by Ralph Nichols
After more than two months of anticipation, of driving past Burien Nissan at Five Corners and looking for new cars on display there once again, the news this week is disappointing.
Burien Nissan will not reopen after all – at least not anytime soon. The return of the auto dealership with a new owner – Car Pros – had been expected earlier to take place in mid-September.
“We were excited” about reopening Burien Nissan, Ken Phillips, president of Car Pros, told The B-Town Blog recently. “We had everything in line. Our financing package was all done. But the sellers couldn’t provide quick title to the property and we couldn’t close in time.”
He said the problem involved only closing the proposed sale and “had absolutely nothing to do with the national economy.
“If circumstances change, we would be available to relook at the whole process,” Phillips added. “We lived for 30 years in Normandy Park. All our friends are right there. That’s our home. We know a lot of people there.”
The previous dealership owner, Rainier Automotive Group, saw the entire inventory reclaimed by Nissan in a 24-hour period in March after losing its financing. The business closed its doors less than two months later, reportedly when new financing couldn’t be arranged.
Car Pros owns Kia and Suzuki dealerships in Tacoma and a Hyundai dealership in Seattle, and dealerships in Carson, Calif. Phillips said they had planned to sell Nissan models exclusively at Burien Nissan.
Courtesy B-Town Blog Contributor Duane Hobbs (of Andrews/Hobbs Design Company) comes this weekend’s handy-dandy interactive map of area garage and yard sales, from Des Moines to West Seattle, from Friday Sept. 11th through Sunday, Sept. 13th.
To utilize the map, simply click on any of the yellow push-pin styled icons, and a listing of that specific sale will pop up (HINT: if you feel like you’re “stuck” on one listing, just click on another icon):
View Area Sales (9/11 – 13) in a larger map
Last week, we found this rather interesting, potential recession indicator – a Burien business listed “For Sale” posting on Craigslist:
We’ve known of Burien’s Olympic Coffee & Roasting for a while, are aware it’s been in biz since the early ’90s, have bought coffee from them, even used their free wi-fi a few times, and were somewhat shocked when we saw that it was for sale.
Come on – they roast their own beans in the back of the shop, making them (as far as we know) Burien’s only local coffee roaster!
Why would this business be for sale?
Is the recession really hitting the coffee biz that hard (don’t forget Starbucks recent troubles)?
We just had to know, so we did what every other good blogger/reporter would do – we called the owner and arranged to meet with him over (what else) coffee at his place.
Owner Ron Namgoung, 43, was born in South Korea, and moved to America when he was 15. He came to Washington in 1988, and bought Olympic Coffee and Roasting in January of 2006.
In addition to running this B-Town coffee institution, he works full-time at Northwest Airlines.
In other words, he’s a very busy man who puts in 17-18 hours per day doing two jobs.
But his coffee business is hurting, and he appears to be fed up. So he’s trying to sell it.
“I can no longer continue this business,” said Namgoung as he took a break from serving as his own barista, “because I have lost lots of money and still am…”
When asked why he’s losing money, Namgoung paused a moment, then declared “Many reasons – this was my first business and I feel like I was mislead by the realtors who sold it to me; there’s also a recession going on and people aren’t buying $4 lattes like they used to, and…I’m in so much debt now that I’ll probably have to declare bankruptcy soon.”
Namgoung says that he often put in $8,000 to $9,000 per month just to meet his payroll, on credit, but he’s proud that he never missed making payroll.
He ended up going into some serious debt (to the tune of $150,000+), and he now appears to have reached his limit.
And yes, he’s tried advertising in the one local (and obviously troubled) weekly newspaper, where he paid for a coupon ad for four months.
The net result from that expensive four-month coupon ad?
Three users.
But there’s still a chance he can recover, and this could be where you, our faithful and generous B-Town Blog Reader, comes in.
“If I can sell 160 more pounds of coffee beans per week, I can stay in business,” he said in a hopeful voice.
That works out to around 26-1/2 pounds of coffee per week for six local espresso stands, which doesn’t sound like that tall (or venti in this case) of an order.
Will Ron be able to find enough vendors to buy more beans?
Or will he have to sell this Burien institution?
Stay tuned…and in the meantime, why not drop by Olympic Coffee & Roasting and buy some of their freshly-roasted beans (we did, and they’re excellent), buy a cuppa joe, or perhaps just outright buy the entire business.
Feel free to contact Ron with any offers or ideas – he’s all ears:
Ron Namgoung
(206) 755-4569 – cell #
n5929@comcast.net
B-Town Blog Advertiser and longtime Burien winery E.B. Foote Winery has just announced that they are now selling wines online.
From their press release:
Gas prices getting you down?
Want to enjoy E. B. Foote wines but can’t get to the winery?
You can now order E. B. Foote wines online!
The Current Releases page of our website has a list of the wines that are for sale, prices, descriptions and awards won, AND you can order the wines you want to be shipped to you. Wine can be shipped to adults in Washington State only. All you need is a credit card and an address. Wine will be shipped via FedEx, and adult signature is required for delivery. (Wine Club members — of course you pay the Wine Club price on your order.)
There is a shipping charge, and the shipping amount is determined by the quantity of wine you order. Once you place an order, the order is e-mailed to us on a secure line, your credit card is processed, the wine is shipped, and you receive an e-mail with your FedEx tracking number.
It’s that simple. Gas is expensive but good wine is priceless – why drive when you can have it delivered?
Wine Club members — If you haven’t picked up your July wine yet, please do so by Labor Day weekend. If you want it shipped, there will be an additional shipping charge of $12 plus tax put on your credit card on file. Just let us know by phone or e-mail if you want us to ship it to you.
Summer is in full swing with plenty of sunshine and lots of activities to keep everyone busy. As you plan your fun, we hope you’ll plan to join us over Labor Day weekend to toast the end of the summer with great prices on wine. In honor of the winery’s 30th anniversary, we’ll have 30% off selected wines. (Wine Club members save even more!) There will be eight wines for sampling and snacks to go with them. The $5 tasting fee will be applied toward a wine purchase. (No tasting fee for Wine Club members or Volunteer Vintners.) This would be a great way to end a great summer.
What’s this Wine Club you keep reading about? If you like E. B. Foote wines and want to save money on every purchase, you want to join our Wine Club. There is no cost to join! Wine Club members receive three bottles of wine each quarter, and always receive a discount on wine purchases. When new wines are released in December and February and April, Wine Club members receive them before the release date. The July wines are half-price. When it’s time for your Wine Club wine, we send you an e-mail telling you which wines you are getting, the amount to be charged to your card, and when you can come to pick it up OR when it will be shipped. Wine Club members do not pay a tasting fee to attend our special weekend events.
To join, go the the Wine Club page of our website for an application that can be faxed or brought in for immediate membership and savings.
For more info, go to the E.B. Foote website.
