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Westwood’s Circuit City will close its doors Sunday. A recent trend of store closures in th
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Village closures make jobs scarce
Students can say “sayonara” to yet another Westwood business, as Circuit City, located on Gayley Avenue, leaves the Village this Sunday.
Circuit City will do its best to offer its Westwood employees work at alternative locations, but this trend of business closures makes students concerned about local work options.
“I always worry that maybe my boss is going to close this place, but I don’t want to think about it,” said Miri Sason, a UCLA Extension student and employee of Footnotes, a Westwood shoe and apparel store.
“You never know what other stores will close or not close,” she said.
Other students expressed difficulty in finding Westwood jobs to begin with.
Fourth-year mathematics student Kevin Hood was recently hired at Corner Bakery Cafe, but he attributes it to the business being new in Westwood.
“It is pretty difficult to find work at pre-existing stores, at least in the restaurant business,” he said, adding he had looked for a job before with no luck.
Little job security and the rarity of new jobs make for hard times for students.
“Obviously (the loss of nearby jobs) will make it more difficult for students needing extra funds to attend college,” said Shelley Taylor, president of the North Village Improvement Committee.
Students will be forced to commute to jobs outside the Village, which will create more traffic, or they will have to rely on inconvenient public transportation, Taylor said.
“I would commute somewhere else if (Footnotes) closed,” Sason said, acknowledging that few local work opportunities exist.
A renewal of Westwood would halt business departures and bring in attractive new stores; jobs, shoppers and a healthy economy would follow.
Right now the local economic situation is grim, causing stores like Circuit City, among many others, to leave.
“When we located the store (in October of 1994), we felt it was the best place. Since that time, the trade zone has shifted,” said Circuit City spokesman Steve Mullen.
The store was kept open through the holidays to fully evaluate the situation.
But Circuit City concluded there was not a “reasonable expectation of positive cash flow” in the near future, Mullen said.
The Westwood store is one of 19 Circuit City stores closing. Its average revenue of roughly $8 million for 2003 was significantly lower than the national Circuit City store average.
“(The store) was kind of dead a lot of the time,” said Brady Davis, a fourth-year biology student and Westwood Circuit City employee.
Though Circuit City is leaving Westwood, a new one is planned to open in Santa Monica by mid-April.
Davis will take a month off to study for finals during the interim between the Westwood closing and Santa Monica opening.
He looks forward to working at the new Santa Monica location, which won’t be too inconvenient because he has a car for the short commute, he said.
Davis expects a lot more foot traffic at the new store, as it will be located near Third Street Promenade.
While Circuit City frequently chooses to relocate, not remove, struggling stores, it is a matter of finding an attractive, affordable location, among other things, that is lacking in the Westwood area, Mullen said.
“The Village has many ills, and it will be several years before we see a turnaround,” Taylor predicted.
Once projects such as Palazzo Westwood – a $100 million residential and commercial development on both sides of Glendon Avenue, south of Weyburn Avenue – and a commercial entertainment structure on the lot behind Jerry’s Famous Deli are in place, Taylor said she believes things should pick up a bit.
“But I have my doubts that the Village will ever be as vital as it once was,” she said
Part of her doubts stem from her belief that people today have so little spare time
“A leisurely stroll through a shopping district such as the Village is rare. It’s so much easier to go to malls,” Taylor said.
“It will take dedication, fortitude and lady luck for those who wish to remain here to keep plugging away at improvements,” she added.
And only improvements will bring prosperous times and job opportunities back to Westwood.
Until then, students are probably best off looking elsewhere for work.
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