The Port Angeles Walmart, aka Walmart Super Center, is under construction and beginning to take shape.  Click on this photo to see a full image.

Port Angeles is watching its new Wal-Mart Supercenter currently under construction directly across from the old Wal-Mart store on the east end of Port Angeles.  The new location has been a vacant commercial property for years, previously occupied by a K-Mart store.  That K-Mart store went out of business a couple of years after Wal-Mart opened their store in Port Angeles.

Wal-Mart Supercenters are hypermarkets with an average size of about 197,000 square feet, and they stock everything a Wal-Mart Discount Store does, plus a full-service supermarket, including meat and poultry, baked goods, delicatessen, frozen foods, dairy products, garden produce, and fresh seafood. Many Wal-Mart Supercenters also have a garden center, pet shop, pharmacy, Tire & Lube Express, optical center, one-hour photo processing lab, portrait studio, and numerous alcove shops, such as cellular phone stores, hair and nail salons, video rental stores, local bank branches, and fast food outlets, such as Subway, Dunkin’ Donuts, McDonald’s or Blimpie. Some also sell gasoline distributed by Murphy Oil Corporation, Sunoco, or Tesoro.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Just Another Day in Port Angeles
• Port Angeles Businesses Struggle
• Port Angeles Walmart Supercenter
• Port Angeles Weather: Winter is Here
• Port Angeles Mountains Snow Capped

Does anyone else love to drive around and look at property, fields, mountains, and beautiful water views?  I’ve always loved to do that, and I could not resist stopping to take this photo of an idyllic view of this field of cows with a stunning backdrop of mountains west of Port Angeles.  I get so tired of living in one of the most beautiful places in the world.  Don’t tell anyone about Sequim and Port Angeles.  They just might move here and buy this field and build a gas station.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Port Angeles Walmart Under Construction
• Port Angeles Businesses Struggle
• Port Angeles Walmart Supercenter
• Port Angeles Weather: Winter is Here
• Port Angeles Mountains Snow Capped

Many Port Angeles businesses are struggling to survive, and many have already closed their doors or moved.  I interviewed one business owner who had a business in the central downtown district of Port Angeles.  Business was so slow she moved her business to Sequim.  It’s hard to know how many businesses have called it quits in this recession, but the number is big, even for a small town.  Driving around  town one can see For Rent signs in many store fronts.  One local business owner told me there were 70 to 80 empty retail spaces in Port Angeles.

Some commercial buildings, like this one on Lincoln Street in Port Angeles, which boasted “Espresso Soup & Sandwiches” has been closed for a long time.  The building is now owned by the City of Port Angeles and remains almost entirely empty.  Of course, buildings like this are likely to remain empty for a while, because most entrepreneurs are not likely to start a risky business in a recession.  Restaurants of all businesses are in the category near the highest risk, because they are most likely to fail within the first year.   The most recent restaurant to fail in the area was the Sauer Kraut in Sequim.

Retirees who want to continue working for themselves would be well advised to start a business that is not capital intensive and which has a higher probability of success.  An old rule, which I think has great merit, is to stick with what you know and what you are passionate about.  But I think another wise approach for any retiree who wants to be in business here is to limit risk by the business you choose, and make sure the downside is not going to financially wipe you out.  This is not the time to take great risk.

As with every economic cycle, there are opportunities, and I believe that even in this recession there are grand opportunities for creative and intelligent entrepreneurs to make money and have a great time doing it.  So, what is your passion?  How are you going to find your niche?

Possibly Related Posts:

• Port Angeles Walmart Under Construction
• Just Another Day in Port Angeles
• Port Angeles Walmart Supercenter
• Port Angeles Weather: Winter is Here
• Port Angeles Mountains Snow Capped

Port Angeles is watching its new Wal-Mart Supercenter currently under construction directly across from the old Wal-Mart store on the east end of Port Angeles.  The new location has been a vacant commercial property for years, previously occupied by a K-Mart store.  That K-Mart store went out of business a couple of years after Wal-Mart opened their store in Port Angeles.

