In this age of convenience and excess, I am wondering if small, locally owned business owners can survive. With the hardware store closing in Dassel and the grocery store closing in Howard Lake, will our overly busy lives and schedules eclipse the “overall picture” — are we too wrapped up in our own worlds to care about keeping the pieces of our former towns together? It takes six weeks to form a habit, and consumer studies have shown that people will shop where they are used to going. If you bothered to check out the deals at the small shops, you’d find that many of the items they have for sale are comparable, especially when you take into account gas money.
One other thought: you can’t be a small retail business owner and be active in city council any longer. It will cost you your livelihood, as Gerry Smith, the former mayor of Howard Lake, found out. This is a huge resource of active people who have been cut out of the public service equation.
I am also concerned about small businesses in Cokato surviving. Look what happened in the Tower Mall. Duebers was hanging in there for many years. They were forced out of the building by the Ben Franklin store. Then Ben Franklin closed their doors.
I try to get what I need in town whenever possible. I will look in all the stores before I drive to a larger town like Buffalo or Hutchinson. However, now there are things that you cannot get in this town. With the snow I wanted to do some sewing at home to make some Christmas presents. I cannot purchase fabric at all in this town anymore. Pity, since I now have to drive to another town, I will probably end up buying things there that I could have purchased in stores locally. I also could not find any store in town that carried memory cards for digital cameras.
What other items are people wanting to buy in town but they cannot find? Maybe if we get a list together one of the business people in town will carry what we want to buy in town.
How about office supplies? We could use someone to carry those products in either Dassel, or Cokato.