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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (April 30, 2015)
BUSINESS 4A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, APRIL 30, 2015 Columbia Fruit and Produce clears its shelves By EDWARD STRATTON The Daily Astorian TIMELINE After 67 years of providing fresh fruits and vegetables to wholesale customers and 53 years of running a market, Columbia Fruit and Produce closed its doors this week. The announcement was made April 22 on the store’s Facebook page and through an ad in The Daily Astorian. The company, owned by Bruce and Cece Johnson, has been telling customers since March. “Nobody wants to do it, and it’s time for my husband to cut back and think about retiring,” Cece said. She said Columbia Produce start- ed the merger process Wednesday with Portland-based United Salad Co./Duck Delivery Produce Inc. The last day of the market was sched- uled for today, with produce marked down to 67 cents a pound to honor the company’s history. The Johnsons will be working with their former customers as em- ployees of Duck Delivery, handling wholesale orders in the Astoria area. Cece said the market was about 1 percent of business for Columbia Produce, which mainly supplied between 100 and 200 restaurants, schools, care facilities, stores and other commercial customers. Cece said they had tried to work with others to take over the business, but nothing ever worked out, and 1948: Wholesale division begins Opens first retail market locat- ed on Port of Astoria’s central waterfront 1962: Opens current mar- ket, located on 598 Bond St., Astoria April 2015: Closes after 67 years in business they had no family to take over the business. She described the store, which took cash and checks and al- lowed customers to get their produce on a tab, as operating in the 19th cen- tury. “We don’t have another genera- tion that wants to take it over,” she said. “We just felt this was best for the majority of our customers and us.” Cece said Arnold Johnson Sr. start- ed Columbia Produce — the whole- sale division, not the market — out of a semi truck in 1948, making trips to Portland to pick up produce for com- mercial customers in Astoria. His son, Arnold Johnson Jr., ran the business before Bruce and Cece Johnson. “That got to be pretty popular,” Cece said of the original operation, adding that Arnold Johnson Sr. later HVWDEOLVKHG &ROXPELD 3URGXFH¶V ¿UVW location on the central waterfront EDWARD STRATTON — The Daily Astorian After 67 years of providing wholesale produce and 53 of providing a market, Columbia Fruit and Produce closed its doors this week. of the Port of Astoria. In 1962, she added, Columbia Produce bought its current location, a former Blitz-Wein- hard Brewing Co. distributor. “Please continue to support your small locally owned businesses,” Columbia Produce’s Facebook post about the closure read, listing sever- al other locally owned grocery stores as alternatives. “Without your sup- port they won’t be there for you in the future.” Maritime Museum store wins national award Submitted photo The Columbia River Maritime Museum, which recently won the Museum Store Association’s Visual Merchan- dising award, submitted its special exhibits conceived for “Envisioning the World: The First Printed Maps, 1472-1700.” The Columbia Riv- er Maritime Museum has been awarded the 2015 Muse- um Store Association Visual Merchandising award, which recognizes excellence in visu- al merchandising by a muse- um institution. Nominations were evalu- ated based on creative use of resources, collaboration and how well the display extends the museum experience. The Columbia River Maritime Museum submitted its special exhibits store that was con- ceived for the exhibit “Envi- sioning the World: The First Printed Maps, 1472-1700.” Finalists for the award were the DeYoung Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, The Wadsworth Atheneum of Hartford Conn., Virginia Mu- seum of Fine Art and Eastern National. The award was accepted by Blue Anderson April 19 in +DUWIRUG&RQQRQWKH¿QDO day of the association’s na- tional conference. The Museum Store Asso- FLDWLRQLVDQRQSUR¿WLQWHUQD- tional