A visit to Rem. Arms today

............ The post on this website as recently as yesterday on Remington Arms Inc. closing for the entire month of December laying off 940 people inspired me to take an have an outing today and go and visit the gunmanufacturing plant. ... It proved to be an eye opener as to the state of the local economy in the surrounding Mohawk valley reagon.

............ Upon my arrival at the gunmakers parking lot I went immediately through the main entrance doors. ... As I entered the main lobby two persons seated at the security desk asked if they might be of assistance. ... I asked to be allowed to enter the building as I wanted to access the company store and look at several of their firearms.

............ I was very politely told that the Remington Co. store no longer exists. ... This is, or was immediatly adjactant to the company on site museium (spelling). ... Then I was told that it was undecided if the store would reopen. ... If it did reopen it in all probability would no longer sell any firearms on site due to the red tape involved as it exists today.

............ I talked with these two very pleasant employees for some time about the current state of the Remington Arms plant and they seemed eager to answer my inquires. ... They told me they feel certain they will be back to work in January as was posted here yesterday but were uncertain as to wheather any employees would be permantly layed off as happened before about 1990. ...

............ They told me the overall state of their business was very slow and that without any gov't military contracts it didn't appear that it would brighten in the foreseeable future. ... The entire middle Mohawk region is facing a rather severe recession at this time and as Remington is the largest local employer things will quickly only get much worse.

............ In my journey there today it seemed as if every new car dealership in the extented area was having a bare bones sales selloff in order to just keep afloat and survive a little longer. ... There were discount sale signs on almost every local business of every kind in the area. ... The outlook seems very bleak for the entire area for some time to come.

............ Just my two cents worth ... Norm