Greenbrier Resort (Charleston, Washington, Elizabeth: ski resorts, for sale, 2009)

[Sharedspirit]

This is not good! Greenbrier is laying off 650 employees.

BREAKING NEWS: Greenbrier Resort to Lay off 650 Employees

Tourism must be taking a big hit right now in WV?

[vec101]

Hubby heard about the layoffs on Fox News on XM.
I had read the other day that they were thinking about selling. The Charleston Gazette - West Virginia News and Sports - News - The Greenbrier for sale? *

Economy is surely part of the problem but ....
Part of the problem may stem from the anticipation of a strike by The Greenbrier employees last summer. Lots of conventions are held at The Greenbrier - figure there are comparitively few people who just go on their own (unless they own a cottage there). Last summer, I had heard of several groups which normally have an annual meeting there had cancelled in fear of the strike (don't want to take a group of 300-400 people to a place and the workers are on strike). Guess is that really hurt revenue last year.

As to tourism in WV, heard on the news that things were very good for the ski areas over the Christmas/New Years holiday. Ski Resorts Calling Season 'Successful' - WOWK-TV - WOWKTV.com

Sure seems like when prices go crazy, economy in downturn, people look to activities relatively close to home rather than flying, going to the Caribbean, etc. Anyhow, let's hope that is true and tat a lot of people take advantage of the fun things in WV.

......... slopes were a bit more crowded this year than last.
That bucks a national trend at larger ski resorts that are reporting a downturn in activity over the holidays .......had over 200,000 visitors .........resorts saw an large number of out-of-state visitors over the holidays because to the lower fuel prices. Ski Resorts Calling Season 'Successful' - WOWK-TV - WOWKTV.com

[Sharedspirit]

I had forgotten about the strikes. That probably had a lot to do with the layoffs.

I heard that the ski resorts are offering a lot of specials. We might be going to snowshoe next month. Depends if we can get a farm sitter. The family is planning to all go. I will not ski, but get to stay back at the lodge and play with the baby! I like that much better.

[David Kennedy]

The brier does this every year..,packs in the workers for the pre-holiday rush...after its over...hands out the pink slips...

I have aquaintance who owns a Harley shop...sells about 500 new Harleys in the good weather...go find a salesman in the building if you can...all laid off...It's called management...if you can't/arn't making a buck...how can you pay?

Disposable income is down this year...reflected in the Christmas buying...

Dems caused all this with the 'Bad Economy Hype...hasn't anybody caught on to the presidential change cycle...the people hurt are the workers...disposable...have always been so...

[millersangel]

The econmy is bad. It all started with the subprime mortgages under the Repubs and the collapse of the housing marekt which in turn left the banks holding a lot of unpayable debt which almost caused their collapse. Well, they may still collapse despite bail outs.

Just because we don't see it as much here in WV doesn't mean it isn't happening all over the country, some places more than others.

The lay offs are much more than usual this year. From the Charleston Gazette:

Hotel officials decided to furlough 650 hourly and salaried workers "due to a sharper than normal seasonal decline in business, as well as the harsh environment for luxury resorts," spokeswoman Lynn Swann said.

The Greenbrier usually lays off workers temporarily in the winter months, but usually not this many, Swann said. The furloughs will take place over the next two weeks.

The point is who can afford the Greenbrier these days? Why go there when you can go to a really nice state park for a quarter of the cost?

I'm sure Goldman Sachs will straighten them out. After all, they're doing so well with with their own company.

[Threerun]

A co-worker of mine was talking about how much money the Greenbrier loses each year.. Pretty damned staggering if it was accurate.

[snorpus]

Is it still owned by the C&O (Chessie System) ?

[vec101]

Originally Posted by David Kennedy

Disposable income is down this year...reflected in the Christmas buying...

Dems caused all this with the 'Bad Economy Hype...hasn't anybody caught on to the presidential change cycle...the people hurt are the workers...disposable...have always been so...

