Shirley Temple

    In the late 80's, I was working for Borders Book Store(so sad that they are now bankrupt).  Shirley Temple Black visited our store in Novi on a book tour for her autobiography, Child Star.  I would say that most of the employees were in their 20's and quite serious about our literature and maybe a little uppity about "popular" stuff.  I cringe admitting that but, oh well.  I loved Shirley Temple too! She would be signing her books and I would be there as part of the security team.

     I never expected how it went down.  People were lined up for hours throughout the store. She spoke to each and every person and signed their books and could not have been more gracious.  As security, we had to constantly tell people to back up and not crowd Shirley. This was a first hand view of a "star struck" public. Everyone was so excited! It was the biggest event we'd ever have while I worked there.

     The day after her signing, I was working at the information desk when an elderly gentleman approached.  He asked if Shirley Temple had been there and he was so disappointed to know he had missed her.  

He said something like "You know, we were so poor , we didn't have anything and she just danced across the stage and lifted our spirits and made us forget...". It was so heartfelt and I've remembered what he said for 20 some years.

    Our Shirley:

    Before all this dealership business came up, I'd been talking to Keith about getting a dog.  He was not for it and I gave many arguments like the kids should have the experience of having a puppy and so on and so forth, you know... He finally came around grudgingly and we decided on a cockapoo(cocker spaniel/poodle).  We made a visit to a breeder and reserved a newborn puppy that would be ready to join us in July.

    When the news came that GM was closing our dealership, I said to Keith "Let's not get the dog".  It just seemed with all the "unknowns", adding the expense of a dog wouldn't be a good idea.  The economy was so bad and Michael was in college and I just envisioned all kinds of end-times scenarios.  Keith said emphatically "No, we are getting the dog".  It would be something positive for all of us to focus on.

     It was the best decision we ever made. That little dog, Louie danced across our lives and has given us so much joy.  We took all our emotions and loved this little puppy, all four of us.  I never knew that I could love a little dog so much.  One benefit, for me personally, was getting out and walking with him.  I'm the kind of person who will isolate when hurt.  It would have been so easy to spend the summer holed up in the house, licking my wounds. 

    Louie forced me out into the neighborhood.  It had made me sad to think that neighbors might avoid us because they felt badly and didn't know what to say.  So, this was an opportunity to see my neighbors and be able to talk about the PUPPY and not about the awful thing that had happened. Yeah, that seems like avoiding the issue, but believe me, we had plenty of time to face what was going on.  The dog was a great distraction from our problem.

     Both the boys are gone now.  When we come home and Louie comes running to greet us - dancing, tail wagging and so happy to see us, it is a comfort I can't say enough about. It gives a certain life to the house to have a pet - one of life's blessings.

Heavy Cloud

    I apologize for any confusion on posts from 7/16.  There are no posts on that day.  I had trouble adding a photo slideshow to the blog and for the time being, a temporary, is located at the bottom of the blog page.

    So, there were ten days upon receival to figure out whether to sign the termination agreement.  Phone calls were made to the Detroit politicians.  The lawyer was consulted.  They struggled with how to handle this but in the end, it all pointed to signing because not signing meant immediate closure.  Time meant hope.
    The first step was to tell the employees.  They put out the word that there would be an All-employee meeting at the 2nd floor service area.
    A few minutes before the meeting, Keith was in the used car office with two guys that he worked very closely with(one of them from the day Keith began work).  One wanted to stay and cover the lot but Keith said "No, you should come to the meeting.  It's not good news.". They both knew immediately.  Keith apologized to them for not telling them sooner.  They said they understood.  There were tears.  You know how much tears cost for men because you see it so rarely.
    Over the years, Keith had made opening announcements at meetings and he volunteered to give the news.  He had to fight to keep his composure as he told them that the dealership had received the "bad letter" from GM.  Charles Jr., Doug Jr., Keith and his dad, Doug, all stated that they were going to do all they could to fight this.  They wanted to sound hopeful because they did still have hope at this time.
    There were tears and there was shock and there were angry comments about GM.  One of the questions was about a timeline.  If the fight was lost, how much time do we have? The October 2010 date was given and that was 16 months away.
    The meeting lasted about 20 minutes.  The guys said they would keep everyone informed.  It was encouraged now to tell others, anyone they knew in the community that could possibly help.
   Once they told the employees, they knew the word would spread.  People had friends at other dealerships and it would be fast.
    It was going to be difficult to carry on with business as usual under this heavy cloud.  Other dealers were not being public about signing and keeping it to themselves.  Who knew what was the right course?  Everyone was in shock.
    They'd heard that some dealers never told their employees until the end for fear they would jump ship.
Dalgleish didn't want to do that and that's because of the good relationship they had.
    Many of the people were long timers.  A majority of them had been there over 20 years but some had been there 30 years, 40 years.  There were a couple of generations of some families that worked there beside the Dalgleish family.
     You knew their families.  Keith grew up with them.  There were weddings and babies and funerals.  There were picnics and bowling and Christmas parties, concerts and Tiger games together.This small business was like an extended family.
    The meeting was on a Friday afternoon.  You knew they would all go home to be with their families and tell them the news just as we had told our boys.  It was a very sad time.
    Next blog - Shirley Temple

