Shaky economy shakes up retailers in Perry, Iowa

PERRY, Iowa -- The global economic crisis slipped into Arlene Garrett's hair-styling shop almost unnoticed last year.

First, customers began waiting longer between haircuts at It's Hair, her corner store on Second Street. Or they'd time visits to coincide with other errands to save gas. Then Garrett saw business start to fall after some of her regular clients were laid off at Citigroup, which said in November it would cut 53,000 jobs nationwide.

"I think all small towns are struggling right now," Garrett said. "We're all in the same boat."

Yet, along Second Street in Perry's tidy, historic downtown district, many business owners say they've felt only tremors of the economic crisis so far.

In fact, Jenny Eklund of Perry Paint and Design says her business even benefited from high gasoline prices last summer: People shopped locally instead of driving 40 miles to Des Moines.

Pat Joebgen, who owns Joebgen Shoe Store, agrees. "We did really well when gas prices were high," Joebgen said.

"Knock on wood, we haven't felt this too much. We've been really lucky."

'Closed' signs

But not all is well on Perry's "Main Street." A local coffee shop, a clothing boutique and several storefronts along Second Street sport "closed" signs with offers to sell or rent the empty space. As in many small Iowa towns, Perry's population of 7,600 is aging, and competition from nearby big cities draws customers, said Liesl Eathington, an assistant economics researcher at Iowa State University.

"The notion of small-town Iowa as we used to think of it hardly exists anymore," Eathington said. "There really aren't any communities that are immune to what's going on in the state economy, the national economy, the global economy."

Perry, a 139-year-old town founded as a stop on the Des Moines and Fort Dodge Railroad, now relies heavily on business from a Tyson Foods meat-processing plant and the Hotel Pattee, a historic luxury inn in downtown themed around small-town America.

Some parts of the Perry economy, such as food production at Tyson Foods, may fare better during a recession, Eathington said.