New Frames

Note to Eugene activists: Whole Foods is not Wal-Mart

Let me begin this post with a full disclosure:  I run a small gourmet food company in Portland and Whole Foods Markets carries my products in all of their Northwest accounts.

There I said it.  Whole Foods has been bery bery good to me.  And it's not just my local bidness that they've been good to, but to many of my fellow Northwest small bidness owners in the industry.  But you would never guess this fact if you had attended a public hearing in Eugene recently about the proposed Whole Foods in the forgotten downtown of Eugene.  It sounds more like it was a hearing based on a Wal-Mart proposal than Whole Foods.  There was fierce opposition to it.

Local activists believe that a new Whole Foods will shut out local mom-and-pops and that they won't support local business.  But Au contraire, Whole Foods is well known for it's local support.  It is stores like Wild Oats that shut out local businesses by purchasing only from large corporate distributors who purchase only from large corporate vendors, thus shutting out small local businesses like mine.  Whole Foods, on the other hand, builds relationships with local distributors who carry local products.  They even buy direct from local vendors, which many large grocers would never do in a million years.

As far as other local grocery stores are concerned, many do see an initial drop in sales when a Whole Foods moves in, but eventually things stabilize, just as they have in the Northwest district in Portland where one can witness the fiercest competition between natural/specialty food stores in the nation.  Within a one mile radius, we have Food Front, Zupan's, a remodeled upscale Fred Meyer, City Market, Trader Joes and Whole Foods, all of which have a good share of business.  Many of these stores, particularly the local ones like Food Front, had to make some changes in order to compete with Whole Foods, and those changes have made Food Front a better place to shop. 

And there is another factor here:  Whole Foods pays their employees well.  They bring good jobs to local communities.  So when you add all these things up, and let me remind you what they are (WF buys from local food vendors and distributors, their presence improves the competition and they provide good paying jobs and career opportunities) Whole Foods is a net gain for communities.  Hopefully, Eugene activists will come to realize this once they see the fruits of a Whole Foods.

Small biz owners rejoice the end of Mult. Co's 3 yr. tax

Some of you may want to throw tomatoes at me for saying this, but I'm glad as hell that the three year Multnomah Co.'s personal income tax of 1.25% is over.  For those of you who run an S-Corp or an LLC and operate your small bidnesses along with living in the county, well, you know what I'm talking about. 

To make a long story short, those of us who who file taxes under S-Corps and LLC's don't get taxed on company profits at the corporate level when we pay the feds and the state.  Instead we fill out what is called a schedule K-1, which passes on those reported profits to the companies' shareholders who then have to report them on their 1040s.  Most S-Corp and LLC shareholders are typically family members who work in the business or are a single owner.  As bidness owners of these entities we also compensate ourselves through payroll, dividends, and or other types of compensation.  No matter what the compensation form, it all ends up on our 1040s and individual state tax forms.

In Multnomah County the business tax works the same way, but instead of reporting it on a personal tax form it all gets shoved back onto a business form which is taxed at 1.45%.  When the Mult. Co. individual income tax was introduced in '03 for three years, those of us who were paying 1.45% to the county on compensation to ourselves as shareholders along with K-1 reportings ended up paying another 1.25% on those exact same amounts as individuals.  The same government entity, in this case the county, taxed us twice on the same money. 

Readers of this blog know that I'm a progressive liberal.  In other words, I understand that we have to pay taxes, as painful as they may be, in order to have a functioning, civilized society.  But sometimes I think small business owners, many of whom struggle to pay themselves something that would qualify as a middle class income, get the short end of the stick.  It's tempting to buy into the anti-tax rhetoric out there.  I'll refrain from that, but I can certainly understand why many small bidness owners tend to vote for Republicans who promise to cut their taxes.

Will Oregon's "Party of God" limit usury

It will be interesting to see how Republicans vote in today's special session in Salem on Oregon's payday loan industry.  With so much attention being given to the issue, perhaps they'll vote for stricter regulations, but I doubt with much enthusiasm.  Republicans in this state have been reluctant to go there, despite the party's so called claim on "morality", as in "Christian morality."  Ironic, isn't it?  It's pretty clear where the Bible stands on usury, and Jesus definitely made a big fuss about it, but Oregon's "Party of God" has generally avoided the issue while taking powerful stands on abortion (not much about that in the Bible) and limiting the rights of gays.

