Base Towns Hope Troops’ Return Revives Business : Military: With customers and employees deployed to serve in the Gulf War, surrounding communities have struggled.
Now that peace seems at hand in the Persian Gulf, Bob Milstead, a Domino’s Pizza supervisor in Ventura County, has a more modest wish--that his drivers be able to enter the military bases at Port Hueneme and Point Mugu without endless waiting periods.
Since mid-January, wartime security precautions often have created long lines to get into the sprawling Naval Construction Battalion Center that employs more than 11,000 at Port Hueneme.
“It’s even worse at Mugu,” Milstead said of the Pacific Missile Test Center just to the south. “They won’t let our drivers in there at all.”
Across the United States, businesses have complained of a pall over consumer confidence--and spending--that began with Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait last August and became more dramatic after the Gulf War commenced Jan. 16.
But the crisis carried a special economic wallop in the nation’s military communities, a phenomenon now being analyzed within the Pentagon. Not only were local residents shipped off to battle and families split apart, but merchants suffered a steep drop in income as customers vanished overnight.
For such businesses, already struggling with the recession, the halt in fighting could portend a swift and joyous recovery.
“We lost a lot of tenants who were reservists and who were shipped to Saudi Arabia,” said Steve Migliore, a real estate broker in San Clemente, north of the Camp Pendleton base, that sent about 30,000 Marines to the Middle East. Now, he added, “we’re looking forward to seeing them coming back.”
At Adobe Barber and Styling in Twentynine Palms, next to the giant Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in the high desert, business has plunged 35% since August. Its owners, along with merchants throughout the town about 150 miles east of Los Angeles, eagerly await the return of normal life.
“Business isn’t what it used to be but I’m sure it will bounce back now,” said owner Ken Drost, who employs three barbers, down from five in August.
To fully understand the local economic effects of the Gulf War one need only take a walk in Oceanside, a military town of 135,000 on the southern end of Camp Pendleton in San Diego County. With a normal complement of 36,000 troops, the camp’s payroll exceeds $400 million a year. Marines and their dependents will account for about half the $8 million to $9 million in sales taxes the city will receive this year, according to local officials.
The crisis hit local business with a chain reaction. The sudden deployment of troops in mid-August idled barbers who offer the popular “zero-to-three haircuts”--zero length around the sides and three inches maximum on top--for $3.50. It stung local suppliers of fresh produce who serve the base. Local businesses lost employees, such as the off-duty Marines who deliver pizzas in the area.
As the Marines shipped out, layoffs mounted throughout the city, most noticeably downtown, where “businesses have been hurt dramatically,” said Jim Schroder, president of the Oceanside Chamber of Commerce. “I don’t know of any business in the area that hasn’t been affected.”
Business slumped even further in the autumn as many of the estimated 40,000 dependents who live around the base left San Diego County and southern Orange County to move in with relatives for the war’s duration.
One such business was Dorothy’s Military Shop, which cleans and presses dress uniforms, and launders jungle-green camouflage apparel. Shortly after the mid-August deployment, plummeting sales forced it to slash the payroll.
“I had 21 employees before Iraq invaded Kuwait, and now I have 10,” said Jerry Alexander, whose family has been in the laundry business for decades. “Most of them went in one big push shortly after the Marines were deployed.”
The slowdown hit the city at an especially painful time because Oceanside cut basic government services by 12% to help eliminate a budget shortfall unrelated to the war. One expenditure will surely be paid for, however: The city plans a “Proud to be an American” day in late April featuring a parade to welcome the troops home.
“There are three things that crippled a lot of businesses: the deployment, the recession and the fact that people were just afraid to spend,” Schroder said. “That affected everyone (in the nation), but the three things combined had a larger impact here.”
To the north in Ventura County, merchants cited other reasons that business sagged during the war: Time-consuming security procedures to enter bases have made it less convenient for workers to go into town--and spend money--during lunch breaks.
With the cessation of hostilities, shop owners on such local streets as Channel Islands Boulevard, which borders the Port Hueneme Seabee base, now hope the tightened security rules will be eased and business will pick up again as base employees return to the stores.
Navy spokesman Chief Petty Officer Martin W. Wicklund said he could not predict when security policies at the bases will be relaxed. “We have people monitoring those situations, but I have no idea what recommendations will be,” Wicklund said.
In any case, “even after the security tie-ups end, I think it will take time before things return to normal,” cautioned Debbie Head, owner of Giggles, a local restaurant that ordinarily has a large military clientele. “I expect a lot of people from the battalions to remain in the war zone for a while. They’ll have to take down stuff that they’ve built, such as housing and other buildings.”
For all the anecdotes of economic woe in military towns, there has been little analysis of the effects of sudden deployment. The Pentagon, however, is studying the matter, focusing on the recent experience of Oceanside, communities near Twentynine Palms, Fort Hood in Texas, Fort Campbell in Kentucky, Fort Stewart in Georgia and Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.
“People are suffering,” observed Robert Rauner, director of the Department of Defense’s Office of Economic Adjustment in Arlington, Va., which has examined the economic impact of 400 military base closings. “To some people, this is like the equivalent of a flood that wiped out a bunch of stores and merchants. . . . It’s something like a disaster.”
Today, hopes are on the rise that the disaster is ending. There already have been a few hints of recovery: At the Leo’s Stereo near the Marine Corps Air Station in El Toro, employees say they have detected a cautious change in consumer behavior during the last two weeks.
“It used to be that when they shop, they’d buy right there and then,” said Michael Gleason, assistant manager at the stereo store. “Now, I’m seeing some military personnel who’d shop and return a week later to purchase big-ticket items, like large-screen TVs or videocassette recorders.”
Nonetheless, the daily sales volume remains just one-fourth of what his store used to sell, he said.
At Tower Records nearby, sales still are off substantially. One exception: Whitney Houston’s rendition of the Star Spangled Banner, which roused a flag-waving audience when she performed it at the Super Bowl in January.
“I don’t expect a change for the better until the marines come home and are reunited with their families,” said Dennis Lorimer, manager of the record store.
Contributing to this report were Times staff writers Cristina Lee in Orange County, Shawn Hubler in Twentynine Palms, Jack Searles in Ventura and Greg Johnson in Oceanside.
