ED NOTE: Originally written in 2005 I see no need for an update.
Al Boscov wants a break-and I think he should get it.
The downtown Boscov’s store in Wilkes-Barre is in sad shape. It sort of looks like the rest of Downtown Wilkes-Barre. Like Dresden after the war. Compare it to the Boscov’s in the Steamtown mall. Or don’t because it will depress you.
You know it’s not so much that the place is falling apart-because it is. But you can tell the people working there for the most part just don’t give a fig. Empty boxes pile up in the aisles. Lights are out. The carpet is ripped, duct taped down and filthy. The displays are haphazard and not really inventive.
But I understand why this is so. How can you take pride in your workplace when all around you is squalor and despair? I have been taking some folks around the area who might want to work here. Downtown Wilkes-barre always gets the question, What happened here? I hardly know what to say.
Back to Al’s place. The parking garage for Boscovs’s in Wilkes-Barre is one of the scariest places I have ever been in. The passageways are too narrow for today’s behemoth SUVs as are the parking spaces. The surface is cracked and pitted with potholes. It’s dark on a sunny day. They used to charge for parking. Even Boscov’s doesn’t have the sack to ask you for money to park at your own risk there now.
So Al Boscov wants a reduction in his taxes. Almost $44 thousand dollars if the figures in the Citizens Voice are right.
If Al puts the money into paint, carpeting and light bulbs I say give it to him. Downtown Wilkes-Barre needs help.
Losing Boscov’s would be the wrong thing to do.
Or maybe I am wrong
Did you Boscov today?