I'm the last one who will claim any expert knowledge on the Bible, but I do come from a long line of traditional Scandinavian Lutherans.  It was pretty clear to me growing up that borrowing money was a big NO NO.  My grandfather built a bidness purely on sweat equity.  In the minds of my grandparents, borrowing money and paying interest on it was just as bad as being a "money lender" because in paying interest you would be giving your money to someone who was un-Christian, or immoral because you were helping them take advantage of people in more desperate situations. 

Interestingly, this kind of thinking has all but disappeared today, so much so that not only credit card companies, the sugar daddies of the "Party of God", can get away with charging 21% interest and higher rates, but payday loan outfits can sit pretty on 500% interest.  What would Jesus think about that?

Intel wants you and me to pay for schools

The O actually had a good piece yesterday on Oregon's dwindling tax collections from corporations doing bidness in the state.  The title and subheading said it in a nutshell:

Feeling taxed?  Not big business
Two decades of cuts have slashed Oregon's corporate tax burden, and households are footing the bill

Yup.  In fact, Oregon's corporate tax collections are the smallest, percentage wise, in the nation.  No other state asks so little of its corporate players.  And what's that about cutting business taxes to attract business... and didn't we have the highest unemployment in the nation during the worst part of the recent recession?   

The irony of it all is how corporate big wigs complain how Oregon needs to provide better schools and services in order to attract quality employees to their companies.  That's why they always support local school levies and household income tax increases.  It's not coming out of their pockets, but they receive the benefits.

What's worse is that both Dems and Repubs in Salem have pushed through these tax cuts for corporations.  And when they turn around and pass tax legislation that pushes the bill onto you and me, they wonder why in the hell we vote it down when anti-tax groups put it on the ballot.  Then we get state senators like Ginny Burdick complaining in a recent debate about how it's the voters' fault that the legislature can't solve school funding issues.  I suppose one could argue that case, but when legislators have cut corporate taxes by more than half over the past two decades it's hard to put the blame solely on the voters.

Anti-tax activists and legislators claim that if we increase taxes on these corporations that they'll leave the state.  Intel has become famous for using these threatening tactics.  But which state will they go to?  Oregon has the lowest corporate tax burden in the nation!

Issuing a recall on my previous Dagoba entry

The other day I urged readers to give Dagoba Chocolate a chance to do right by their consumers during their recall.  I did this because I also own a bidness in the natural foods industry in Oregon and believe that Oregon natural food companies hold high standards in the industry.  In fact as I noted in my post, Oregon gourmet and natural food companies have a great reputation nationally with retail buyers, distributors and the like.  But as I am following the Dagoba recall story I'm having second thoughts about how they are handling this.

Yesterday the O reported that Dagoba is refusing to release the lead testing results from their products.  Jeff Williams, the COO of Dagoba, told the O he didn't have time to talk to a reporter because he was with FDA officials.  Um, this would have been a good time to say, "I will return your call as soon as I am done.  What time would be a good time to reach you...?" 

Moreover, customers who are calling Dagoba with their concerns are not getting any answers.  They're being told to go see their doctors if they have symptoms.  That's it, "Go see your doctor."  That's not very reassuring.  The Dagoba people need to study the Odwalla e-coli case in order to learn about how to treat customers who are the victims of their bad products.  Not only that, they don't seem to have a media relations team that is keeping their lines open to reporters.  In the Odwalla case, the company understood that the media was an important component in communicating with the public:

On all media interviews, Williamson expressed sympathy and regret for all those affected and immediately promised that the company would pay all medical costs. This, allied to the prompt and comprehensive recall, went a long way towards satisfying customers that the company was doing all it could.

The mistake that Dagoba is making is that they are focusing on themselves without understanding that it's about their customers who have eaten the recalled bars.  If they think they are keeping people from panicking by withholding the test results and saving their company in the process, then they are sorely mistaken. 

Note to Dagoba:  Get a grip you guys.  You have a lot of customers who are scared shitless.  You need to help them NOW. 

