PORT ANGELES — The number of businesses shutting their doors downtown has mounted, even as the holiday shopping season gets in high gear.
Last week, the owner of The Camera Corner, a landmark business at Lincoln and First streets since it opened in 1961, announced he will close the shop by the end of the month.
Another landmark business, McLean’s Shoes, 109 E. First St., which opened in 1939, as well as neighboring Raven’s World, 120 W. First St., and Zenzizi, 127 E. First St., announced their impending closures in November.
Landing’s Restaurant & Dockside Lounge, in The Landings mall, remains closed and is not expected to reopen under the same ownership.
Barbara Frederick, Port Angeles Downtown Association executive director, said that though there is never any one reason a business closes, many local businesses are feeling the impact of the national economic downturn.
Increased economic uncertainty means that people are less likely to spend money, she said.
“Unfortunately, I think there will be more businesses to close,” she said, “and there’s a natural cycle that occurs in business areas of closing and new ones coming in.
“I think this is going to be a little worse.”
McLean’s Shoes
Dick McLean, son of store founder Charles McLean, hustled about the store on Friday as customers, some new, browsed his selection of discounted shoes, along with such items as shoe racks, carpet, cardboard cutouts and even a pair of old wooden skis he found in the basement.
“Anything in the store is for sale,” said McLean, 75. “The basement is full of stuff.”
McLean, who owns the building where the store is located, said he decided to sell the store’s inventory when he acquired its assets Nov. 14 from recent owner Julie Gardiner, who he said defaulted on the lease after she bought the business from McLean and his father five years ago.
But he has no intention of keeping the store going.
“I’m retired, and I want to be free of obligations,” said McLean, while widening a black women’s slip-on shoe in a back room of the store.
He took a wooden, shoe-shaped device he called a stretcher off the wall and applied it to the inside of the shoe.
“It’s like ironing out a seam,” he said. “It softens the leather.”
Even after 44 years in the shoe business, Dick McLean admits he doesn’t know everything.
“I should, but I don’t always,” he said.
Claudia Bushatz, 65, of Port Angeles, who bought the shoes, had never shopped there before.
“Sales work,” she said. “The shoes are fabulous.”
Gardiner said that the decreasing spending power of Port Angeles residents and money spent on building repairs led to her default on her lease.
“Obviously, the economy was not getting better for a year or two,” she said.
Gardiner also referred to city construction projects last summer and last winter as contributing to low sales.
McLean said Friday that he will keep the store open as long as people are buying shoes and anything else with a price tag.
The highest price tag is for the building itself, which has been listed for sale for the past two weeks.
Two addresses, 109 E. First St., and 111 E. First St., are listed together for $378,500.
So far, McLean has had a few lookers, but no takers.
The Camera Corner
The closure of The Camera Corner after 47 years “feels bad,” said owner Larry Ziegler.
“We’ll miss the customers,” he said. “They are really good people.”
Ziegler, 62, said the store is closing, not because of sales, but because he is “burnt out on the business end.”
The store has been on the market for four months.
A deal fell through on Nov. 28 when the prospective buyer was unable to secure financing.
“It just wasn’t going to work, so we are closing it down,” he said.
Items are marked down at least 30 percent.
Ziegler and his father also owned camera stores in Bremerton and Shelton, which were sold in the 1980s.
Zenzizi
Zenzizi owner Bunny Cornwall said she began to feel the effects of the economy on Sept. 15.
That’s when business “took a nose dive.”
“It was an immediate hit for us,” she said. “We went down 70 percent.”
Zenzizi has sold fair trade clothing and crafts from third-world countries since November 2005.
Cornwall said the store will close on Dec. 31. All her goods were discounted by 30 percent on Nov. 28.
“We will start at 30 percent and see where it goes,” she said.
As a clothing designer, Cornwall said she got the idea to create the store after working with fair trade manufacturers in India.
Cornwall said most of her customers have come from outside Port Angeles.
“We were definitely supported by tourists,” she said. “The tourists got it. The locals not so much.”
Cornwall also owns the Olympic Day Spa, which she has operated at Eighth and Peabody streets since 2000.
Raven’s World
Owned by Bob and Lindi Lumens, the Raven’s World store — which sells items with fantasy, spiritual or wildlife themes — on First Street is expected to close by Christmas.
The store, which opened in Port Angeles in 2000, began selling everything at 50 percent off on Nov. 26.
Lindi Lumens, 52, said they started the business in 1991 in Bellevue. The Bellevue location closed in 2003, and another location in Silverdale closed in 2004.
“As people started tightening their belts . . . they are paying attention to the things you need, not what you want,” Lindi Lumens said.
The couple also owns Northwest Fudge, a few doors down from Raven’s World, which is not in danger of closing, she said.
Landing’s Restaurant
The Landing’s Restaurant closed its doors two weeks ago, and the owner, Sandi Hartman, told Paul Cronauer, Landing Mall owner, that she won’t reopen, he said.
A rental dispute between Cronauer and Hartman resulted in the doors being padlocked and its locks changed last week.
Help for businesses
In response to economic woes, Frederick said the downtown association is trying to make information on local resources for business owners more accessible.
Those resources include the Clallam County Economic Development Council, and any local financial institution, she said.
“We know of a lot of resources locally for businesses to go to,” she said.
“We would like to show business owners how to reposition themselves in the market and how their business may fit in this economy.
“There are always those businesses that may be struggling that would never say anything.”
Russ Veenema, Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce executive director, said the chamber also intends to ensure that its members are aware of all the resources it provides, so they can have a better chance at succeeding.
“Our business databases are excellent for people to communicate with other members and businesses around,” he said.
Veenema said the chamber will continue to do what it can to attract tourists to the North Olympic Peninsula.
He said this year he expects lodging-tax revenue, a measure of tourist activity, to surpass the record of $498,000 set in 2007. The chamber estimates that tourists spent $40 million in Port Angeles that year.
With gas prices continuing to drop, Veenema said there is a good chance that even more people will be willing to take the drive to the Peninsula next year.
________
Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
