Businesses Ready To Boost Bottom Line, With Troops Coming Home
By Darren Hunt
EL PASO — By the end of the weekend, more than1,000soldiers from Ft. Bliss’ 4th Brigade Combat Team,1st Cavalry Divisionwill be back in El Paso. By Christmas, the entire brigade — almost4,000 soldiers — should be back from Iraq.
ABC-7asked severalbusinessesnear Fort Blisshow the division’s return and news of future troop growth tothe basewill affect them economically. Many said it could all mean a boost in goods and services sold to troops and their families.
While giving a trim at the Front Line Barber Shop, barber Victor Phillips said business has been slow since thedivision left, but he expects things to pick up quite a bit in the near future. He evenreduced prices for the military, offering a $2 discount on Wednesdayfor all members of the 4-1 Cav and their families.
Zach Roberts, managerof the Brown Bag Deli, said the sandwich shop expects to be bustling by the end of the month, when all the 4-1 Cav has returned. “I think it’ll definitely bring more business. I wasn’t here before all this started, but what I’ve been told is we used to do quite a bit of business, especially at night,” he said.
Money could be tight forsomesoldiers from the 4-1 Cav. Somesaid they’d only been back in town a few short hours, but were already trying to get their finances back in order.
Sometimes the tasks andfinancialobligationscan seem sodaunting thatsome soldiers may be tempted to go the way of payday loans. Under the terms of that kind of loan, a person borrows $1,000, about the same in an advance on a paycheck. Then, the loan is repaid at the time a paycheck arrives. The alternative is to repay the loan over several pay periods with a high interest rate, which can balloon to more than$6,000 paid in interest over a one-year period.
“[People] say they’re bad, they’re just the easy way out. A lot of people think that’s a good idea, let’s do that, then in the long run, it’s bad business,” said one soldier.That”bad business” could take away from the hope for some good new business around Bliss with the return of the 4-1 Cav at places like the Front Line Barber Shop and the Brown Bag Deli.
