Posts Tagged ‘retail’

Will Social Networking make “place” more important?

May 28th, 2009

Last week I raised the question; Will Gen Y, with their infatuation for on-line social networking tools, ruin how people develop a sense of belonging to a community?  Today, I’d like to share a story suggesting that social networking is actually contributing to an increased desire for local.

Titled “Demographic trends now favor downtown,” the article traces the growing demand for retail space in downtown settings and its connection to the “buy local” movement. 

 

Besides offering the economic causes driving people to the downtown setting, the article identifies how on-line computer activities contribute to the importance of place:

Humans are social beings, and all the time we spend at our computers makes us, if anything, even hungrier for real-world interactions. The Internet, paradoxically, is making place even more important. Marrying great online services with appealing real-world presence will be the secret to success for many a company. So pay attention to where you are and to where your community is going.

If we are hungry for face-to-face interaction, and if a sense of place will become more important for businesses, does it not suggest an opportunity for small rural communities?  After all, isn’t “being real” inherent in most small rural communities? 

But it also begs the question, what are we doing to take advantage of this growing sentiment?  If we are not thoughtful and willing to take action, this opportunity may slip through our fingers. 

Note:  Readers may also be interested in knowing that I discovered this article through the Main Street Mitchell and Beyond’s Facebook page .  It pays to be a part of a social network.

Photo Source:  Jordan MacDonald/Flickr (photo of facades in downtown Broken Arrow, OK)

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More on the Clark Variety Store

May 24th, 2009

The Clark Hometown Variety Store received more good publicity today in a story published in the Sioux Falls Argus Leader.  Titled “Buying a store sells Clark on small-town power“, the article describes how the residents of Clark, SD (pop. 1300) banded together to create a cooperatively-owned variety store.  

If faithful readers of ReImagine Rural think the story sounds familiar, it should.  Back in February 2009, I posted about the store, emphasizing the importance of small retail operations like this in small, rural communities.    They are often just as much a part of a community’s “infrastructure” as streets, cell phone service, and broadband internet.

The Argus Leader identifies that cooperative-owned stores like this are on the rise, but they missed an opportunity to provide another “local” example of the phenomena it in action.  After all, the community of Menno, SD took similar initiative to maintain the presence of a grocery store in their community.

The story also raises the question:  What is happening to Clark’s city sales tax revenues?  Most people are not aware of how important city sales tax is to the operations of a municipality in South Dakota.  My guess is that Clark has seen a rise in its revenues since the store opened.  It would be fun to see. 

 

Other stories about the Clark Hometown Variety Store

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Kansas “gets” importance of grocery stories

April 14th, 2009

The Kansas Sampler Foundation not only “gets” rural culture, but they also get the importance or rural grocery stores. 

In response to a call from a resident from a rural town (pop. 1100) that lacks a grocery store, Marci Penner called for the establishment of a two-day Midwest Small Grocery symposium.  The idea being we need to “reimagine” how rural grocery stores operate.  Couldn’t agree more!

We’ve talked about a few retail models (here, here, and here) that have emerged in the upper Midwest.  We’d love to hear other stories from around the country.

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How important is a mall?

April 8th, 2009

An interesting question emerged on the South Dakota Magazine blog yesterday where Bernie Hunhoff  asked, “Do malls warrant bailouts?”

At issue is the desire of the property owners of a shopping mall in Yankton, SD to create a Tax Increment Financing District, enabling the property’s tax dollars to be used to rehab the mall property. 

Bernie gets at the heart of the issue with the following: 

“One wonders where this might all lead. If a big store gets such a break how can it be denied to a smaller competitor? If a shopping mall gets a TIFF why shouldn’t every rehab project in the old downtown districts get the same?”

In general, I’m a downtown guy, so you can guess where I’d probably stand on the issue.  But in fairness, I hope the citizens of Yankton don’t let outside public opinion and animosity over federal bailout plans affect their decision. 