Exhausting the 313

    In most parts of the country, there was a large outcry and movement by politicians from areas where dealers were cut.  In many of those cases, the dealers were reinstated. For one thing, they realized the importance of the tax base and other revenue that these dealers produced for their areas.
    Even if none of the Detroit leaders cared about us personally, they should have been concerned about losing a half million dollars in property taxes, payroll taxes and other fees and licensing requirements that had to be paid yearly to the city. For over a year after the sale of our building, the city kept sending us a property tax bill. It took about 6 phone calls in a years time to get someone to straighten it out - each time, being on hold for over an hour only to have them say that "it's not my job". They would give another phone number to call and that number would either ring and ring with no answer, or give a full voicemail message.  It was comical.
Anyway, Wayne State bought the building and as a state owned university, they are exempt from paying property taxes.
    After contacting Bing, an email was sent to Ken Cockerel, president of the city council, followed by a phone message.  When he called back, he acted as if he knew nothing about the situation.  Keith asked if he had received the email and he said yes. It was a strange and awkward moment. Keith explained it all again and when he was done, Cockerel said "What do you want ME to do?" Keith said that we could use your voice and help to try and save our business.  Cockerel said "I don't know what I can do but I'll look into it.  He never called back and Keith knew it was useless to pursue his help.
    Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick (Kwami's mommy) was the state representative for the dealership's district and was a long time customer, as was Kwami. A call was made to her office and the case was made for help.  She said she would try to help and she did try.  She wrote a letter to Mark LaNeve, the front man for GM during the dealer cuts.  Unfortunately, by the time it was sent, he had already "left" GM and it went nowhere.
     You can say what you want  about Kwami Kilpatrick - we actually think he would have helped us! He was very approachable and had been very loyal to us as a customer. He understood small business and their importance to the city. That might not be a popular statement as of late, but it's true regardless.
    We don't blame these public figures for the closing of the dealership.  It would just have been nice to have had the support of the city that we'd been a part of for 88 years.
    We also made contact with our customers who were high profile ministers in Detroit such as Reverend Wendell Anthony(also president of the Detroit branch of the NAACP, Reverend Jim Holly, Reverend Horace Sheffield and Reverend Ed Rowe. Their support and the support of friends and customers who wrote letters was much appreciated.  Thank you. Unfortunately it was all for naught.
    Pretty early on in this whole ordeal, I made a visit to my foot doctor(Dr. Garfield - great doctor!). We were talking and he said he was sorry to hear the news about the dealership.  Then he said something like "They have this wonderful reputation, this legacy. No one can take THAT away.".  It was so touching and I was caught off guard by his kindness.  I confess -  I cried. I tried not to! He was just one of the many people who helped along the way.  Thank you.
    We had a problem.  We asked for help.  No one could help solve the problem... but the support that we did have along the way... it meant everything.

Next blog - signing the termination agreement

Bing

The last blog was too long, so I will break this next topic into 2 postings.
     The day that the termination letter arrived, Keith called Detroit mayor Dave Bing to ask for his help.  He was a customer and had bought many cars from us.  Keith had to leave a message but mayor Bing called back within the hour.  Keith explained the situation.  Mayor Bing seemed outraged and said "They can't do that!" He said that he had connections at GM and he would call them immediately and get back to Keith.
    A few days went by and Keith spoke with his secretary and faxed some information to her.  A couple more days went by and Keith called again and emailed.  Nothing.  He never heard from him again.  Why didn't he call back?  Everything we knew about him showed that he was a stand up guy. Why didn't he call and just say "Sorry, can't help you out."? Did GM or some politician tell him to stay out of it?
    Bing's former top aide, Karen Dumas, was also a customer.  She is the woman who was just in the news a few weeks ago and was let go in somewhat of a news scandal.  Anyway, the day we closed the doors for good, she was there to pick up her vehicle which had been in the body shop with significant damage. There was trouble getting a certain part and she loudly accused us of deliberately stalling. It was so stupid.  She was making a scene at the cashier's window.  Most of the employees were in the showroom where the farewell was going on but Keith came onto the scene and when he realized who it was, proceeded to give her this:
     You've got a lot of nerve to come in here today and make faulty accusations and only be concerned for your own problems and why don't you come to the showroom and tell the 65 employees who are about to be unemployed in an hour about your petty little bull___ problem when your boss didn't lift a finger to save their jobs!!
    If you know, Keith, you know he doesn't back down.
 She did a complete 180 and apologized.  She went to leave and returned with an envelope with 4 Red Wing Tickets!  Can you imagine?
    Nothing that happens in the city of Detroit surprises us anymore.  All the stories of scandals, corruption, incompetence and inaction - that is not news to us. God help that city because it needs help!

