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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 22, 1981)
Portland Observar January 22 1981 Page 5 Safeway aids handicapped shoppers Products on the top shelves are often out of reach for wheelchair custom ers. S afew ay personnel have been instructed to assist disabled shoppers in obtaining items from uppermost shelves. Pic tured here is a Safeway Assistant Manager removing a box of cereal from the top shelf for Ron Horne. Accountant for Goodwill Industries of Oregon. Karen Stanton is in hot water- and her team could help PGE customers save more than $250,000 a year. The idea originated when Kermit Berge, Chico Safeway Store clerk, saw one o f his store’ s regular customers struggling to do his shop ping from a wheelchair. The restric tions o f the wheelchair did not allow the customer to use a shopping cart. Since he could not stack many items on his lap, he could only pick up a few odds and ends at one time. In an attempt to help the shopper, Berge investigated various com panies meeting the needs o f the disabled. To his surprise, there were no shopping carts fo r disabled people. Berge said Safeway o ffic ia ls in Sacremento, C a lifo rn ia also checked and confirmed his findings. He sat down with an Engineer, Charlie Newqujjt o f Chico, and the two developed the firs t shopping cart adaptable to a wheelchair. Berge said he’d had the idea for a long time but was never able to do anything with it. Safeway gave him three carts to tihker with. Berg un veiled his invention in November 1979 at a Chico Safeway store. The m odified cart looks like a regular shopping cart w ithout a handle. A four foot adjustable arm projects from the back o f the cart and includes two hooks which at tach to any wheelchair. Once in operation, the cart is directly in front o f the wheelchair shopper who can easily move about the aisles. In 1980, the cart was tested in W ashington, D.C. A fte r a few minor modifications were made the cart was made available to stores in some eastern states. This year, Karen Stanton and her co-workers are aiming at helping PGE customers save more than $250.000 in water heating costs as part of PGE s Water Heater Incentive Program (W.H I P). Karen and her fellow Renewable Resource Both private and public Inspectors are helping PGE utilities throughout the residential customers ar country are facing soaring range installation of solar costs Higher equipment water heating and water costs, fuel costs and interest heater heat pump systems rates have everyone on a in their homes tight budget And the rapid PGE customers, who take growth of new residential and advantage of the W H I P business customers in our program, will be given $300 service area is another strain if they install a solar water on our existing supply heater or water heater heat But, at PGE, we are for pump Or, PGE will advance tunate to have people like them the money they get back next year in state and Karen Stanton working hard federal tax credits for install to keep costs down for cus tomers wherever they can ing a solar water heater, People who — “ ■ as a non-interest loan. It's hoped that up to Mr® 3,000 such systems will People with cost-saving be installed this year which ideas for you would mean a total savings of 6,920,000 kilowatt-hours, or $254,992 at today s prices Electricity costs are going up everywhere, it's not |ust here C Business tricky, satisfying (Continued from page I col 3) business loan... Observer: ...D id you have any trouble yet Unit l he loan? Farm er: A t firs t we had some trouble getting the loan u n til we were able to come up w ith the capital that we needed, and with our financial background, it wasn’t that bit£ o f a Droblem. I would like to thank Warren Mitchell. He was very inspirational in helping me get the loan, and he still helps me now i f I run into problems. Observer: Who is Warren M it chell? Farmer: At the time, he was area representative fo r the Small Business Administration. Since then he has gone into another job. And yes...I do feel that Blacks are given a harder time. I ’ ve been in and out of the business for the past twenty years and have come to learn most of the pitfalls you are confron ted with. If you know what they are, you can kind o f guide yourself around them. A person who doesn’ t know the p itfa lls can run in to all kinds o f problems. Observer: Is the Buddy System also at work here? Farmer: Yes...I think its who you know, but most of all it depends on your financial background. F a rm e r’s W ife :...T h a t’ s what we’ ve found. I f you have money, you can get money. Farmer: But if you don’t have any money, then you have a problem. The Small Business Administration never gave me a problem. They were ihere to help. When I did run into a problem, it was with the banks. My eeling was, they don’t like to make loans i f the current loan rate is 15- 16%. They don’t like to go out and nake a 9ffzo loan, even if it is a small ’usiness. They gave me problems in his area. F a rm e r’s W ife: An example is when we just started planning for ihe remodeling o f this place. We had help from the SBA and they figured in, supposedly, all o f the costs and also enough money fo r reserve. Farmer: The initial plan was that I could wait six months before I had io make a payment. Farm er’s Wife ...B ut you see. it took so long before everything was Done. A whole year and ten months for building and so by the time we <Jlie Jlitile Poem Used Clothing Used Clothing Telephone 289-8044 INER L. POE Mgr. 811 N. KILLINGSWORTH PORTLAND, OREGON 97217 Observer: What advice would you had gone through this twenty- give someone who was interested in month period, in fla tio n had taken starting a restaurant business? up all o f the reserve ... Farm er: W ell, in this day and Farmer: In other words, we were b u ilding on bids that were a year age, the best advice that 1 can give someone, is to know something old. And you can just imagine how in fla tio n had worked on that. I f I about the restaurant business before hadn’ t had other resources, I could you go in to it. Because the H elp Prevent restaurant business is tric k y , and never have gotten o ff the ground. Birth Defects — now-a-days you can go broke in a Observer: You have many young The Nation's m atter o f weeks i f everything people w orking f o r y o u ...is this doesn’ t fa ll in to place. And they N u m b er One tradition? usually just d on’ t fa ll in to Farm er: W ell, they are m ostly Child Health place...you have to make them fall fam ily. We have a fa m ily type o f Problem. into place. operation here... F arm er’s W ife :... Because we have six children. Observer: Do you hire both m in o ritie s and whites fro m the community? Farm er: We try to keep it ba lanced. We try but the final analysis depends on their performance. But our biggest problem has been our help. I t ’ s really hard to find good, efficient help that’ s really concerned about the com m unity and the neighborhood serving them. We felt that when we put this business here, we would create a lot o f jobs for the kids and adults in this area. Observer: How do you feel about the com m unity p a tro n izin g the store? Is jt supportive? Farmer: Yes it is, and I think it is proud to have us here. Observer: What other qualities beside the g rin d in g o f the ham burger meat do you fe e l makes your restaurant special? Farmer: While were were out o f business, we would go around and buy hamburgers at other local places and found the meat to be really tough. So, we said that i f we ever got back in to the restaurant business again, that we would oetinately not use that kind o f ham burger meat. So from day one, we grind our own hamburger meat. We buy it from the wholesale house, grind it and make it into patties. We know what goes into our hamburger meat. We have no additives what- so-ever! It’ s just pure ground ham burger meat with less than 20% fat. T h a t’ s why we do such a trem en dous business. A ll you have to do is eat one and you can tell the d if ference. Everything is cooked to order, nothing is pre-cooked. Colorburst cotton terry R e g u la r (hi towels. In solid colors Sometimes people complain that it S3 79 Hand towel 3.29 takes a little longer, but we wouldn’t R egu lar $27.99 1 1 59 Washcloth I.M B oth ala. have any other way. Also save on a selection of absorbent towels Also, we went out and bought the in solid colors, floral prints and patterns best o f everything. We went out and Other site towel? also on sale. Matching found the best flo o r covering we bath rugs, accessories, and shower curtains P r e lu d e au to m a tic could buy; we found the best also on sale See all the savings at Sears blanket of polyester and Venetian blinds we could find. 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