and a pinched nose. Lauding Lieury My congratulations to the Lieury peewee girls tastball team who recently won the Ontario Rural Softball Association's 'C' title. The equivalent to a local hockey team winning an all -Ontario title, Lieury's accomplish- ment is a fine finish to a year of hard work, big hits and hustle. This is the first year the team has entered the ORSA playdowns. A special slap on the back to T -A front office staffer Sue Rollings who co -coached the team to glory and head coach Donna Dixon. CRAIG BRADFORD MISSILES MUSINGS AND About the Tines -Advocate Address & Ewe Hours. Times -Advocate, 424 Main Street South, P.O. Box 850, • Exeter, Ontario NOM 1S6. Our office is open Monday to Friday, 8:30 am to 5:00 pm. Contact Vs B Rhone iw Fax Classified ad & subscription sales ....(519) 235-1331 24-hour automated attendant (519) 235-1336 Lx number for all departments (519) 235-0766 ubaclriptioas 'Was. One year rata for addresses in Canada: $35+GST Two year rate for addresses in Canada: $63+GST One year rate for addresses outside Canada: $102 Call (519) 235-1331 to order a subscription. 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