Moving to St. Croix at the end of Sept!

Hi Eric!

Welcome to St. Croix from another Michigander! Wow, there seem to be a lot of us here on this island AND this board. 🙂

I'm a newbie on this board and have only been here since July 4th, but I/we love it here. We're from Midland, but my younger daughter (21) lives in Lansing and is a senior at Michigan State. My other daughter (23) lives/works in Ann Arbor. What a small world...

My husband was hired as a contractor to work at the refinery after retiring from Dow. We were originally told that the job would last about 2 months, so this was just supposed to be a post-retirement, extended vacation (for me that is). The project he is working on has been extended to December 2007, so we may be here awhile. I'm not complaining one bit!

Anyway, I don't have much to offer to this discussion (we don't have any pets) but just wanted to say hello. Perhaps I'll try to look you up to say hello in person once OfficeMax opens (my daughters will be visiting this winter... ). I've been looking around the island for a small package of interior file folders without luck. I'll probably be at the front of the line when you open your doors!

Hi everyone, I just found out about this site so I figured I would jump in on the conversation. I am moving to St Croix in a few weeks. I am 24 years old, and am extremely excited but also nervous about the move. It is great to see how many friendly people have responded on this site. Anyway...I look forward to talking to you all.
Becky

Rbacon - welcome to the board and to STX. What brings you down here?

Hey Eric,
Just checking out this site because I'm considering moving to STX. My boss' buddy just bought a bar down there and it seriously got me thinking. I'm 22, graduated a year ago and am seriously not ready for the corporate world, or another New England winter. Anyway, I saw this link and thought you might want to check it out, assuming you haven't seen it yet. Hope it helps!
https://www.vimovingcenter.com/talk/read.php?4,50228,50228#msg-50228

Yes, you obviously must be old and grumpy.

Office Max hired Eric because he has no baggage, no wife and kids to come home to after a very long day and has to listen to them bemoan their feelings that this is not paradise and they want to move back home. He's young and out to do whatever he has to do to prove himself. They hired him based on his intelligence and enthusiasm. Just like the Army, STX is not just a job, it's an adventure.

I don't like to assume things or speak for someone but I doubt his lease and dog were mentioned in the interviewing or hiring process. Ease off him. He's young enough to know that if this doesn't work out it will not become a "resume stain" that he will have difficulty covering up.

BTW Las Vegas is virtually the same distance from Lansing as it is to STX. If you had a choice between hookers, gambling, meth heads, and the TV show COPS there almost every week versus STX, what would you do?

Who at the age of 24 has travelled much?

As a graduate of Michigan State University and currently a 40 year old Metro Detroiter, I take great offense to your skeptical comments. The job prospects in Michigan, especially for recent college graduates, flat out sucks! He's got everything to gain and nothing to lose. Young people today know that their first or second job out of school is not going to be their only job for the rest of their life.

And Eric, if you did go to MSU, I'll have you know, (if you didn't already) that Ron Charles, the starting center for the 1979 team is from STX.

Thoogie,

I assume your post was directed my way. My concerns are really twofold, the young man and the business.

If Eric were truly unencumbered, I'd say -go for it. But he's talking about bringing down a living thing and a car. The cost in time, money and emotional stress can only be known by someone who has done this. My first post suggested leaving the car and dog until he gets established and I stick by that advice.

Secondly, we REALLY want this business!! REALLY. I cannot express strongly enough how valuable this store will be to STX. Although I don't know Eric and, therefore, cannot evaluate his ability to move here, hire and train employees and open a rather large "big box" store, I am concerned by what sounds like a lack of general experience and more importantly, a lack of knowledge of the USVI.

I tried to be straightforward in my opinion. I will be interested to hear a report from Eric after he's been here a while.

Linda J.

thoogie - nobody was casting any aspersions on eric specifically. Concern was voiced about what the company might not be preparing him for, which is a very different thing. Many of us who live here understand that it would be difficult even for someone who has experience in opening new Office Max stores on the mainland to open one here without encountering all sorts of complications they have never come across before. For someone opening one for their first time, this will most likely be an unusually tough first time. The labor department handles things differently and there are labor law issues that make hiring new employees (or firing incompetent ones) a very touchy thing to do. Many locals will be resentful of this type of store opening and will perceive it to be an undesirable commercialization of the island that will shut down the mom and pop office supply stores. At the same time, this young man will be going through the sometimes difficult process of settling into a new place and will have all the same issues to overcome that other new residents face, many of them unsuccessfully.

I am certain I am not the only one who wishes Eric the very best of good fortune in his upcoming endeavor. He must be an exceptional young man to have been given this opportunity and it may well be that he has the unusual combination of business knowledge, skills, intelligence, experience, enthusiasm, and problem solving ability that will be required to pull this off. He has his work cut out for him. Saying so doesn't disparage Eric one little bit. I totally understood Linda's post when she made it. It's like holding one's breath watching an acrobat on a high wire. You watch and hope they pull it off, yet you have that underlying sense of impending doom should they slip and fall.

As a mother of three sons, one just two years younger than Eric, I know that some young men are still just figuring out what to do with their lives when others have already moved full time into the adult world with wives, children, jobs and mortgages. Presumably Eric has a vision and a plan and will be provided with a team of people to help with the project. I look forward to being a customer and congratulating him on a job well done when the store ultimately opens.

FYI - Jobs openings for this new store are posted on Monster.com