New year — new outlook

Turning lemons into lemonade is exactly what happened with the Salvation Army’s annual Christmas charity drive this year.

It seems that negative publicity is just as much a boon as positive PR when it comes to getting record donations.

All it took was for the big, bad city of Anderson to stop Sally Ann’s store plans near the Wal-Mart and Shasta Outlets area and donations were being handed over in record amounts to offset the losses.

Shasta County folks are truly generous when a need arises.

Back to the villain of this scenario. The Anderson City Council has plenty of other location suggestions for the Salvation Army, with storefronts that would provide plenty of space and the space might even qualify for a grant to help do so.

Many retailers in the community are singing the Christmas blues. Sales were not what as expected and they are hoping for a slight boost in the after- Christmas market. Gift cards also help, but it’s really trading goods for dollars already spent. The bookkeepers actually keep it very neat by counting those gift card dollars in the month they are actually used, so January may look a little brighter for retailers.

These same negative thoughts have also been haunting the real estate market in the South County. However, nationally the analysts are backtracking and noting national increases in the four months proceeding November. They are actually showing a glimmer of hope and declaring the real estate market has truly bottomed out and we may miss a total “downturn.”

January will bring a “wait and see” attitude to all of us here. After the gloomy retail news from December, it’s hard to put a smile on and announce all will be better.

Yet I think it will. There are way too many exciting things on the horizon for our area to think any differently.

Did anyone try to do any type of business last week? It was nigh on impossible to complete serious business. If you weren’t a shopper or a store, not much could be accomplished. Personally, I started a lot of projects, but was stymied with the completion. I expect my plate to be overflowing this week as everyone gets back to the business at hand.

2007 has now officially started. Go out and make it the best year you can for yourself, your family and your community.