association dedicated to advancing the success of QRQSUR¿W UHWDLO SURIHVVLRQDOV in extending the brand and contributing to the bottom lines of their institutions. It serves more than 1,500 mem- bers in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Asia and Europe. More job vacancies, higher wages in Oregon Oregon businesses report- ed 39,400 vacancies in winter 2015, an increase of 6,600 vacancies from the prior year, according to the quarterly Job Vacancy Report released Tuesday by the Oregon Em- ployment Department. That included 3,577 job vacancies in northwest Oregon. The growing number of va- FDQFLHV UHÀHFWV WKH VWUHQJWK- ening labor market across Or- egon in the past year. The average hourly wage offered for job vacancies in winter 2015 was the highest in the two-year history of the quarterly Oregon Job Vacancy Survey. The overall average wage was $17.53, up about $1.50 from the average of $16.05 in winter 2014. Employers report fewer low-wage job vacancies and more high-wage vacancies. This combination is raising the average offered wage. A year ago, 61 percent of the job vacancies offered a starting wage below $15 per hour. That share is now down to just 34 percent. A year ago, 4,200 job vacancies offered at least $25 per hour. Now, more than 5,000 job vacancies offer at least $25 per hour. Health care and social as- sistance had the largest num- ber of job vacancies by far, reporting almost one-quarter of the total openings. Occu- pations in demand included personal care aides, social and human service assistants and registered nurses. Leisure and hospitality employers also re- ported many job vacancies, with recruitment for maids and housekeepers; waiters and waitresses; and cooks. The Oregon Job Vacan- cy Survey has improved geographic detail, as of this quarter. From this point for- ward, it will be publishing vacancy data for nine areas around the state, aligning with Oregon’s redesigned Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act local areas. This is the first quarter it’s gathered data for these new substate geographies. In winter 2015, the num- ber of vacancies in each of the nine geographic areas was roughly consistent with the spread of overall employ- ment across the state. The biggest differences were in northwest Oregon, which had 9 percent of the vacancies, compared with 5 percent of the state’s employment, and in the mid-Willamette Valley, which had 7 percent of the vacancies, compared with 13 percent of the overall employ- ment in Oregon. About the Survey The Oregon Employment Department’s Job Vacancy Survey started in May 2008 and became quarterly in 2013. This survey serves as a current indicator of hiring demand and focuses specif- ically on characteristics of CMH Medical Group adds caregivers WARRENTON — Columbia Memorial Hos- pital Medical Group recently doubled its primary care services with the addition of Dr. Kevin Bax- ter and Family Nurse Practitioner Janice Monroe. Baxter and Monroe joined the CMH Prima- ry Care Clinic in Warrenton April 20 and con- tinue to see Baxter Family Medicine patients in their new location. “I am very excited to be merging my prac- tice with the CMH Primary Care Clinic,” Baxter said. “My philosophy of patient-centered care matches that of the Planetree philosophy that CMH has embraced.” Baxter and Monroe will collaborate with CMH Primary Care Clinic’s other providers, Dr. Brian Cox and Nurse Practitioner Mary Rizzo. CMH Primary Care Clinic is located in War- renton at 1639 S.E. Ensign Lane, Suite B103. For more information or to schedule an appoint- ment, call 503-338-4500. vacancies for anyone seek- ing a job in Oregon. In ad- dition to developing the es- timate of total vacancies in the state, the survey provides insights on the industries hiring, wages offered and education required. In recent years, the survey has also asked businesses whether their vacancies are difficult to fill. The employment depart- ment publishes a quarterly summary of vacancy survey results, as well as annual, more detailed reports on wages, ed- ucation requirements and the reasons why businesses have GLI¿FXOW\¿OOLQJRSHQLQJV Survey