Instead, I hope they prioritize the needs of the community, and see how the project fits into their community plan. Hopefully this plan will be a forward looking plan, taking into consideration what people will want out of retail in the future. 

Obviously that’s easier said than done, but a little research should help out.  With that in mind, I’ve identified a few resources to get the ball rolling. 

Resources:

“Malls to Main Street” by the Congress for New Urbanism  – This resource guide offers options for community leaders and developers who are dealing with empty malls. 

“101 Uses for dead malls” in the New York Times - The op-ed piece asks five “experts” their opinions on what should happen dead or dying malls.   

“Building a Better Big Box” in The Brand Avenue Blog:  This post identifies some architectural concept for the redevelop Big Box Stores. 

The Main Street Approach” on the ReImagine Rural Blog: Eric makes a compelling case for the importance of using the National Trust’s Main Street Approach.  I wonder what a Main Street Program could accomplish if a TIF district were developed to support the downtown retail community. 

“Mall TID Still Possible, Mayor Says” in the Yankton Press & Dakotan -This article from February offers greater detail on the mall project in Yankton.

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Gathering at the Grocery Store

March 18th, 2009

In my post today, I’d like to connect a few dots.  In the past few months, I’ve written about two communities (Clark, SD and Menno, SD) who stepped up to the plate and purchased retail operations when private buyers for the ventures could not be identified.  I’ve also written about the importance of “third places” in strengthening community bonds, and how they can positively impact the community’s economic development. )

It wasn’t until reflecting on a recent e-mail from Dr. Dave Engen, the founder of the “Third Place Project,” that I realized what a great opportunity both communities have to create third places out of their community-owned retail stores. 

We seldom think of grocery and variety stores as being places where “people meeting informally and build strong social connections,” but Dr. Engen’s work provides examples of both grocery and hardware stores that do so. 

I’m not sure if either community has considered their stores as community gather places, but I’d encourage them to do so.  And if they - or any community following their lead - want evidence of how it can be accomplished, I’d encourage them to check out the audio casts at the “Third Place Project“.

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Grocery store finds new life

March 13th, 2009

We’ve heard the story time and time again:  Grocery store owner in a rural town reaches retirement age, wants to sell, but struggles to find an interested buyer.  With no buyer in sight, the store closes. Substitute “hardware store” or “grocery store,” and most small towns in the Upper Midwest have experienced this scenario first hand.

Last month, we learned that the community of Clark, SD banded together to reopen their “variety store.”  Today, we report that the community of Menno, SD (pop. 729) stepped up to save their grocery store. 

The Yankton Press and Dakotan provides details for the story. () When it appeared the store’s owners who were ready to retire couldn’t find a buyer, the Menno Area Development Corporation took action by:

The story is uplifting and motivating.  It proves that communities don’t have to accept decline as inevitable.

What’s really exciting about the story
Digging deeper into the story, however, I found other reasons to be excited. 

First, the store’s manager, Amber Taylor was 27 years old when she took over.  She had been living in the Rapid City, proving that not everyone from Gen Y is interested in living in an urban area. 

Second, like the Nick Graham story, the community values the store and is willing to volunteer their time to work at the store.

Third, the community appears to be supporting Taylor with mentors.  A story in the March 4, 2008 edition of the Town and County Weekly News, suggests Taylor is being mentored by the former store owners and another retired former grocer who retired to Menno.  A review of the Menno Area Development Corporation minutes also informs us that the Southeast Enterprise Facilitation Project has played an important advisory role.  

The idea that communities need to provide mentoring support to entrepreneurial endeavors is often neglected.  It may, however, be one of the more important roles around. 

At the end of the day, the Menno community should feel proud of their efforts.   They have provided us with another example of a “Reimagined” future for rural places.

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Main Street Approach (part 2) — Tips & Tricks

March 11th, 2009

The following is a continuation of an interview conducted with Eric Ambroson on the use of the Main Street Approach, which was developed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.  Eric is a community development specialist with Planning and Development District III in Yankton, SD.  Part I to this inview can be found here.

