With news Wal-Mart was setting up shop here more than a year ago, and rumours going back far before that, local businesses have been bracing for having to deal with a “big box retailer” for some time, including attending a pair of seminars on the topic.
But now that the store opened its doors last Thursday morning, local merchants already have gotten a taste of what it’s like to compete with a retail giant in their midst.
“I just left the store [on Scott Street] at 9:10 a.m. and from McTaggarts to the TD Bank, there’s not a car parked on the street,” said Kim Metke, owner of Pharmasave and the Clinic Dispensary.
“It looks pretty dire for the downtown area.”
Metke—who had filed an appeal against the town’s decision to approve a rezoning bylaw for the property at 1250 King’s Highway last January (an appeal later dismissed that May by the Ontario Municipal Board)—has been vocal for some time that having a Wal-Mart here would cripple the downtown core, and now only can wait to see what the true impact will be.
“People have said, ‘You’re anti-Wal-Mart.’ But I say I’m just an employer who takes responsibility,” Metke remarked, referring to the fact that by being a proponent of keeping his business, and the downtown area in general, alive, he’s fighting for maintaining jobs for his staff.
“If I’m a bad person for doing that, then I’m a bad person. But I care about my employees and if Wal-Mart threatens to shut us down, I’m going to stick my neck out,” Metke stressed.
He added that when the Town of Fort Frances approved the business plan for Wal-Mart, it contained the following provision—“The town will consider incentives to encourage the continued viability of the downtown business area.”
He hopes now that the new council does not neglect the previous one’s commitment to the downtown core.
Metke noted one measure consumers can take is to shop in the downtown area and put their money back into locally-owned businesses, which, in turn, spend money at other local businesses which employ other local people who do the same in return.
While he conceded it’s hard to compete with Wal-Mart’s prices on some merchandise, it’s important for the public to know that some small businesses, such as Pharmasave, give as much money back to community causes as does Wal-Mart despite the fact they generate fewer sales dollars.
He noted traffic has been somewhat slow at Pharmasave in the past week or so, but that it was difficult to say right now if that was because of Wal-Mart opening last week or the frigid temperatures.
“It’s hard to tell the impact. We always get a dip in traffic this of year—the February doldrums,” said Jim Jackson, owner of Sight & Sound on Scott Street, who added he’s not too worried about the presence of the “big box” retailer.
“I think we’re quite different. We’re very service-oriented. They’re more like a supermarket,” he noted. “We offer after-service, delivery, warranties, higher-end products. They tend to sell lower-priced, lower-end products.
“We’ll have to wait for a year and see how it all shakes down.”
Tammi Shoemaker of Tammi’s Flower Garden said she’s seen a “definite change” in downtown traffic in the past week, adding she’s concerned about the impact on the overall health of the business core.
But she did note she and her staff have been anticipating Wal-Mart coming here for some time, and attended the pair of seminars held here last year that were geared at surviving as a small business in a “big box” environment.
“We diversified our inventory as soon as we heard Wal-Mart was coming. We’ve done everything we can,” Shoemaker remarked. “Now, it’s a matter of wait and see.”
“There’s no need for parking meters now,” said Ted DeBenetti, owner of A Buck or Two, referring to the lack of vehicles parked downtown.
“There was a bit of a dip in business last week when they [Wal-Mart] opened,” he noted. “It was bitterly cold, true, but I also think it was a matter of there only being so many dollars to go around.”
DeBenetti noted he’s checked out Wal-Mart himself, and called it “a nice store.”
“I don’t want to put them down. They have some things for sale I’ll buy,” he said. “And I consider myself customer service-oriented, but these guys are making me run around.
“But I had some people come to me and say I’m selling something for a dollar that they’re [Wal-Mart] selling for $3.67. They are carrying some of the same things as me,” added DeBenetti.
He also said he’s done his homework and has tried to capitalize on certain holes that Wal-Mart may have left in their product lines. For instance, DeBenetti said Wal-Mart has a four-foot section of party supplies while he has a 60-foot one.
DeBenetti predicted some fellow businesses on Scott Street may close down in the next six months to two years, but other who’ve prepared by finding a commercial niche will survive.
“It’s going to be interesting to see what happens in the next two years,” he said.
(Fort Frances Times)
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
