Rushing Quickly into Anger

 
    I am remiss in not mentioning the other family members who worked at the dealership.  At the time of the closing there were my sister-in-law Dona, nephews Kit, Justin and Drew, brother-in-law Doug, Keith's uncle Chuck and my father-in-law Doug Sr.  Over the years there were many family members who worked there including Keith's Aunt Muriel, my other 3 brother-in-laws Bruce, Tom and for many years Tim,  All or most of Keith's cousins and assorted family members.  My son, Michael worked there a few summers. During the 70's, many kids, friends of the Dalgleish's, worked there too. Believe me, I have heard some funny stories.  Someday...
    When writing about the dealership, I might use the word "we" or "our" but I use that word through my marriage to Keith.  I never worked there. I did spend time there. Every day, Keith came home with a story.  It put bread and butter on my table.  For many years when asked about the dealership, I would refer to it as my husband's family's dealership. I guess after 25 years of marriage, I claim this crazy family as my own...

    The media was calling daily looking for information:  "Were you terminated? Do you know any one who was terminated?". They didn't give them any information.  They felt they had to get a better handle on this whole deal.
    A "wind down" agreement showed up at the dealership shortly after the initial termination letter.  It was 6-8 pages long with a whole lotta legal mumbo jumbo stuffed into it.  Call the lawyer.
    Dealers were given 10 DAYS to decide whether to sign the agreement or not.  Let's call them options.
        1. If you signed the agreement, you gave up all rights as a GM dealer and any future claims against
            GM.  You also had permission to stay open until October of 2010, although you could apply for
            an earlier termination.
        2. If you did not sign, you would be lumped in with "old bankrupt GM" and you will not be a GM
            dealer, effective immediately.
    If our dealership had chosen option 2, we would have been stuck with $4-5 million  worth of inventory that we had already paid for.  Since we would not have been an authorized dealer, we would have been required to sell these new cars as used cars.  They would not be eligible to be leased, have no rebates and would carry less warranty.  It would have given other dealers an advantage and have been extremely costly to get rid of these vehicles.
    New cars and parts are paid for by the dealer before they even leave the factory.  GM required authorized dealers to purchase many parts and tools to have on site.  Our dealership also had several hundred thousand $ worth of parts that GM was never going to be buying back.
                    We do not know of ONE dealership, nationwide, who chose option 2.
    So really, there were no options, at least no good ones. Do you lose all your money or almost all of it?  We were all screwed.
    No dealers were talking in our area yet.  No one wanted to let the cat out of the bag.  One reason was that there were millions of $ worth of inventory to sell yet.  Who was going to buy it if they thought you were done for? Would people try to take advantage?
    During this 10 day period, Fritz Henderson appeared before Congress and states that there is an appeal process. We were like "what the !#%!.  There was no appeal process that was presented to us... not until the day after he said this, anyway. An email came stating "If you want to appeal your decision, you can send an email to this address."  It was just window dressing.  Of course we appealed! An email was sent back consisting of this answer:  Your appeal is denied.
    Picture yourself: you're operating under extreme pressure to make correct decisions that affect a lot of people.  The atmosphere is rank with fear and you are facing off with the largest corporation in the world who is backed by the United States Government.
   Please, if you have any questions or comments, post here on the blog or FB if you want.

GM used this for a publication

   My next blog - Why close dealers in the first place and Why us.