 

What tips or recommendations would you give to a community using the Main Street Approach as a revitalize strategy for its main street district?
We seem to have a mode of thinking in South Dakota that, once we get an idea, it should happen immediately and at little expense.  The Main Street approach is incremental; it is not designed to produce immediate change.  Because they often fail to address the underlying causes of commercial district decline, expensive improvements, such as downtown malls or event centers, do not always generate the desired economic results.  In order to succeed, a long-term revitalization effort requires careful attention to every aspect of downtown - a process that takes time and requires leadership and local capacity building.

A couple of tips that small towns in South Dakota can use in their revitalization efforts include:

Start small: By focusing toward small, achievable goals, you can develop the skills to deal with more difficult, complex development issues. If you work on a large goal to start with, such as renovating a large, expensive “white elephant” building, chances are you are going to lose momentum and the whole group may get frustrated and give up. Plus, when you start out, you will be under the community’s microscope. So, it’s better to celebrate a series of small successes (even if it’s an event called “Pick Gum Wrappers off the Sidewalk Day”) than to drown in the public’s criticism of an overwhelming project.

Develop a reasonable budget and expectations: Contrary to my opening line to your question, we sometimes think that everything costs too much. We develop a self-defeating attitude - “We can’t do that because it’s too expensive,” or “That’s too good for us, let’s do something cheaper and easier.” How can we afford to NOT revitalize our downtowns?! A new main street program will not have a $50,000 budget to start with. They may only have $5,000. So be it. Starting with a small budget and doing small things is better than ignoring the needs of your downtown.

A lot of the visual materials that we see in the Main Street publications give the allusion that downtowns need to look like one of the grand avenues of Paris.  Small towns in South Dakota are not going to develop Parisian thoroughfares out of 19th century buildings and wide streets.  But, simple proper façade improvements and a pedestrian-oriented streetscape will do wonders for a small town.  If local groups took a hard look their downtown and sprinkled a little bit of street life on Main Street, it would do wonders for their town.  People attract people, and seeing people active in a downtown may compel one to stop and check it out.

Starting a Main Street program is realistic as long as you set expectations low and develop a long term vision for downtown.

What resources are there to help a community establish a Main Street program?
The best place to start is the National Trust’s Main Street Center website.  They have a wealth of knowledge available.  For anyone wanting to start a local organization, I highly recommend the publication, Revitalizing Downtown.  It is an excellent primer on the Main Street Four Point Approach and it shows you how to develop an organization, whether it’s an entirely separate organization (such as Mitchell Main Street and Beyond), or as a series of subcommittees within an existing organization such as a development corporation or chamber of commerce.

Unfortunately we do not have a statewide coordinating Main Street Program.  If we did, every South Dakota town could access professional advice on downtown revitalization.  Wyoming, Iowa, and Nebraska have statewide programs housed in their departments of economic development.  Iowa’s program has been a model for other states for several years.  Their statewide conference, the Iowa Downtown Summit, is usually held in August.  It is very informative and fun.

Finally, there are some communities in South Dakota that operate an organized revitalization program.  They include; Sioux Falls, Brookings, Watertown, Aberdeen, Mitchell, and Yankton.  It would be worth it to check each of them out.

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The Main Street Approach

March 10th, 2009

Downtown and Main Street revitalization is on a lot of people’s minds.  Everybody wants their main street to be vibrant, but most of us don’t know what we can do to make it happen.  Ask Eric Ambroson of Planning and Development District III in Yankton, South, and he’ll recommend you consider implementing the National Trust’s Main Street Approach. 

Since Eric has worked with the program himself, I asked him to share some information with us in the following interview.

 

Eric Ambroson, community development specialist

What did District III do to implement (or promote) the Main Street Program in your region?
I have to give credit Doris Roden, former Director of Downtown Brookings, for bringing in Stephanie Redman and John Mitterholzer of the National Trust’s Main Street Center in 2001 to present information about the Main Street Program to a group of South Dakota development professionals.  They really opened my eyes to the potential of downtown revitalization.  The troubling fact was that South Dakota did not have a central organization to work with communities on the Main Street Approach.  The group agreed that the state should have a coordinating program, but not much was done about it.

