You may have noticed in last week’s newspaper. I haven’t been home to see what the changes are except for the new name. Are changes good or bad?
It was a Sunday evening in the 90s, I pulled into the store that I was delivering to a store in Colorado Springs. The name on my bills was different than on the sign. I was to be at Home Club but the sign read Home Base.
I have driven by this store many times and I knew it was Home Club. I went around back and there was a pallet with Home Club stenciled on it. Now I knew I wasn’t crazy. The next morning I asked how long had the name been changed?
The name was changed on Friday because people were associating the word Club with a membership. That weekend they doubled their sales. They eventually closed for good in 2001.
In 2009, Mr. Bill Smith, owner of Smithway Motor Xpress died. He was in his 80s and his wife and grown children wanted to sell the company. This company was the one that many of us wanted to retire from.
The board of directors tried to raise the money to buy it but couldn’t. A trucking company that had a poor safety rating needed to buy a company with a great one to keep operating. SMX was sold and everything went downhill quickly.
I received a message on my Qualcomm that there had been three roll overs in 24 hours. I sent a message, their plan is working great. A few moments later I get a call from the vice president of SMX flatbed, laughing and telling me that I was right.
Changes are happening every day. Stores are closing while new ones are opening. Companies are buying other companies all over this country. Some are small subtle changes that it takes awhile to see.
After Terry Spradley, former editor of the St. John News passed away, the office in St. John was closed and the newspaper was folded into Pratt-based production. People started noticing that we had more Pratt news and Pratt sports, which we never had.
For the past couple years the only difference in the Pratt Tribune, Kiowa County Signal and St. John News was the front and back pages. The upside to this is that if you are advertising or selling something, all three newspapers have it.
Will this new name change be a good or bad change? Likely, it will be like the roundabout, a lot of grumbling that turns out not to be so bad. There may be some collaboration with Stafford County Economic Development Board. That’s hopeful.