Agree. The hype made people spend even less thus becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Some interesting unemployment history (I'm not making any type of analysis, just throwing the numbers out there. More data can be found at Overall Unemployment Rate in the U.S. Civilian Labor Force, 1920–2007 — Infoplease.com or Unemployment Rate US (good graph there):
1920 5.2 ...........1928 4.2 .............1930 8.7 ............1932 23.6 ............1934 21.7 ............1936 16.9 ..........1938 19.0
1940 14.6 ..........1942 4.7
1950 5.3 ............1956 4.1 .............1958 6.8
1960 5.5
1970 4.9 ............1972 5.6 ............1976 7.7 ...........1978 6.1
1980 7.1 ............1982 9.7 ............1984 7.5 ...........1986 7.0 ...............1987 6.2 ..............1988 5.5 .............1989 5.3
1990 5.6 ............1991 6.8 ............1992 7.5 ...........1993 6.9 ...............1994 6.1 ..............1995 5.6 .............1996 5.4
1997 4.9 ............1998 4.5
2000 4.0 ............2001 4.7 ............2002 5.8 ............2003 6.0 ..............2004 5.5 ..............2005 5.1 ..............2006 4.6
2007 4.6
Data from:
Overall Unemployment Rate in the U.S. Civilian Labor Force, 1920–2007 — Infoplease.com

[GottaHerdOn]

Originally Posted by snorpus

Is it still owned by the C&O (Chessie System) ?

Its owned by CSX I believe

[millersangel]

From MSN Money:

Market Dispatches1/9/2009 7:00 PM ET
Dow falls 143; weak jobs picture to pressure markets
U.S. unemployment hits 7.2% as 2008 job losses are the worst since 1945. Analysts see more cuts ahead and stress the need for a big economic stimulus. Citigroup may sell Smith Barney; former Treasury Secretary Rubin will leave. Oil falls below $41.

[Related content: stocks, investments, stock market, financial crisis, economy]
By Charley Blaine and Elizabeth Strott
Stocks slid Friday after the government said that the economy lost 2.6 million jobs in 2008, the worst year for job losses since World War II, and national unemployment hit the highest level in 16 years.

The jobs picture is likely to get worse before it gets better. Among the keys to an early end to the recession are rapid deployment of stimulus money from the incoming Obama administration and improved psychology about the economy.

The stimulus is important because the recession is worsening with no other catalysts to jumpstart the economy, said Philippa Dunne of the Liscio Report, an economic newsletter. As important is maintaining the optimism that the repairs are being made. If that falters, she said, 2009 could become difficult both for the economy and investors.

At Friday's close, the Dow Jones industrials were down 143 points, or 1.6%, to 8,599. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was off 19 points, or 2.1%, to 890, and the Nasdaq Composite Index was down 45 points, or 2.8%, to 1,572.

For the week, the Dow was down 4.8%, with the S&P off 4.5% and the Nasdaq down 3.7%. After the first six days of trading in 2009, the Dow is down 2%, the S&P 500 has slipped 1.4% and the Nasdaq has dropped 0.3%.

The government said nonfarm payrolls fell by 524,000 and job losses in October and November were larger than originally reported. The 2.6 million jobs lost last year were the most since 1945, when the economy dropped 2.75 million jobs.

The national unemployment rate jumped to 7.2% from 6.8% in November and 5% in April. More than 11 million Americans are now unemployed.

For many analysts, the report was a signal that the recession is real and likely to linger. One trader told CNBC he saw the unemployment rate hitting 10% this year.

The stock market's response, however, was relatively contained, probably because a terrible jobs report had been expected. Many companies have been announcing big layoffs since New Year's, and the credit crisis and the collapse of such well-known institutions as Bear Stearns, Lehman Bros. and Washington Mutual guaranteed a gloomy picture.

The jobs report will force many analysts to continue cutting earnings estimates just as the fourth-quarter earnings season is starting.

Thomson Reuters is projecting that fourth-quarter earnings for S&P 500 companies will drop 15.2% from a year ago. That's a startling decline from July when, Thomson said, analysts were projecting a 59.3% earnings increase.

The first Dow company to report will be Alcoa (AA, news, msgs) after Monday's close. The stock fell nearly 11% this week after the the company announced 13,500 job cuts and a substantial cutback in capital expenditures because of weak markets.

Chip giant Intel (INTC, news, msgs) reports after Thursday's close. It cut its fourth-quarter revenue estimate to $8.2 billion, down 23% from a year ago. The shares fell 6.9% for the week.

People who still have jobs aren't spending money because they don't know if they will have one in the future. Nobody's going to buy that new big screen HDTV. I don't care if they're making $100,000 a year. It ain't looking good.

But hopefully Obama, the evil Dem, can turn it around. It may take years though to undo the damage eight years of Bush caused.

It was all about greed and deregulation. And people buying into something that looked too good to be true because it was too good to be true. What about the promotion of that psychology?