Tag Archives: Florida

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Florida’s construction worker shortage is stalling development

outlet

Florida is on the verge of another building boom, but there’s just one problem: No one wants to do the work.

Construction workers are scarce for a number of reasons. Many were burned by job losses during the recession and aren’t returning to the industry. Others are turned off by low pay or don’t want to work outside in the Florida heat.

Older workers are retiring and younger people aren’t eager to take their spots. Millennials don’t see construction work as a career path, and shop class is no longer featured in high schools as it used to be.

All this is threatening to derail a surge of new development in Florida as contractors struggle to find qualified workers. It could lead to higher prices and longer buildout times — not only for homes, but for major developments like new retail plazas and condominium high-rises. Even high-profile projects like Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik’s plans to reshape downtown Tampa, and the $953 million in ongoing renovations at Tampa International Airport could be stymied.

Read more here.

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Grocery wars: How many supermarket chains can Florida handle?

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The grocery store market in Florida seems as crowded as the line for a Publix sub at lunch time.

The giants like Publix and Walmart are still battling it out for the every day shopper, while the organic enthusiasts have Fresh Market and Whole Foods. Cult favorite Trader Joe’s made a big splash when it first entered Florida in 2012 and has been expanding ever since.

Then there’s the speciality players like wholesale clubs (Sam’s, Costco and BJ’s,) and bare bones discounters (Aldi, Save-a-lot). Even Winn Dixie is still with us.

Nevertheless, new upstarts think there’s room for them, and their arrival will give shoppers even more variety. So don’t be surprised to see Sprouts Farmers Market, Lucky’s Market and Earth Fare coming to Tampa Bay soon.

“There are so many brands trying to compete,” said Chuck Taylor senior vice president at Madison Marquette and the Florida director of the International Council of Shopping Centers. “It’s definitely a war, and it’s just starting.”

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Shuttered Sweetbay Supermarkets drag down nearby small businesses

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Chetan Shah took over Anclote Pharmacy in Tarpon Springs in 2010, expecting to run a brisk, successful business.

Then, two years later, the Sweetbay Supermarket anchoring his pharmacy’s shopping plaza closed, zapping its biggest source of customers. The lack of foot traffic has prompted some of Shah’s neighboring businesses to fold. Shah says he’s barely hanging on.

“We used to do 3,000 prescriptions when Sweetbay was here. Now I’m lucky if I do 1,800,” in a month, Shah said.

Shah isn’t alone. Across the Tampa Bay area, at least 18 buildings formerly occupied by Sweetbay remain vacant, causing many of the small businesses around them to struggle or close.

Though grocers and other businesses are interested in moving into some of those spaces, the company that bought Sweetbay in 2013 — Southeastern Grocers — won’t let them because it doesn’t want increased competition for their Winn-Dixie stores. The company continues to pay rent for the empty stores, tying up the engines that power other business in the centers.

 

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Florida Journalism Awards in 2015

Justine Griffin won first place in the Florida Society of News Editors 2015 Journalism Contest in the multimedia category for The Cost of Life. She also placed third in the beat reporting – consumer issues category and third in the online package category of the 2015 Society of Professional Journalists Sunshine State Awards.

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Tampa Bay tech entrepreneurs say Amazon workplace is more the norm

By Justine Griffin for the Tampa Bay Times

amazon

A recent New York Times report about the workplace culture of online retail giant Amazon sparked intense debate about the Seattle-based company’s cultlike enterprise.

Brutal tales of fierce employee competition, 24/7 work cycles and unforgiving denials of requests for time off may not be the norm for every growing company. But millennials working in the tech industry in Tampa Bay were unfazed by the report. It felt more like a lecture from Dad: old fashioned, out of touch and very yesterday.

Answering text messages from bosses after midnight and logging 80-hour workweeks isn’t a big deal to many young people working in fast-growing, innovative industries, some entrepreneurs say, because technology has made it easy to be “wired in” all the time.

“I haven’t figured out a way to disconnect. If you find a way to not be on your phone at all times, please let me know,” said Daniel James Scott, executive director of the Tampa Bay Technology Forum. “The challenge is looking at how the technology we have is changing how we work all the time, and adapting to that culture and the new level of data that’s available at our fingertips. It’s a bit of a mystery to me how to balance that.”

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