A7
B USINESS
THE BULLETIN • FRIDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2022
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BRIEFING
Bend accelerator
to showcase
outdoor startups
Bend Outdoor Worx, a
Central Oregon outdoor
accelerator, will provide a
chance for companies to
pitch their businesses on
Saturday at Open Space
Event Studios.
Four early or growth-
stage companies will
pitch their business at the
event called BreakOut.
This is the culmination of
the program that offers
mentorship to startup
outdoor businesses.
Companies pitching
will be Moon, a Memphis,
Tennessee, portable ve-
hicle awning company;
Esplori, a Bend custom
sprinter van conversion
firm; Tailgate Industries,
a Bend maker of snow-
boarding and ski gog-
gle covers; and Tough
Cutie, an Austin, Texas,
hiking-sock company for
women.
For more information
on the event go to bend-
outdoorworx.com or
Eventbrite.com. Tickets
are limited for all events.
To apply for next year’s
cohort, go to application.
bendoutdoorworx.com.
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bendbulletin.com/business
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Home sales fall for
8th straight month
Sales of previously oc-
cupied U.S. homes fell in
September for the eighth
month in a row, matching
the pre-pandemic sales
pace from 10 years ago, as
house hunters grappled
with sharply higher mort-
gage rates, rising home
prices and a still tight sup-
ply of properties on the
market.
The National Associa-
tion of Realtors said Thurs-
day that existing home
sales fell 1.5% last month
from August to a sea-
sonally adjusted annual
rate of 4.71 million. That’s
slightly higher than what
economists were expect-
ing, according to FactSet.
Sales fell 23.8% from
September last year, and
are now at the slowest
annual pace since Sep-
tember 2012, excluding
the steep slowdown in
sales that occurred in May
2020 .
The national median
home price rose 8.4% in
September from a year
earlier to $384,800.
— Bulletin wire reports
EURO
$.9785 +.0018
INTEL
CEO warns employees about pending cutbacks
BY MIKE ROGOWAY
The Oregonian
Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger
warned employees Thursday
that the company plans cut-
backs in the weeks ahead to
improve its financial situation,
promising more details on
Nov. 1.
“These are always hard de-
cisions, but our costs are too
high and our margins are too
low. We have to take actions to
address them,” Gelsinger said
in a video address to staff, ac-
cording to an employee who
related Gelsinger’s comments
to The Oregonian.
Bloomberg reported last
“These are always hard decisions, but our costs are too
high and our margins are too low. We have to take actions
to address them.”
— Pat Gelsinger, Intel CEO
week that Intel plans “thou-
sands” of job cuts across the
company amid a steep de-
cline in revenue. Intel hasn’t
commented directly on that
report, but employees who
heard Gelsinger’s remarks
Thursday told The Oregonian
they interpret them as an ac-
knowledgment that job cuts
are coming.
Intel declined comment
Thursday. The chipmaker re-
ports third-quarter results
Oct. 27. The company could
lay out its spending cuts then,
followed by a detailed de-
scription to staff the following
week.
“We do believe there will
be some targeted actions re-
quired at different areas of
the company,” Gelsinger told
employees Thursday. He indi-
cated Intel plans to focus on its
core manufacturing business.
Intel cut its annual sales
forecast from $79 billion to
$67 billion in July amid a steep
decline in PC demand and a
softening data center market.
Those sectors continued to
deteriorate over the summer,
according to financial results
from other electronics com-
panies, leading many observ-
ers to expect Intel will trim its
outlook again next week.
At the same time, Gelsinger
has embarked on an expensive
turnaround plan with new
SEAFOOD SERVICE
Portland’s Bag O’ Crab restaurant goes viral for more than just a robot waitress
Oregon’s Praxis
expands to Idaho
Praxis Health, which
operates High Lakes
Health Care in Bend, has
acquired a new clinic,
Prairie Family Medicine in
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.
This is the second ac-
quisition in four months.
In July, Praxis acquired
Central Oregon Family
Medicine in Redmond, as
part of the family-owned
and -operated health care
company’s expansion
plans.
Praxis Medical Group
LLC has been on a quest
for the past three years of
acquiring small medical
groups and incorporat-
ing them into its Oregon
network of primary care
doctors and specialists.
This is the fifth clinic the
health care provider has
acquired.
“Prairie Family Medi-
cine and their reputation
as a high-performing
primary care group is
an excellent foundation
for growth in the Coeur
d’Alene market,” said Dan
McCarthy, Praxis Health
CEO, in a prepared state-
ment.
Praxis employs 627
people. It purchased High
Lakes in 2006.
Prairie Family Medi-
cine was founded in 2007
by Dr. Brian Snyders. The
clinic will reopen Jan. 1.
p
factories planned in Arizona,
Ohio and Germany. He’s com-
mitted at least $80 billion to
new manufacturing capacity
and research.
Intel is Oregon’s largest cor-
porate employer, with 22,000
people assigned to its cam-
puses in Washington County.
A major layoff could poten-
tially hit hundreds of Oregon
workers.
By describing this year’s cut-
backs as “targeted,” though,
Gelsinger could be signaling
that they will be smaller in
scale than the broad layoffs
that eliminated more than
12,000 Intel jobs in 2016.
