Quote Originally Posted by Lew View Post
As for Smitty's Pancake House, it has been a staple of the area for many years. The problem is that most of the building in the town is taking place on the east side rather than the west, which is declining somewhat. Besides that, there are more eating establishments in this town than you could frequent in a year, never eating in the same place twice. Maybe two years. Competiton is steep. Hope some relief to the economy comes soon, and that elected officials have more intelligence than tree stumps.
I hope Smitty's is able to continue to survive profitably but they sound like a phemenom I have seen in Memphis, New Orleans, Atlanta, Tupelo, demographic shift over years. What was the place to go becomes the places you go only when necessary. Hotels and restaurants that survive off the transit suffer greatly, those that make their living off local trade tend to survive. Maybe the younger generation will open Smitty's II in the area of the new hotels once the "Recovery" is complete.

I have worked with hotels for the last 25 years. There is never just enough hotels. There are either not quite enough or too many. The owners set up each hotel as a separate corporation, if they get into financial trouble where they have to file bankruptcy, they basically rework the financing and most people never know anything happened. They have to pay their suppliers because the continue to consume the supplies which must be replenished, probably the people who suffer the most are staff who don't get any pay increases or bonuses for several years.