Keep it Simple: The great disappearing act — no more downtown stores?
When I was on a road trip in West Virginia a few weeks back I couldn’t help but notice all of the towns, big or small, were pretty much devoid of downtown businesses other than those of restaurants and bars hoping to sell you a happy hour beer or a burger and fries.
The same was true during a similar excursion a few years ago to the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York. One city — Auburn, population 27,000, on the north side of Owasco Lake, would have been virtually boarded up if it wasn’t for its downtown breweries, restaurants and bars beckoning you in from a cool and rainy autumn afternoon.
You had to travel several miles north of downtown to the interstate big box stores if you desired the purchase of a new pair of jeans, gallon of paint or a simple light bulb. Those types of items were as alien to downtown Auburn as would be that of finding a beer to go with your burger in a dry county in some southern states.
Closer to home Gaylord, in recent years, has experienced an uptick, in, you guessed it, downtown restaurants. There are still a few good quality stores hoping to sell you an engagement ring, an educational toy or a pair of hiking boots but not anything of the scope that is going to get the local Chamber of Commerce excited in its quest to attract tourists and locals alike to spend some time and money downtown other than enjoying a meal at one of nearly a dozen restaurants now found there.
Some downtowns in Northern Michigan are still fairly robust - Petoskey, Charlevoix and Traverse City come to mind - where, in addition to a drink or dinner, you can spend some time poking around in the book, clothing, candy, toy, or miscellaneous stores catering to shoppers of all kinds but are mainly focused on the tourist dollar judging by the number of gifty type stores found at all three. With the exception of Petoskey’s downtown Meyer Hardware, the days of anything other than a specialty shop are pretty well numbered.
The evolution of downtown areas into that of upscale food courts is fairly simple to observe — big box stores and online shopping have pretty much pounded the small shop owner into oblivion and made the idea of a friendly neighborhood-style retail store a thing of the past.
Gaylord’s explosive growth of big box-type stores west of town near I-75, beginning a few decades back, all but sealed downtown’s fate to that of a mini Disneyland-type foodie destination in its attempts to attract folks with money in their pockets to buy ice cream, candy, craft beer and sandwiches, but alas no place to purchase paint, a screwdriver or nails from a locally owned hardware or lumber yard.
In point of fact when I moved to the Gaylord area back in the mid-70s you could actually buy paint, a screwdriver, nails and more at the downtown lumber yard located next to the railroad tracks or a few blocks to the east at Audrain Hardware. Today, if you can’t sell me a taco, spicy Thai food, a burger or barbeque, you are not likely to be found in my downtown or any of the other thousands across the United States.
Today food and beer dominate our downtowns and main streets while our shopping fixes will have to be fixed by the likes of Amazon, Walmart, Home Depot, or T.J. Maxx.
It’s all thanks to a simple case of greed on our part and those of the multinational corporations which have turned some city landscapes into virtual ghost towns these days, or, at best, a place to buy some calories at the local brewery or latest trendy restaurant.
We have always desired to buy whatever we want; not necessarily need, at the cheapest possible price and the corporate hucksters have always been all too happy to oblige. No matter the cheaply made goods are coming from overseas; taking away American jobs and opportunities for the small business owner to make an honest living. That’s just how it is these days. We get what we deserve and, unfortunately, we deserve storeless downtowns and main streets.
It’s not all bad though. Everyone has to eat and downtown is now our best chance at finding a reasonably priced joint willing to sell us those calories we need to survive another day to shop online.
Just don’t expect to head downtown to fill a prescription, buy some wallpaper, shop for shoes or a warm winter hat. For that, you will have to head out of town to your friendly neighborhood big box store owned by somebody, somewhere, halfway across the country or world.
— Michael Jones is a columnist and contributor for the Gaylord Herald Times. He can be reached at mfomike2@gmail.com.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Keep it Simple: The great disappearing act — no more downtown stores?