results are based on responses from private-sector businesses with at least two employees. Estimates for spring 2015 will be released in July. For more details on re- cent Oregon job vacancies, visit the “publications” tab on QualityInfo.org and scroll down to the “Job Vacancy Survey” section. AP Photo/Gene Puskar, File Aluminum bottles of Bud Light beer are on display at Al- coa headquarters in Pittsburgh. Anheuser-Busch apol- ogized Tuesday, for a slogan that appeared on bottles saying Bud Light removes the word ‘no’ from drinkers’ vocabulary. Bud Light: Sorry for the ‘no’ NEW YORK (AP) — Bud Light should have kept the word “No” handy in this case. Anheuser-Busch is apolo- gizing for ad copy that appeared on bottles saying Bud Light re- moves the word ‘no’ from drink- ers’ vocabulary. Photos of the bottles went viral on social media Tuesday with widespread complaints about the slogan, particularly at a time of national debate about college rape. “The perfect beer for re- moving ‘no’ from your vocab- ulary for the night,” the copy read in full. The response on social me- dia ranged from crude jokes to criticism that the slogan is part of a culture that tacitly con- dones sexual assault. The slogan is part of the brewer’s two-year-old “Up for Whatever” campaign that includes a wide array of mar- keting, such as a Super Bowl commercial that showed a Bud Light drinker going through a live-action Pac Man game. The company says there are waves of the bottle-message campaign included more than 140 different messages — with new ones out every few months — intended to “encourage brand engagement.” They said this particular one missed the mark, and the company regrets it. “We would never condone disrespectful or irresponsible behavior,” Alexander Lam- brecht, vice president, Bud Light said in a statement. “As a result, we have immediately ceased production of this mes- sage on all bottles.” Marketers can sometimes lose perspective when they walk the line between being edgy to get attention and be- ing offensive, said marketing expert Allen Adamson, man- DJLQJGLUHFWRURIEUDQGLQJ¿UP Landor Associates. “All marketers want to get people’s attention, not alienate them,” Adamson said. “The challenge is to understand who you’re talking to, but not lose sight of the bigger picture and be potentially polarizing and offensive.” Some other messages on bottles include: “The perfect beer for dropping everything and going to Paris, even if it’s the one in Texas;” and “The perfect beer for being that guy people know when they say they ‘know a guy.”’ PR O PER TY LIN ES a t ho m ed it e io n REAL ESTATE, HOME CONSTRUCTION, GARDENING AND MORE! june 2015 • Pocket Listings • Real Estate Roadblocks • Buying a Fixer-Upper Clatsop County Property Transactions Seller: John Francis Davis Buyer: Susan Lee Gus- tavson Address: 247 E. Dawes Ave., Cannon Beach Price: $385,000 Sellers: Lee Ray Townsley and Barbara L. Townsley Buyers: Steven E. Craft and Vicci L. Craft Address: 1940 S. Down- ing St., Seaside Price: $337,000 Seller: Shawn Michael Teevin Buyer: Gary W. Hart Address: 2835 Mill Pond Lane, Astoria Price: $325,000 Seller: Janice Gloria Rob- ertson Buyers: John C. Bredeson and Novella L. Bredeson Address: 439 McClure Ave., Astoria Price: $285,000 • Real Estate Glossary Seller: A&G Builders, LLC Buyer: Mays Land & Livestock, Inc. Address: 151 S.W. Kal- mia Ave., Warrenton Price: $264,000 • Trim your Trees Safely Seller: Rebecca Lynn Dean Buyers: Ashton Lee Jenks and Alison LaRee Jenks Address: 1856 Pine Ridge Road, Gearhart Price: $255,000 • Trends in Home Construction • Adding a Shed • Painting your Subfloor • When should you Finance? • Buying a vacation home Copies of Property Lines “At Home” edition are inserted into The Daily Astorian and are available at locations throughout Clatsop County. For more information or to reserve your space, contact your advertising consultant: Astoria/Warrenton/Hammond 503-325-3211 Gearhart/Seaside/Cannon Beach 503-738-5561 Dea d lin e: M a y 8 , 2015 Pu b lis hes : M a y 22, 2015 Available online for one full year @ dailyastorian.com chinookobserver.com seasidesignal.com cannonbeachgazette.com