Giving Dagoba Chocolate a chance

Dagoba chocolate lovers like myself were certainly surprised to learn about their product recall the other day due to unacceptable levels of lead in some of their chocolates.  That's a tough bitter pill to swallow if you've checked the recalled lot numbers and matched one of them up with a bar you've been munching on this past week... even worse if one of your kids has been eating it too. 

Not good at all, and as consumers we could talk about this all day which some are doing over at Jack Bog's Blog, but I'm going to try to put the perspective of the manufacturer (or vendor as it is better known in the industry) into this unfortunate story because as a fellow vendor in the natural foods bidness I can sympathize to some degree with what the owners of Dagoba are going through.

First off, I have yet to meet an Oregon natural foods company who's owners don't have their hearts and souls invested in their companies.  We care deeply about the quality of our products and the customers who buy them.  As I've noted in a previous post, gourmet and natural food companies in Oregon have an outstanding reputation in the industry.  So when something goes wrong not only do we feel terrible, but we do everything possible to correct it. 

When I first started my bidness, I also had to do a product recall.  All I could think about was the customers who had purchased my bad product.  I received plenty of e-mails and calls from shocked consumers who had opened a jar of one my curry sauces only to find it had turned into a lava flow right there on their kitchen counter top.  The problem, of course, was quickly corrected through a change in contractors, but I had some unhappy consumers that I needed to communicate with along with making sure the stores that carried my products had them off of the shelves until we got the new stuff on. 

It's about communication, finding out how the problem happened in the first place, correcting it, working with unhappy consumers who are the victims of your bad product and keeping your lines open to everyone involved.  Odwalla and its e-coli disaster is a great case study on positive recovery.  As far as I can tell, Dagoba is doing what it needs to do to make things right.  They work with some of the same distributors I work with, and things are going as good as they can in a situation like this.

Will I continue to buy Dagoba?  Of course.  They've tested all of their products and many of them are not on the recall list and are perfectly safe and delicious to eat.  They've assured us of this.  Some of you may think I'm just a blind supporter, but because I know the ethics and mindset of the owners of Oregon natural food companies, I trust that what they're telling us is the whole truth and nothing but the truth.  So, don't give up on Dagoba, folks.  Let's give them a chance to make things right.

Gay marriage advocates need to reframe for rural voters

All Things Considered on NPR had an interesting story (audio included in link) this evening about the passing away of Dr. Stanley Biber, sex-change surgeon king of the world.  He was 82 years old and performed over 5,000 sex-change operations.  Contrary to what most would believe, Dr. Biber didn't have his famous international practice in New York City or San Francisco.  No, he had it in a little rural town in Colorado where he lived comfortably and at ease among his fellow small town residents.  He even ran a cattle ranch and led the cattle drive to Nebraska this year, where he caught pneumonia and later died.

But not all residents were happy with Dr. Biber's practice.  A local preacher tried to start a campaign to put an end to Biber's sex-change practice, but as NPR reports the unique values of the west, as in western states, prevailed and the preacher walked away with his tail between his legs.  And what are those values?  According to a town resident whom NPR interviewed, it's pretty simple:

You take care of your business.  I'll take care of my business, and what you do is your business and what I do is mine, and that's it.

Is it possible that this philosophy, this frame, could be used in rural Oregon, particularly eastern Oregon to get residents to be less threatened by gay marriage or civil unions?  Maybe the "equal and civil rights" meme just doesn't click with voters outside the urban areas.  Maybe it's just too urban.  If you're not used to hearing a certain language, you're not going to understand it.

I don't know what Basic Rights Oregon's campaign strategy was in the rural areas in their effort to defeat Measure 36 in November of '04, or even if they tried to reach those areas, but perhaps there has to be a paradigm shift in how rural voters learn about gay marriage.  If some town in rural Colorado stood up for a sex-change doctor, why couldn't rural Oregon voters accept gay marriage?

Health care clinic blues

I was reminded today by a letter to the editor in the O about a medical clinic across the river, which I will call Clinic X, I used to work at back in the early 90s.  The letter writer, a nurse, criticized the growing pay disparity between executives at Providence Health System of Oregon and the employees there who have worked hard over the years for little return.  She referred to an article written last month in the O which reported on the generous pay/retirement package given to PHS's former CEO.  And we wonder why health care is so costly...