A couple of years later, District III applied to USDA Rural Development for a grant to do the same things a statewide program would do.  We were awarded a grant in 2004.  The idea is that we would go to a few communities and work with them on setting up a local organization that follows the Four Point Approach. 

In 2006, District III hosted a Main Street Basic Training conference in Mitchell.  The conference focused on the details of the Four Point Approach to downtown revitalization.  Lauren Adkins and Todd Barmann from the Main Street Center shared the presentation duties and were extremely knowledgeable and helpful.

One success story that came out of this process is the Mitchell Main Street and Beyond organization.  I met with them periodically for one year, helping them get organized.  They are a great group to work with!  Everyone there is energized and committed to moving downtown Mitchell forward.

 

Main Street Approach
View more presentations from ReImagineRural. (tags: south dakota)

Eric gave me permission to post the above presentation he made to the South Dakota Municipal League in 2007.  Slides 12 & 13 reference Four Point Approach Eric describes below.

 

Can you describe how the Main Street Program works and why it’s important to rural communities?
In 1977, the National Trust worked on a pilot Main Street Program in three communities; one of which was Hot Springs, SD.  Each community had their own success story: sales tax increases, building restorations, and private investment.  By 1980, they had essentially “patented” a Four Point Approach to downtown revitalization.  The National Trust’s Main Street Center went national shortly after.

The Four Point is a comprehensive strategy that is tailored to meet local needs and opportunities.  It encompasses work in four distinct areas - Design, Economic Restructuring, Promotion, and Organization - that are combined to address all of the commercial district’s needs.  A main street program will organize a committee for each of the Four Points.  It’s important to recruit people that are interested in each Point and willing to work with volunteers to achieve the goals of the organization.

The topics covered in the Four Points are essential to a successful revitalization program.  If a community does not address all of them, they may be setting themselves up for failure.  Each point acts like a spoke in a wheel; each must be provided equal attention.  For example, if a community is “event-heavy,” it may fail to recognize the importance of attractive storefronts or developing public-private partnerships to the group’s mission.

The Four Point model is an excellent teaching tool for any community development effort.  For example, Habitat for Humanity uses a similar model in their housing efforts, except the key elements of their approach focus on family selection, nurturing, homebuilding, and finance.  Any group that is working towards the betterment of their town can reflect on the issues that are critical to their development mission and design a committee structure to realize their vision.

 

Can small, rural towns implement the Main Street program?  Do you know of any examples of towns under 4000 that have had success with the program?
Absolutely!  Size does not matter with the Main Street Program.  The only differences between a large urban area and a small town organization are the scope of their work plan and their budget.  Referring back to the Iowa Main Street Program, there are several small communities that have received assistance from the state coordinating program.

Check out this link to see how the program’s impact on Iowa’s small towns.  

Most of the rural communities served by the Iowa Main Street Program observed a net gain in business startups and jobs created.  Each community reported numerous building rehabilitations.  The most telling sign of success is the amount of private dollars invested in building acquisition and rehab.  This is the most critical lesson that South Dakota towns can benefit from; if the public can play a small role in spurring private investment, the benefits realized by the community will come back in spades.  You will notice in the report that most of the rural communities have been doing this for at least ten years, which brings up the principles of incremental steps and stick-to-itiveness (in the next post).

Planning and Development District III is a planning district located in Yankton, SD.  Eric is a Community Development Specialist, specializing in town planning and design as well as specific studies such as strategic housing plans.

 

Note:  Check back tomorrow.  Eric will share some “Tips and Tricks” concerning the Main Street Program.

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Rural Infrastructure — The Clark Story

February 13th, 2009

The stimulus package currently in Congress focuses on job creation and infrastructure development.  While the urban infrastructure most discussed revolves around roads, schools, and mass transit, the rural infrastructure appears focused on broadband internet.