Unchartered Waters

    There are touchstones in my memory of these last few years - hearing the news from Keith, telling the children, the day the dealership closed... those are painful jabs.
When Keith told the kids, it was a heartfelt delivery.  In our culture we don't often see men express emotion.  It seems to kind of escape from their bodies. It is hard to witness this too, the hardest thing that I have seen him do.   I sat in my chair in the family room.  Keith tells the boys to come sit down.  It went down fast. There was no time to read a book on how best to break bad news to children.
    Our boys were so quiet.  I don't remember them asking questions which is good because we didn't have any answers.  So yes, the Titanic is sinking.  We're fairly sure we will not go down with the ship but we can't give you any details.  We are in unchartered waters.
    On tv, I've watched people, women, wailing in grief.  I always wonder what that would feel like... to push grief out.  Does it require effort or does it just roll out, uncontrollable? It makes sense to me - mind and body working together, but also it is foreign to me. My own personal observances of how people grieve is that they isolate, letting tears seep out quietly, keeping it private.
I don't know the right way, the best way... I just don't know.
    Keith did say that after the initial shock when they received the letter, a call was made to the district manager who was their local contact for years.  They had a friendly relationship, fellow spartan, all that.  They wanted to ask "What do we do? This can't be right... this can't be real."
    There was just an answering machine. That day he called back and immediately informed them that the call was a three-way call with the third party being a GM attorney.  All questions had to be directed to the attorney.  He, the district manager, could not comment on anything. The call was about 15 minutes long on speakerphone with Keith, his dad, uncle and brother. The attorney really didn't address their questions. He probably didn't know himself. He said a "wind down" packet would be coming in the mail to address questions and give details.  A website was being set up where questions could be emailed in.  21st century communications - breaking up by text, so to speak.
A dealership is franchised.  Our dealership owned the franchise rights to sell Cadillacs in the city of Detroit.  This was GM terminating our franchise agreement.
The attorney informed them that GM was allowing them to stay open as a Cadillac dealer until October 2010.  That was about 15 months away at the time. He slipped in that effective immediately, that day, they could not longer order any new cars ever again.  His tone was that they should be grateful that GM was giving them this time. Oh gee, thanks, GM.  Our guys were not confrontational because they didn't want to burn any bridges and were still in shock, thinking that this could be worked out.
    So how does the dealership remain open/viable for 15 months with no new product to sell? Huh? That was the beginning of a whirlwind of events and decisions and not knowing what would happen next.

YOU ARE NO LONGER PART OF GM'S FUTURE...

It has been over a month since I last wrote. One reason was that I wanted to describe the Dealership and give all kinds of details and hard facts and dates about it.  It seemed an overwhelming task for a recovering perfectionist like me.  I somehow wanted to prove just how great a place it was and how much it meant to our family but no matter how much I say it will never be enough.  I can't find the perfect words or enough details... it was part of me and it is gone. I loved it and I can't prove how much and I have decided not to try to justify my feelings. I will leave it at that for now. I have hopes that one day I will be able to share the wonderful memories without the sadness.
Secondly, we have been so busy with Jack's graduation and saying good-bye.  I wanted to savor every minute and live in the present. I was strong and I was weak and it was great and it was awful. Life... what can you do?
Thirdly, up next, was the saddest and most troubling time of my life. I guess you could say that I had to take a deep breath before putting it all into words.
Last time, I wrote of how we were spared the first round of cuts from GM dealer closings.  I had just been pink slipped. My little bump was greatly overshadowed by feeling so glad that the dealership would live another day.  It was not a great time however to be selling luxury cars in any market let alone the inner city. It could have died a natural death, so to speak...  we'll never know.
Rumors were still rampant and GM was silent.  A rumor was heard that a second round of cuts were coming.  The next afternoon, a letter arrived by Fedex from GM.  Keith said no one wanted to open it, so he did it. He said the first line went something like this: YOU ARE NO LONGER PART OF GM'S FUTURE...  no signature, no thank you, no regrets,  just FU. It was one page long and it said that more instructions would follow.  I never asked what went on during that time in the office with Keith, his dad, his uncle and his brother and I never will.
I found out over the phone.  I don't remember what was said or what I thought at the time.  We met at the baseball field at Franklin  and we stayed to see my friend, Elaine's son, play baseball.  It was a reminder of such a happy time of our lives when our life seemed to revolve around baseball fun.  I love that game!  It was a beautiful evening, warm and sunny and I just did not want to leave. I see myself in my memory walking in slow motion to my car.  We knew that when we went home, we had to tell the boys the news and that somehow made it so final, so real and so very, very hard.