Oct. 10--Onslow County may be recession resistant, but its not recession proof.

In the past 18 months more than a dozen area businesses, both retail and restaurant, have closed. Among them were Bridal Bliss, Morton Motors, New River Pottery, Ragazzi's, Thieves Market, Thai House, Goody's, Circuit City, Pals True Value Hardware, Risque, Beans Coffee Shop and Eastern Edge. The most recent economic casualty, Lighthouse Christian Bookstore, officially closed Friday but remained open this week to allow customers who had placed special orders to pick them up.

The local military presence is the main contributor to the county's economic stability; but even so, the county is not immune, said Jim Reichardt, executive director of Jacksonville-Onslow Economic Development.

"We're going to get hit but not quite as badly as some other areas," he said.

Mona Padrick, president of the Jacksonville-Onslow Chamber of Commerce, said having the military as the area's "economic engine" is the key to recession resistance.

"(Service members) are not being laid off. In fact, as we have known for some time, they are increasing in numbers. ... So those paychecks are continuing to come and people are continuing to roll that dollar over several times in the county," she said. "All of those businesses and so forth that are dependant upon the military for its customers are doing well."

Local businesses that have closed were likely affected by what products or services were offered and who their customer base was, Reichardt said.

"Quite clearly all of us are being hit by the economy and we're not buying goods and services like we used to. I think everybody is looking around and saying 'Do I need to buy this right now?' Consumers aren't there," he said. "It's perhaps no fault of the business except for the fact that they're in a business that provides a service or a product that's not a complete necessity."

Poor planning may also have affected some smaller startup businesses and caused them to close, which is a factor no matter what the economic situation is, Padrick said.

"If they don't do the business plan and they don't do the market survey ... then that may be a business that isn't going to work here. It may be something that they really enjoy doing but there isn't enough of a market to support a business with it," she said.

National retailers and larger corporations, such as Circuit City or Hatteras Yachts, which closed its Swansboro plant in 2008, often end up closing smaller branches of the company in places like Onslow County first because of their lower status on the totem pole, Reichardt said.

"Sometimes ....