Possibility
of a railroad
strike
increases
Track maintenance
workers not being
offered much more
than was conceded
in initial contract
that was rejected
earlier this month
BY JOSH FUNK
Associated Press
Michael Russell/The Oregonian photos
A robot waitress thrills patrons at Bag O’ Crab in northeast Portland.
BY LIZZY ACKER • The Oregonian
T
he line was already forming outside of Bag O’ Crab on NE 82nd Avenue and Klickitat Street before
opening at 3 p.m. Oct. 13.
The seafood boil spot, a franchise of a chain that started in California, has been open since August,
but the place has been packed since a TikTok video went viral in early October from a Portland TikToker named
Yvette.
The TikTok video, which
has nearly 66,000 likes, high-
lights some of the best parts
of Portland’s version of Bag
O’ Crab — the many choices
of crustaceans to choose
from, as well as corn, sausage
and potatoes and a whole va-
riety of seasonings. Plus, the
“freaking robot server.”
Owner Gary Lin got that
server, who does not yet have
a name, from China. He said
he just likes the robot.
Lin’s daughter, Yuxin Lin,
is the head human server and
helps translate for her dad.
The family came from Fu-
“
The TikTok video, which has nearly 66,000 likes,
highlights some of the best parts of Portland’s version of
Bag O’ Crab — the many choices of crustaceans to choose
from, as well as corn, sausage and potatoes and a whole
variety of seasonings. Plus, the ‘freaking robot server.’
jian, a province across from
Taiwan on China’s southwest-
ern coast, where they ate a lot
of seafood, Yuxin Lin said.
Then, they moved to the San
Francisco Bay Area, where
seafood boils — including
The final moments of dinner at Bag O’ Crab in northeast Portland.
the Bag O’ Crab location they
first visited in Oakland — are
popular.
“We all liked it,” Yuxin Lin
said. “So when we moved
to Portland, we kept think-
ing about seafood. So that’s
why, when he had a chance,
he wanted to open a business
about seafood boils and that
kind of Cajun seafood.”
While the idea isn’t com-
pletely unique in Portland
— there’s My Brother’s Craw-
fish and The Rockin’ Crab &
Boiling Pot, plus a handful of
carts serving Cajun-spiced
seafood, sometimes in bags
— diners have been enthusi-
astic in their support of Bag
O’ Crab.
The difference, according
to Yuxin Lin, is that Bag O’
Crab focuses on the seafood
boil without much beyond it
on the menu, and offers five
different sauces, including
garlic butter, lemon pepper
and Cajun.
And then, there was that
TikTok.
“Saturday was like still OK,
but Sunday it just blew up,”
Yuxin Lin said. “Sunday the
business was crazy.”
“People were waiting about
one or two hours,” Gary Lin
added.
While the TikTok may
have drawn people in, and
the robot may entertain
them, the food will keep peo-
ple coming back.
Some of the seafood, the
lobster, clams, some types of
crab and crawfish, are kept
alive before they are cooked,
making it about as fresh as
possible.
When the food comes, ei-
ther by robot or human, it is
delectable and messy. Both
bibs and gloves are provided,
and it’s recommended that
you use both. Get garlic bread
or garlic noodles to sop up
the sauce. In fact, why not get
both?
Of course, it isn’t cheap to
eat lobster and crab (we spent
about $80 for two people),
but there’s something so fun
about cracking shells to put
out flavorful bits of meat. The
experience and the taste are
both worth the price, and you
will probably have leftovers to
take home, so you can relive
the meal one more time.
OMAHA, Neb. — Major
freight railroads appear un-
willing to give track mainte-
nance workers much more
than they received in the ini-
tial contract they rejected Oct.
10, increasing the chances of
a strike.
The railroads took the un-
usual step of issuing a state-
ment late Wednesday rejecting
the Brotherhood of Mainte-
nance of Way Employes Divi-
sion union’s latest request to
add paid sick time on top of
the 24% raises and $5,000 in
bonuses they received in the
first five-year deal.
Union Pacific CEO Lance
Fritz said Thursday that he
thinks the main reason the
BMWED rejected its initial
contract was that the details
of improved expense reim-
bursement in the deal were
still being negotiated at UP
while workers were voting.
So it wasn’t clear exactly what
those workers would receive
for their travel expenses when
they go on the road to repair
tracks.
Six of the 12 railroad unions
that represent 115,000 work-
ers nationwide have approved
their tentative agreements
with the railroads so far, but
all of them have to ratify their
contracts to avoid a strike.
The unions have agreed to
put any strike on hold until
at least mid-November while
the BMWED negotiates a new
deal and the other unions vote
on their proposed contracts,
so there’s no immediate threat
the trains most businesses rely
on to deliver their raw materi-
als and finished products will
stop moving. A railroad strike
could devastate the economy.
The group that negotiations
on behalf of the major rail-
roads, including UP, BNSF,
Norfolk Southern, CSX and
Kansas City Southern, said the
new contracts should closely
follow the recommendations
of the special board of arbitra-
tors that President Joe Biden
appointed this summer. The
railroads said that board re-
jected union demands for paid
sick time.