After reading about the establishment of a “community owned” variety store in Clark, South Dakota, I was reminded that rural infrastructure comes in many forms.  I was also reminded that decisions about prioritizing any community’s infrastructure needs is best decided by an informed citizenry at the local level. 

 

The Clark Hometown Variety Store

According to an article in the Watertown Public Opinion, the community of Clark has been without a place to buy many household necessities since the community’s convenience store closed three years ago. 

After struggling to reestablish the store through more traditional means, 115-120 community residents “stepped up” and purchased stock ($500 a share) in the newly formed community-owned variety store.

Since opening its doors on Christmas Eve, the store has been an economic boon for the community.  Greg Furness, President of the Clark Chamber of Commerce, is quoted in the Public Opinion article saying people from Watertown and Huron have been making the trip to purchase fabric.  The store also employs one full-time and four part-time workers. 

More importantly, the store fills a need within the community. Communities that offer places to purchase necessities are much more attractive places to live.   In many ways, they are a necessary part of the community’s infrastructure, just like good roads, schools, etc…. (source:  Joe O’Sullivan, “Clark community store revived”. Watertown Public Opinion, Feb. 9, 2009). 

  

Other forms of rural infrastructure

I’m not the only one who considers stores like this a vital element of a rural community’s infrastructure.  The Center for Rural Affairs also categories grocery stores and public libraries as infrastructure. I’d probably place “third places” in the infrastructure category as well. 

This brings us to the broadband internet debate.  I believe that broadband internet is vital to the economic development of all rural communities.  In fact, I’d go a step further and say that we have to develop greater access to wireless internet as well.   Young people will demand access to both, and will move away from communities where they can’t get it.

The stimulus package is a pretty complex bill, and I admittedly haven’t paid all that much attention to it. 

I just hope that the federal government’s approach to stimulating the rural economy isn’t limited to increasing broadband service.   If it is, there will be a lot of rural communities left out of the stimulus plan altogether.

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Just another typical Millennial

January 20th, 2009

Should we be surprised when a seventeen year-old high school student buys a grocery store in his rural community?  We assume all young people just want to get out of town, go to college, and then get a good paying job in the city?  But is that really the case?

After watching this CBS News story about Nick Graham, a young entrepreneur from Truman, MN (pop. 1,259 ), I had to stop and rethink that assumption.  Hopefully after watching it, you will too.

 

 

Before going further, I want to credit the Blog for Rural America for bringing the story to my attention. The video is a year old, and I missed their original post a year ago January.  Luckily their latest update caught my attention.

What’s happened in the last year

The Blog for Rural America’s post is worth checking out, but here are a few brief highlights about what’s happened with Nick during the last year.  First, Nick purchased two more grocery stores in rural communities.  Sounds like things were going well, but he recently sold all three to another grocer who gave him a good offer.  Nick has since moved on to a sales career and is currently helping out a struggling daycare center.  

While some people probably think Nick is the exception among  young people today, I don’t.  If we step back and examine the Characteristics of Gen Y, we see that Nick fits the mold of his generation:  

So if Nick is not the exception, why aren’t more Millennials jumping into business in our rural communities?  And if they have a natural inclination to be entrepreneurs, is there something rural communities can do to encourage them to start businesses in rural communities? 

This needs more study

Admittedly, I don’t have the answers to these questions, but I’ve already started digging into some research.  I’ll share whatever I find, and I hope you’ll help me out by sharing what you think.  Because I can’t stop thinking about it, however, I’m going to throw out some ideas that I have on the subject.  

My List of Recommendations

I arrived at these ideas without any “deep thinking”, so feel free to criticize or clarify them.  Like the topic of “third places,” I believe we need to build a deeper conversation on this subject.  I hope you’ll add to this by identifying other ways rural communities can encourage the development of entrepreneurs like Nick.  After all, the futures of our rural communities may depend on it.

 

Other resources on Nick Graham

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