Dollar Fi: Service-jobs slump

Dollar Financial Corp., the Daylesford-based high-risk lender, check casher and pawnbroker with 1,400+ stores in Canada, the U.S., Britain and Ireland, watches the "real economy" of low-wage workers closely.
  "Our customers, who primarily work service sector jobs, have thus far fared better than other areas," CEO Jeff Weiss told investors in Thursday's quarterly conference call. But he's worried that layoffs at hotels and tourist centers "could bleed over into our customer base." So he's slowing expansion, cutting loan limits, closing 70 stores (mostly in the U.S.) by Sept. 30, and stepping up debt-collection efforts. 
  Dollar's businesses are controversial and depend on shifting laws. Dollar's Money Mart chain in Canada, its biggest market, feels under attack in several provinces. CFORandy Underwood told shareholders it's responded by cutting back advertising (because that brings out more critics in times of adverce publicity), while also boosting its government-lobbying efforts.
  Dollar stock rose $1 this morning to around $17.65, but it's still trading at roughly half its 2006 high.