Ypsilanti Township retailers feel strain from General Motors' shutdown of Willow Run plant

Like most other business owners in the area, the impact of General Motors shuttering its Willow Run Plant can be found on the small business’s bottom line.

That has led the many mom and pop shops on the eastern edge of the community -many of which once served thousands of plant employees - to lay off their own staff.

“You could call any business around here and ask anyone - they have been affected by the plant closing,” Bradley said. “I have seen a huge difference. That’s why a lot of people are laying off employees. They can’t help it. If you want to keep your doors open, you are going to have to make cuts.”

Like many businesses within a close proximity to the plant, Bradley’s strategy for survival calls for cutting overhead and relying on less people to perform a day's work. She only uses lights that are “absolutely necessary” and doesn’t turn on her neon outdoor sign quite as much.

Ron Scheuneman, a manager at Preferred Auto Glass and Trim, reports that his Ypsilanti Township location near Woodlawn Avenue and Ecorse Road has dropped from five employees to three over the last four years.

He said the company has seen a roughly 50 percent drop in business during that time and different approaches to reducing overhead are being considered, such as negotiating better deals with suppliers to help lower prices.

Scheuneman said people just don’t have the disposable income to fix up their cars like they used to when the factory workers were taking home thousands in profit sharing and putting in overtime.

“They had money flowing out of their pockets and they were spending it on everything they wanted,” Scheuneman said. “That’s not the case now.”

Lunch sales at the Pizza Perfect on Ford Boulevard were brisk until the factory’s employee population started dwindling several years ago. Now Jennifer Hildebrandt, who co-owns the store with her husband, said they are considering whether or not it’s worth staying open for lunch.

She estimated Pizza Perfect's sales have dropped by roughly a third over the last several years, and they plan to advertise more, despite the cost of doing so.

Hildebrandt remains hopeful someone new will move into the factory, but says the 12- to 14-hour days she and her husband work at the pizza parlor aren’t producing as much in sales.

“We used have tickets and tickets of Hydromatic orders lined up everyday," she said. "... It has slowly kind of disintegrated over the last few years.

“We need to think about what we’re going to do because it’s really tiring, and the lunch shift mostly isn’t doing it anymore.”

Jason Broski, owner of C.J.’s Cycle and Marine on Michigan Avenue experienced a similar decline in sales over the last three years. Employees there have taken wage cuts and Broski says he isn’t paying as many bills as he once was.

He said he is fortunate C.J.'s overhead was low before the situation deteriorated, otherwise the store might not be open today. Still, Broski has entertained the idea of moving C.J.'s somewhere to the South where heating bills aren’t such a concern, but he figures the economy isn’t much better anywhere else.

“Everything gets cut in half except bills and utilities,” he said. “I just hope it comes back, but it feels like when they close it ain’t coming back.”