By RICHARD HANNEMANNLos Alamos
Back in 07 we had need to fill a prescription. Of course, we went to Mr. Anderson. There was a problem with the prescription though — the medication asked for was written by brand name available only at Smith’s. This was the doing of the doctor. When asked, the doctor replied, “well, that’s where everyone gets their medications.” I don’t think I’ve ever seen Mr. Anderson so steamed.
Smith’s seems to have tried to be very careful with the new Marketplace in providing mostly those products which are otherwise not being offered here, suggesting they don’t want to compete head to head against local retail. For instance, the clothing they offer is in the bracket between what is offered by Beall’s and CB FOX; the bicycles are Schwinns, which are “family” bikes rather than high end mountain bikes. They have been conscientious about this and are to be applauded for their effort.
But there are two concerns: First is the attitude reflected in my opening — if you can get it at Smith’s why go anywhere else, or, more importantly, “that’s where everyone goes.” Local business owners spend a lot on advertising and still people will come to the business for a first time and say, “I had no idea you were here.” That would be the elephant in the room effect. This has always been a problem; the Marketplace may make it worse. Since this is the County’s idea, it would be in the best interests of all if the County provided a “local business” website for ALL local businesses, store front and home based, and advertised it heavily.
And what of businesses current that carry the same items as Smith’s (old and new). For instance: Metzger’s carries housewares and a variety of other non-hardware goodies. Will their sales in these products decline to the point where it no longer makes sense for them to carry these items? How will this impact other stores in similar situations?
The second concern is one of future investment. By plugging the gaps, has Smith’s unwittingly made it more difficult for new local businesses? Some might say, well if there is a need for a particular business, then why wasn’t it here. There are several answers to that, but it usually comes down to volume of demand — if there isn’t enough volume of demand to keep a store open, the store will close.
As attitudes change with more people looking to do business with local business (which has not always been the case), volume of demand, enough to float a future store, may go up. As well, part of the premise for a Marketplace was to encourage more people to live here — should that prove out and population rises again the volume of demand may well increase enough to support a local retail which previously might not have made it. But will we see new businesses invest in product lines that Smith’s already carries? For instance, will we see a bike shop for family bikes complete with repair department, or has the door been closed on that?
Finally, I’m not sure how it works out that having a Marketplace equates to more local business shopping in other parts of town several blocks from the Marketplace. This goes beyond the Marketplace — if a bagel shop (Noah’s for instance) locates in Trinity Place, what happens to Ruby K’s? Or do all of our current businesses move to the Trinity development in order to be closer to the action, in which case what happens to all the store fronts they currently occupy?
The elephant in the room just got bigger and that means the other things in the room just became more difficult to see — out of sight, out of mind. What happens with the rest of the room is very much an open question.
