Money Store Closure a Function of Greed

The saddest part, of course, about “First Union to Close Struggling Money Store” [June 27] is the disruption of the lives of thousands of workers in the $20,000-$40,000 salary range, and the fact that it was all so unnecessary.

The shortsighted unwillingness of Money Store management to fix its bad business practices in the sales arena, coupled with misguided, sloppy acquisition and follow-through by First Union, are the superficial causes.

The root causes are vanity and greed. The involved senior officers should be ashamed. The senior officers of Money Store should donate to displaced employees a few of the millions of dollars in cash and stock they walked away with when First Union wrote the acquisition check. First Union should provide at least six months’ severance.

Adding insult to injury is the First Union spin that the elimination of Money Store’s auto division and the assimilation by First Union of the wholesale mortgage division were simply “tweaks.” Both of those functions were shut down, and, together with a mountain of bad loans on the servicing side, should have served as early warning signs of fundamental problems.

BARRY BATES

Huntington Beach