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‘Shrinking’ retail market concerning

One of the dictionary definitions of the word “shrink” refers to clinical psychiatrists or psychologists. However, in the retail sector the word has a vastly different meaning. It is an industry term for loss of inventory, one of the big reasons being rampant theft. In its Dec. 24-25 edition, just as the holiday shopping season was coming to a close, the Wall Street Journal delved into the scope of the shrink problem with which merchants currently are dealing, compared with what the retail sector had to deal and adjust to just several years earlier. The bottom line is that the ...

Optimism on Gable’s building

Front-page news in the Mirror earlier this month provided more cause for optimism about Downtown Altoona’s future. That news was a great way to welcome the start of this new year. The focus of the article was the once-proud Gable’s building that was a centerpiece of the era preceding the exodus of stores and other businesses to suburban venues. However, unlike the former McCrory’s building, which fell into great disrepair caused much municipal trepidation, the Gable’s structure has continued to be a player — albeit a diminished one — in this city’s economic ...

Small-business hiring reveals evolving change

Proposals for raising the minimum wage always have triggered vigorous discussion, with proponents as well as opponents providing reasonable arguments to bolster their respective positions. But the hiring situation at this time in the U.S. economy’s small-business sector is revealing an evolving change in the minimum wage’s perceived importance — a change perhaps destined to remain embedded in smaller workplaces, and numerous larger ones, around the nation for the long term rather than being but a short-term deviation from usual rate-of-pay statuses quo. “I don’t want to say ...

It’s important to make 2023 a better year

Many Americans still can recite word-for-word a famous — and meaningful — message delivered by President John F. Kennedy during his inaugural address on Jan. 20, 1961. That message: “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” During this weekend of forgettable 2022 giving way to what many people hope will be a greatly more upbeat 2023, perhaps a message with a tone similar to Kennedy’s is apropos, such as: “Ask not what 2023 can do for you; ask what you can do to help make 2023 a better year for yourself, your country and your fellow ...

AWA attempt to recoup is justified

Nothing should sidetrack the Altoona Water Authority from entering into a contract with a King of Prussia law firm involving collection of large unpaid bills in arrears for more than 90 days. Based on information in reporter William Kibler’s Dec. 26 front-page Mirror article, the law firm being considered for the pact is an expert in producing good results for its client agencies. According to the Altoona Area School District, the law firm — Portnoff Law Associates — has provided satisfactory service to the district regarding delinquent taxes. The water authority would ...

Illuminating the spirit of Christmas

Numerous American households have called a timeout regarding their traditional extensive Christmas holiday lighting displays this year or have reduced the number of hours those lights and displays are projecting the brightness and joy that this season represents. Those decisions come as no surprise, considering the uptick in energy costs and the challenges that inflation otherwise has inflicted on their daily lives. As past years have shown, however, this year’s more subdued decorations scenarios, where they exist, are destined to give way to the brighter, more prolonged displays ...