Ex-Ford Worker Invests Buyout In Dollar Store

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ANDREA SEABROOK, host:

The automaker's troubles have Michigan reeling. That state's unemployment rate is tied for the nations highest. But even in dismal times like this, people are figuring out ways to make a living.

Take Bill Mitchell. He took a buyout from Ford last year and used that money to buy a business he thought might do OK in a tough economy - a dollar store. He's the latest subject in our series, Faces of the New Economy. And he's on the line now from his store, Main Street Dollar. It's in Pinckney, Michigan, just outside Detroit. Mr. Mitchell, hello.

Mr. BILL MITCHELL (Owner, Main Street Dollar): Hey, how are you doing?

SEABROOK: Good. How are you?

Mr. MITCHELL: Good.

SEABROOK: So, how did you get into the dollar store business?

Mr. MITCHELL: Before I took the buyout, I was looking to go into business for myself, and I was looking around, knowing I wanted to leave Ford, and happened to see a dollar store for sale, and I went for it.

SEABROOK: What did you do at Ford?

Mr. MITCHELL: I worked on the door line at Wayne assembly. I did the door trim around the windows.

SEABROOK: How much money did you get? How much did you end up with after taxes?

Mr. MITCHELL: About 67,000, right around there.

SEABROOK: And do you have to plow it all into the dollar store?

Mr. MITCHELL: No. No, I always left a nest egg just in case, you know, the dollar store didn't work out. But it did help. And also, I opened up another dollar store about eight miles down the road. and that one didn't last but a year. Other businesses around me fell apart. I had five businesses in one year go out of business.

SEABROOK: Oh, my gosh.

Mr. MITCHELL: And when you don't have that traffic flow, it hurts your business. And with my lease going up, I just decided, you know, I better get out while the getting was good.

SEABROOK: Do you make as much money now as you did at the Ford plant?

Mr. MITCHELL: Absolutely not, but as far as my sanity and seeing my family more, and I wouldn't trade it.

SEABROOK: When you were offered that buyout a year-and-a-half ago, the economy didn't look like quite so bad as it does now.

Mr. MITCHELL: No, but I kind of had a hunch the way the gas prices were creeping up there a little bit. I mean, nobody estimated it'd go to four dollars. I mean, that was just crazy. But I mean, four years ago, when I think gas here was about $1.69, right around that range, me and my wife went to Aruba, and gas there was four dollars a gallon. And I thought, oh my God. If gas ever went to four dollars a gallon here in Michigan, I don't know what we do. And four years later, sure enough.

SEABROOK: But this wasn't the only venture that you tried. You did some work with foreclosures?

Mr. MITCHELL: That was while I was at Ford. I bought some foreclosed homes, fixed them up, and sold them. I invested the money into each home and just kind of flipped them as I went, really not using any of my money except for the first one. It was a good thing. But back then, the economy was a little better. People were buying some homes. If you asked me to do it today, I don't know if I would.

SEABROOK: Did your parents work in the auto industry?

Mr. MITCHELL: They did. My grandmother worked at Rawsonville Ford in Ypsi. My aunt works there now. My mother worked at the Ford plant. So, it was definitely a generation step down, you know, for me.

SEABROOK: Do you tell your kids to work in the auto industry?

Mr. MITCHELL: You know, I think that 10 years ago, when it was booming, everything was going good. I mean, in order to get into Ford Motor Company, you almost had - just like winning the lottery, you know, as far as getting in there. Now, I mean, I don't think anybody would consider wanting to go there.

SEABROOK: So is this decision paying off, you think?

Mr. MITCHELL: Yeah, I mean, you know, I'll never be a millionaire being in a dollar store, but I'm a lot happier. When I was on that door line, everything is just so repeatability of doing the same thing over and over again. I mean, your hands and your shoulders and neck, you know, I mean, you just start falling apart after a while, you know. I think I'll live a few more years.

SEABROOK: Bill Mitchell, he owns the Main Street Dollar in Pinckney, Michigan outside of Detroit. Sir, thanks so much.

Mr. MITCHELL: Thank you.

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