Gang Bangers and Soccer Moms

    So, why cut dealers - there never was a good reason as far as we were concerned!
In February of 2009, the Obama administration set up a task force to work with GM during the financial bailout.  Someone, I'd so like to know who, came up with the suggestion to look at Toyota's success with only 1,400 dealers compared to GM's 6,000+ dealers. Getting closer to that magical number became part of the restructuring plan along with closing plants, terminating brands, UAW concessions, etc.
    In order to receive over $40 billion from the government, GM was required to provide a plan.
Interestingly - the automotive advisor to the government task force(car czar) was later involved in two separate fraud investigations where he paid some $16 million to keep his ass out of jail. He never had any automotive experience. So goes it...
    In June of 2009, Fritz Henderson appeared before congress and was asked to give reasons for closing dealerships.  Here are a couple ways that GM was to save $1 million per closing:

1. Advertising -
   WRONG! GM didn't pay for individual dealer ads, the dealer paid for those and also had to pay a fee to GM just to make their own ads. Dealers also paid showroom displays, color charts and brochures(we paid GM $20 per Cadillac brochure).
2. Training -
   WRONG! Dealers paid for their own training for sales staff and technicians.
3. Rebates -
   The logic behind this point was less dealers...less cars sold... less rebates paid out.  HUH? They wanted to sell LESS cars?

    Our thoughts are that dealers don't cost GM a dime.  If a dealer didn't sell ONE car, GM would still make money from the dealer through:
           1. franchise fees
           2. GM charged dealers fees just to communicate with them via the internet.
           3. Dealers paid GM for signage. Our Dalgleish Cadillac exterior sign was $600 a month.
               We had 3 of them.  That is $21,600/year for 3 signs!
           4. GM required dealers to buy between $10,000 and $75,000 a year worth of special tools just
               to have on site.  It was common that many of them were never needed or used.
           5.  All cars and parts were paid for up front by dealers to GM.
    These are just a few ways that dealers paid their own way. How they could say that it would save them $ was ludicrous from our perspective. It was just a smoke screen for the much bigger money grab.

    So, why us?  Why were we one of the casualties?
The first round of cuts were supposed to have been made using criteria that related to sales effectiveness.  It was known that GM's people looked at how a Cadillac dealership compared with its luxury brand competitors in its own marketing territory.
    In our specific territory, people were buying more Cadillacs than Mercedes, BMW, Lexus or Lincoln and that made our "market effectiveness" very good. the other criteria was the Dealer's Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) rating. There too, our numbers were among the nations best.  It was 90%, which was almost unheard of.
   So, how was GM going to cut more dealers as was the plan?  Well, they waited until the DAY AFTER bankruptcy was filed and then under the guise of bankruptcy they were able to violate Michigan's franchise laws.  It seemed to us like they did whatever they wanted to do - get rid of problem dealers, take away from one dealer and give to another.  This is where we saw favoritism in the Detroit area.  There is a dealer we know who had been in business many years. The back story is that their location was bad and they were terminated.  The franchise rights were awarded to a different dealer who has now been allowed to set up shop in the same "bad location". Shame on you, GM!
    We were never given a reason at the time of termination.  An official out of Chicago (who later denied this) told us that we sold too many cars to suburbanites from our location in the city. Uh, shouldn't that say something good about us? We were able to bring people into the city!  After 4 generations of family members spread throughout the area, were we not supposed to sell cars to family, friends and neighbors?
    Shortly before we were cut, the head of Cadillac made a statement to a group of marketing and advertising executives stating that Cadillac didn't want to market to "gang bangers" and wanted to target "soccer moms".  We were an inner city dealership.  You can draw your own conclusions, but the customers at our dealership were diverse: church ladies, working people, the last 4 mayors of Detroit, professionals who worked in the city and many more everyday people. That is insulting!
    Good luck to the soccer moms in Novi!
    For whatever reasons, Detroit was no longer right for Cadillac.  There is no Cadillac dealership in the city of Detroit now.  For service, our customers have to leave the city and head to the suburbs.  Just another reason not to go to Detroit as we have heard it said many times!
    I have to say that there were so many more things that occurred that it is impossible not to be bitter. To know some of the inaccuracies, to feel that there were "back room" deals, to see what has transgressed in our area... that gets to you.  The word termination sounds so clean and final.  That is not how it is, you can believe that.
In the next blog: Who we appealed to for help
                           Signing away our lives and the next step