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A Portland landmark will disappear next week when the Corbett Avenue Nature's, the oldest store in the grocery chain, shuts its doors. The 28-year-old health-food store is closing Aug. 9. As part of an effort to take Nature's nationwide, the $900 million GNC chain, which bought our local health-food store for $17.5 million in 1996, is opening a 34,000-square-foot "prototype" store in Lake Oswego Aug. 10. The superstore will include a spa, a full-service salon and a pharmacy. Nature's general manager Brian Rohter says the Corbett store's revenues have been dwindling since 1990, when Nature's opened its nearby Hillsdale store. Opening the store in Lake Oswego, he says, is the final blow to Corbett. "It puts it on the road to being unprofitable," he says. Nature's own market research shows that the bulk of Corbett customers are Lake Oswego residents driving home on Southwest Macadam Avenue. The Corbett store--once a one-room, all-organic-produce store--opened
its doors in 1970. Heather Venn, who has worked there for five years,
says local customers are "bummed," but she also says she saw the decision
coming. All 13 employees have been reassigned to other Nature's outlets. The $13 Million
Man The Business Journal list of metro-area salaries, which placed Powell fifth among local executives, could hardly have come at a more embarrassing time. Sequent's share price touched a 52-week low recently, following worse-than-expected quarterly results and a horrendous report from Boeing, Sequent's largest customer. Shares later rebounded slightly with the news that the computer manufacturer was teaming up with Microsoft to develop applications for Windows NT but remain well below last year's lowest levels. Sequent has taken a high-tech approach to battling recent critical press coverage. According to a well-placed source within the company, Sequent management temporarily blocked employees' access to WW's Web site, on which "Let Them Eat Dust" is posted. The story, which detailed Powell's seeming indifference to workers
and shareholders, prompted heavy response in a location Sequent couldn't
control--a Yahoo! message board frequented by shareholders and former
employees. As one longtime investor wrote, "Even though I've been a
Sequent shareholder for eight years and have made money in the stock,
I must admit that I am losing patience with the company." She Who Laughs
First... On Monday, the court administrator pulled Overgaard from her post overseeing drunk-driving cases and asked pro-tem judge Lewis Lawrence to fill in for the rest of the day. It's unclear what happened, but some speculate that several defense lawyers filed what are known as "motions for a change of judge," making it impossible for Overgaard to hear their cases. Presiding Multnomah County Judge James Ellis refused to elaborate on the move, saying it was a "personnel matter" that he can't discuss. Overgaard did not return two WW phone calls on the matter. She was back at work Tuesday presiding over arraignments. This week's move was the first public sign of Overgaard's problems, but there have been other indications that she's struggling professionally. WW has learned that three judges have withdrawn their endorsements of Overgaard, who finished first in a three-way May primary and will face former state Sen. Jan Wyers in November. "I have withdrawn my support because the conclusion I drew from several sources is that she has demeanor problems on the bench," Circuit Judge David Gernant told WW last week. In addition, Overgaard confirmed last week that Circuit Judge Anna Brown and Joseph Ceniceros have also asked to be dropped from her list of supporters. Brown would not disclose her reasons either to Overgaard or WW. Cineceros did not return a phone call from WW. Complaints about Overgaard's demeanor have been making the rounds at the courthouse for months. Lawyers say she frequently bumps heads with them and criticizes everything from their legal work to their wardrobes. Overgaard says she's surprised by the complaints. "I genuinely like people," she told WW last week. "That's one of the reasons I like being a judge." According to some, a joke she recently told is further indication that she's unfit for the bench. As Overgaard recalls the incident, several lawyers and clerks were sitting around an otherwise empty courtroom after work last month, telling jokes, all of them tasteless. In order to "play along with the rest of the group," she says she told her most "awful" joke. Overgaard, still wearing her judicial robe, made a visual joke about a dying AIDS patient, which offended some people. One of those present, defense lawyer Thomas Waylett, told WW that he is filing a judicial fitness complaint against Overgaard. Overgaard now regrets telling the joke. "It could not be more opposite
to the way I feel about folks with AIDS," she said. "I'm deeply sorry
if I offended anyone. I would never do that intentionally." Sounds of Silence Meanwhile, last Friday, the first $200,000 of the City of Portland's $1 million grant to OBT was disbursed. The five-year grant is earmarked for educational outreach, production of new dances and fund raising. Oregon Ballet Theater officials declined to say whether the grant money can be used to bring back the laid-off staff members. Bill Bradford, finance director
originally published August 5, 1998 |