Wal-Mart Supercenters are hypermarkets with an average size of about 197,000 square feet, and they stock everything a Wal-Mart Discount Store does, plus a full-service supermarket, including meat and poultry, baked goods, delicatessen, frozen foods, dairy products, garden produce, and fresh seafood. Many Wal-Mart Supercenters also have a garden center, pet shop, pharmacy, Tire & Lube Express, optical center, one-hour photo processing lab, portrait studio, and numerous alcove shops, such as cellular phone stores, hair and nail salons, video rental stores, local bank branches, and fast food outlets, such as Subway, Dunkin’ Donuts, McDonald’s or Blimpie. Some also sell gasoline distributed by Murphy Oil Corporation, Sunoco, or Tesoro.

Why would Wal-Mart build an entirely new Wal-Mart directly across the street from a perfectly good Wal-Mart building and parking facility?  Good question, and there is a logical answer.  (I love it when I get to ask myself a question and then answer it.)

The new Wal-Mart will be a Supercenter, so it will offer much more to the community in products and services, and that will give Wal-Mart a much greater gross profit.  It is likely that their grocery store will take business away from Costco in Sequim, at least for the Port Angeles residents that currently drive to Sequim to shop at Costco.  It is also likely that Wal-Mart’s grocery store will hurt the Safeway store nearby.  For anyone who has been in a Wal-Mart Supercenter, you know that their grocery store is pretty impressive, has fresh produce, and the prices are unbelievably low.

The other logical reason Wal-Mart builds a new store and leaves the old is a defensive strategy.  The old property will eventually go up for sale no doubt, but you can be sure that Wal-Mart will have a restrictive covenant that prohibits the property from ever being used by a competitor.  Pretty smart strategy, isn’t it?

Port Angeles can be thankful that at least one big corporate store is building in town.  For the past decade Sequim seems to have been getting all the large anchor businesses.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Port Angeles Walmart Under Construction
• Just Another Day in Port Angeles
• Port Angeles Businesses Struggle
• Port Angeles Weather: Winter is Here
• Port Angeles Mountains Snow Capped

Port Angeles weather forecast:  Winter is here.  This photo taken today, November 20th, 2009, of the mountains south of Port Angeles toward Hurricane Ridge foretells a cool snowy winter.  Fresh snow on the mountain was a portrait of nature at its best.  Still temperatures have been in the comfortable mid forties lately, at least down here in the lowlands near sea level.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Port Angeles Walmart Under Construction
• Just Another Day in Port Angeles
• Port Angeles Businesses Struggle
• Port Angeles Walmart Supercenter
• Port Angeles Mountains Snow Capped

It’s spring in Port Angeles, and sunny and beautiful at water level, but up in the mountains there was a last hurrah of snow that is glistening in the sun and   is giving us a stunning view from downtown Port Angeles.   This photo was taken from Mount Pleasant Road several miles on the southern side of Port Angeles and a thousand feet or so above sea level.   Little photographs can’t quite catch the majesty of the real view, but you can use your imagination.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Port Angeles Walmart Under Construction
• Just Another Day in Port Angeles
• Port Angeles Businesses Struggle
• Port Angeles Walmart Supercenter
• Port Angeles Weather: Winter is Here

Check out this video of the Port Angeles Senior Citizens Center:

Possibly Related Posts:

Port Angeles News Bulletin!

Port Angeles business owners have a whole new forum and an incredible free service offered on PortAngelesVision.com.   Following is the full article reprinted with permission.

This blog [PortAngelesVision.com] is devoted to the vision and future of Port Angeles and our mutual success as business owners. We will start (or continue) a dialogue on this subject, brainstorm here, argue (diplomatically), and share information.

But there is much more to the benefits to Port Angeles business owners, and today we reveal one of those benefits to participation. When you as a Port Angeles business owner post three (3) comments on this site, you will be entitled to a very nice profile of your business and what you offer customers with a photograph of your business or products. You will also get a link back to your own website if you have one, and your location and contact information. But . . .

This is much more than just a simple advertisement of your business. This is a nice description of your business with good graphics and good script describing your business and your product so people will want to do business with you.   And this profile is not limited to 10 or 30 words.   If you need several hundred words to describe your business, no problem.   Your profile will also be optimized for the search engines by an expert, so you can be found by people using the Internet. In addition, you will be indexed by category on this blog so people, both local and outside our area, can find you and do business with you.   Right now many of us who do business in Port Angeles don’t even know each other. We are missing opportunities to do business with each other right now.   You’ll also notice that all of our blog posts have an audio version, so those with a vision impairment will still be able to hear about you.   Our audio is also syndicated as a podcast, which is only the tip of the iceberg on how we promote this site behind the scenes.

