In December, I asked the question, “Is this a viable business model?”   Today’s post has pictured an empty store front that was once the home of FitPro, an appointment only bike shop.  By all appearances, an appointment only, high end bicycle shop was not a viable business model, at least not in a down economy.

The two male Mallards pictured in today’s header continue this week’s header theme on birds.  The Mallards are floating on Post-Dispatch Lake that is located in the Park.  The connection between today’s header and the empty store front pictured in today’s post is hard economic times.  Post-Dispatch Lake was man made in 1894.  The economic panic of 1893 hit Saint Louis hard.  Joseph Pulitzer was the editor and owner of the Saint Louis paper, the Post-Dispatch.  The Post was then only fifteen years old.  Pulitzer offered a day’s wages to anyone willing to help dig this lake.  Some 20,000 unemployed men excavated the basin with picks and shovels.  The lake remains a living reminder of the 126 year legacy of public service by the newspaper and the Pulitzer family.  So in a sense, Post-Dispatch Lake was Saint Louis’ first stimulus package.

This last Monday Secretary Gates announced his intention to end or curtail a number of programs.  This announcement sent a shudder through my workplace.  Until this week, there have been few, if any, repercussions from the economic crisis.  Some of us remember the hard times our industry experinced, during the 1990s, but even more of my co-workers are too young to have experienced those times.  For our business model, things have gotten more interesting.