Belt buckles and beer: Federal shutdown hits businesses hard

[Judi Lynn]

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER
29 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — From power restaurants in Washington and a belt-buckle maker in Colorado to a brewery in California, businesses that count heavily on federal employees as customers are feeling the punishing effects of the government shutdown.

In many cases, it’s forcing them to cut workers’ hours and buy less from suppliers — measures that could ripple through the larger U.S. economy.

“It’s a fog with no end in sight,” Michael Northern, vice president of a company that owns three restaurants in the Huntsville, Alabama, area near a huge Army base that houses some 70 federal agencies, including NASA. He said business is down 35 percent. “People are just going home and nesting, trying to conserve resources.”

Western Heritage Co. in Loveland, Colorado, which makes buckles for uniformed employees of the National Forest Service and other outdoor agencies, has seen sales plummet 85 percent this month and laid off 12 of its 13 workers.

More:
https://apnews.com/20e29b39ecfd406b93bb31eefd177160

[underpants]

1. There's always been this not so underlying myth in converatism

Those government workers just take your money, don't do any work, and get rich. It's been a theme of theirs going back to when the Feds were the ones cracking down on racists and polluters...

[modrepub]

2. Agreed

have seem many a comment section filled with commenters who seem surprised that Fed workers (and contractors) live much like themselves, pay check to pay check. As someone else correctly pointed out, that money is gone. The next time those Fed (contractor) workers show up they aren't going to buy two meals or two drinks to make up for the last time they weren't there.