Although Clinic X was private and PHS is non-profit, I would bet that what I witnessed in the early 90s at the clinic is no different than what has happened at non-profit hospitals, and it has a lot to do with what is wrong with health care today. 

I worked in the business office at Clinic X just as the clinic was going through some major changes, which had to do with increasing profits.  The focus became less and less about health care and more and more about profits.  The clinic changed before my very eyes.

Without seeing decent raises, experienced nurses who had worked at Clinic X for years slowly began to feel demoralized.  Many of them left.  New nurses were hired in a revised pay scale where the starting wages were lowered.  Doctors began cramming patients into their schedules, which often left patients sitting in waiting rooms long after their appointment times.  New Medicaid patients were no longer accepted at the clinic and had to go elsewhere to find care.  New employees were often hired as "part timers" so that the clinic could avoid paying benefits... yes, that's right, a medical clinic that did its best to avoid paying health care benefits.  Many of the older doctors who had been a part of the clinic since its inception decided to retire.  I can't say whether or not they retired because they were ready or that they simply thought the new system went against their health care ethics.

In the meantime, the executives at the clinic enjoyed some seriously nice pay increases, and the doctors who hardly spent more than a few minutes with each patient, because the nurses did all the work, also saw their pay increase dramatically.  I witnessed countless battles between the clinic and health insurance companies:  Each one tried to nickle and dime the other.  Each nickle and every dime brought more co-payments, increased premiums, less comprehensive care, and higher salary packages for those sitting at the top.

I don't know much about the history of health care in this country, but I do know that in the late 80s and early 90s something changed, and I witnessed it first hand.  We're all paying for it now, either by having 45 million uninsured fellow citizens or through increasingly higher premiums every year.  As a business owner, I'll be the first to say that Clinic X has a right to make a profit.  But what kind of profits?  And at what expense to those who live in Clinic X's community?

Because health care will be at the forefront of Oregon politics this year, thanks to the great and gutsy John Kitzhaber, I'll be blogging about it a lot.  It's a fascinating subject and Kitzhaber has a fascinating proposal, which would be nothing less than a revolution.

Take back the Oregon House with your tax credit

As a tax paying Oregonian you have a great opportunity each year to influence the direction this state and its communities take.  Through the Oregon political tax credit program you can reduce the amount of taxes you pay to the state by $50 ($100 married/filing jointly) if you donate that $50 to a political candidate or organization.  It's a use it or lose it type of deal and you have three days left to make that contribution before you lose it for the '05 tax year.

I encourage you to donate your tax credit to BusPAC because of the new forward thinking approach to grass/netroots organizing the organization takes.

For example, at Onward Oregon, which is part of BusPAC, we work together with single issue groups such as 1000 Friends of Oregon, Basic Rights Oregon, labour groups, community groups that are fighting Wal-Mart proposals, etc.  Simply put, OO is the thread that weaves these separate groups into the larger progressive fabric of grassroots organizing. The result has been successful campaigns that have accomplished blocking a Wal-Mart proposal in Gresham, preventing the exacerbation of Measure 37, protecting the minimum wage and much more.

Furthermore, the organizations involved in BusPAC played a huge role in the gains that were made in the Oregon legislative elections in '04, and they will be again with your help in '06.

So donate your tax credit to the BusPAC today and help us get progressive leaders elected to the Oregon legislature in '06!

For more info on this cool deal and how it works check out oregontaxcredit.com

Advancing the progressive agenda via ballot measures

Today I put up a post at Onward Oregon on the blog page about the importance of using ballot measures to advance the progressive agenda and to counter the flood of measures that have come from conservatives over the last 15 years:

Every two years in Oregon voters are faced with a number of ballot measures that are nine times out of ten sponsored by conservatives. Since the governorship has been held by Democrats for nearly two decades, conservatives have resorted to the initiative process to advance their agenda. This route serves a number of goals: It forces liberal and progressive groups in the state to spend money fighting the initiatives, it brings out the conservative base and it helps in framing the conservative message.

And that needs to change.