SCEDC Blog

While the winter of 2022-23 marches on (and on), Girl Scout Cookie sales last a mere six weeks. Poof. It ends in April.

With the Luck of the Irish, St. Patrick’s Day 2023 falls on a Friday. Write your own punchline. There could be two- and three-day celebrations. Write your own itinerary. Parades. Toasts. Cabbage. Irish soda bread. Corned beef. Toasts. Shephard’s pie. Toasts. More Toasts.

It may be a sign of impending old age, but a few residents in Wisconsin’s St. Croix Valley still get excited finding a wheat penny. In fact, a fast talking community booster recently freed a penny from an icy tomb in a parking lot. Too shiny for a wheat cent, it still found a place in a coat pocket.

And they say true romance is on a hiatus or perhaps faces the same headwinds as the economy. Both romance and the economy are fragile. Buckle up. Even with dark skies and turbulence, they shall prevail.

Wiki says George Strait is one of the most influential and popular recording artists of all time. His authentic cowboy image and back-to-roots sound earned him the title, King of Country Music.

With the refrains of Auld Lang Syne still fresh, political cartoons will continue a tradition of depicting a sash-wearing Baby New Year morphing into a haggard Father Time over the course of 365 days, 52 weeks, or 12 months. The days are long but the years are short.

Before the wishbone from the Thanksgiving Bird was pulled in two, the National Retail Federation (NRF) released its forecast of record breaking holiday spending in America this season, to the tune of $942.6 – $960.4 billion.

It’s a poorly kept secret that Mr. Grinch resides in Wisconsin’s St. Croix Valley. He is relieved Halloween is in the books. From mid-September through November 1st an inflatable Scary Grinch competed with Holiday Grinch for both shelf space and attention in Big Box stores.

Just like Halloween displays popping up in big box retail stores in mid-August, pumpkins in all shapes and sizes are finally available, just ahead of October 31st’s scary day. But before there’s a Halloween celebration, pumpkins are deserving of their own day.

Moms, dads, and extended family members in Wisconsin’s St. Croix Valley were not immune from scary shopping experiences leading up to the start of a new school year. Part of the scare was linked to the Halloween merchandise on full display at the big box stores since early August.

Headwinds. Icebergs. Torpedos. Despite the recent gloom-and-doom economic headlines, consumers perched in a mythical crow’s nest say it’s cautiously full speed ahead, especially in Wisconsin’s St. Croix Valley.

As predictable as dandelions in April and boulevard flags on July 4th, neighborhood lemonade stands are popping up again in Wisconsin’s St. Croix Valley. Business owners in search of the next generation of leaders say the stands are a sight for sore eyes. It takes a lot of resilience to plan, operate, and sustain the lowly lemonade stand. But they can also spark successful entrepreneurial careers.

2022’s July Fourth is a well-deserved three day weekend. For consumers, this translates into an extra day of recreating and spending. The importance? Economists repeatedly say consumer spending props up 70 to 75 percent of the U.S. economy.

The line from an early 1950s black-and-white TV series the Adventures of Superman went something like, “Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s Superman!” Fast forward to the spring of 2022 ….

2022 marks the fiftieth anniversary of Father’s Day as an official national observance in the U.S., thanks President Richard Nixon’s 1972 proclamation. “Ladies first” as they say, meaning the recognition of Mother’s Day came 58 years earlier from President Woodrow Wilson in 1914.