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Marce Edwards is the business editor. She has been at The News Tribune for seven years and has written about technology and big businesses in the South Sound including Weyerhaeuser and Russell. Before moving to Tacoma, she worked at The Idaho Statesman in Boise. She is a Northwest native who likes to garden and refuses to use an umbrella. She lives in Tacoma with her husband and two kids.
C.R. Roberts is a Tacoma native. Before joining The News Tribune, he worked as a freelance writer and part-time cowhand on a cattle ranch in Northern Idaho. He writes about small business, personal finance and other business issues.
John Gillie writes about the aerospace and airline industries, commercial development and consumer issues. During his 30-year-tenure at The News Tribune he has covered issues as diverse as the Native American fishing rights disputes, crime and the courts, the wood products industry and energy. He lived in Tacoma with his family for 25 years, but now lives in Kent because his wife heads a five-state non-profit foundation headquartered in Ballard, and it only seemed a sensible compromise to make considering their workplaces are 40 miles apart.
Kelly Kearsley has been a business reporter at The News Tribune since 2005. She covers the Port of Tacoma and international trade. Being born and raised in Spokane she’s used to living in cities with inferiority complexes and, in fact, prefers it. Prior to working at The News Tribune, she spent three years as a reporter for The Bulletin in Bend, Oregon and another year working stints for The Associated Press and Seattle Times. She graduated from Pacific Lutheran University. She lives in Tacoma with her husband and miniature schnauzer.
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Abolins Inc. has been open in Tacoma for 40 years, becoming a landmark in the business community. But come Monday, the company may have to close its doors for good.
The audio-visual retailer and repair shop is hoping that a local company might buy its assets and keep the store on South 12th Street in business. If not, it will have to close and lay off its employees.
Operations Manager Michael Hall said the store just can't keep up with massive retailers, and the slouching economy has hurt sales. The business used to specialize in repairs of video equipment and other electronics, but cheaper production costs have meant people buy new instead of taking their cameras in to be fixed.
"It is becoming a throwaway world," Hall said.
President David Senner bought the company and moved it to its current location in 1988. Last year he told The News Tribune that the company employed 12 people and saw $7 million in sales annually.
But Hall said because the store is so small, it cannot buy in bulk to keep up with big chains like Best Buy and Costco. Also, the store handles state contracts, but the government has been cutting back, meaning a large drop in business.
"I am pretty sure we're going to close up shop, and I don't want that to happen," Hall said.