By the way, before anyone gets all defensive on me, let me be clear about the cost to you: absolutely nothing. This is a service to local businesses, and what we are doing here is free. I know, I was taught in my college economics course by Dr. Orth that, “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.” Well, he was wrong. There is such a thing as a free blog that has an honorable goal and offers you something you would have to pay thousands of dollars to get elsewhere.

An expert will help you at no cost to write your profile persuasively, and our tech expert will optimize your business information, also at no cost to you.

So, be sure to come back and when you have a relevant comment, register and post your comment. When you have three comments, email me your basic business profile with your photo, and I’ll work with you to perfect it. Then we can always tweak it to get you more traffic. As this site gets more traffic, you will get more exposure. Let’s work together to make it happen. Post your thoughts, and email three friends with a link to this site.   The more visitors this site gets, the more exposure your business gets.

To take advantage of this service, go to PortAngelesVision.com.

Possibly Related Posts:

• The Future and Vision of Port Angeles

Port Angeles News Bulletin!

Port Angeles now has it’s own Blog to openly discuss the future of Port Angeles, or in other words, the vision of Port Angeles.   Many local businessmen and local citizens have strong opinions about what can and should or could be done to promote Port Angeles as a great place to live, a strong business environment that fosters the growth of small and large businesses, and what the direction and plan should be for the future of Port Angeles.

There have been many discussions in the past dozens of years about the future of Port Angeles, and local government has made many decisions that have defined where we are today.   Those decisions include land use and zoning, development restrictions, regulations, business fees and taxes, incentives, and thousands of decisions made on multiple levels, including city, county, the Port of Port Angeles, the Chamber of Commerce, quasi-government agencies, and private associations.

For many locals, the outcome on many issues has been unsatisfactory.   For example, the bus depot downtown was a hot issue.   Was it the right decision or wrong?   There have been hundreds of decisions like this made in years past.

Some argue that Port Angeles has some of the most valuable and beautiful water front property in the world, but one only needs to look at the furrowed brows of visitors who drive through our water front to affirm that something has gone amiss.   What about downtown buildings and development?   What about business incentives?   What about the philosophy of our city leaders?   What is their vision for Port Angeles?   Shouldn’t there be some cooperation on a vision among all government agencies?   Or should we let them each do their own thing, even if the results are quite contradictory?

Why a blog on this subject?

Because this is the one place where all discussions are documented and permenantly on public file for all to read and re-read and comment on.   You can always come back and see what someone actually wrote, and how others felt about that position.

When the Chamber invites a speaker on business development in Port Angeles or the future of Port Angeles, you might have 30 people attend, or on a good day you might have a 100.   Those 100 people go home and each has a memory of the speech that fades over time.   Meanwhile, the remaining 24,900 people in Port Angeles did not hear the speech and had no opportunity to express their position.

Or take a city council meeting.   The same could be said.   Limited people, limited opportunity to respond, and politicians only get 1% of the people’s perspective, and that 1% is often special interests.

Now everyone has the ability to dialogue and express themselves on this blog focused on the future of Port Angeles.   The Port Angeles Chamber of Commerce has over 500 local business members.   They can all express their views here.   And the person on the street can do so.   Politicians will be able to hear more voices here than any other forum available.   And politicians and regulators can intelligently express their positions, ask questions, and answer questions.   And all articles and comments are archived for all to read and consider.

That’s the value of this blog.   The good news is that it is a valuable community resource and absolutely free to all users.

Check it out at PortAngelesVision.com.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Port Angeles Business Owners on the Internet

Today the photos will tell the story of the annual Port Angeles Crab Derby.   In our first photo Brady Marunde volunteers at the Crab Derby helping boys and girls (and moms and dads) fish for their crabs.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Port Angeles Walmart Under Construction
• Just Another Day in Port Angeles
• Port Angeles Businesses Struggle
• Port Angeles Walmart Supercenter
• Port Angeles Weather: Winter is Here