It is increasingly tempting for Kent County residents to get in their cars and drive twenty or so miles to Delaware to take advantage of Wal-Mart’s huge superstore on Route 301. It’s not hard to understand why. In one quick trip, almost every conceivable holiday gift can be purchased, tax free, with substantial discounts on almost everything in the store.
The 218,000 square feet building, considered one of the largest in the country, offers under one roof almost twice the total shelf space as Chestertown’s downtown businesses combined. Add to this the fact that Wal-Mart is open twenty-four hours a day, every day of the year, and you begin to understand its overwhelming force as a retail giant.
While the dollars and cents decision to shop at a Wal-Mart is understandable, the consequences to our county’s economic well-being are disastrous, yet not evident, at least in the short term. For example, a study in Canada examined the impact of big‐box stores on independently owned retail ones and found that a large retailer coming into town resulted in lower sales for two‐thirds of the smaller retailers in that area. In some cases, it drove the local businesses completely under.
In fact, given how severe this impact can be, it might be a good idea to put a warning sign, similar to those found on cigarettes, on shopping bags with the following:
“Shopping or eating outside your community can cause a slow and painful death of your town’s economy.”
While the loss of important tax revenue is one reason this statement is correct, there is a chain reaction related to out-of-region shopping similar to a cancer that is almost impossible to fight off. Local stores lose customers, and they also lose employees. In the case of Wal-Mart, each new employee replaces approximately 1.4 retail workers locally. Those lost employees must commute to work and spend their income where they work rather than at local stores. And thus an endless game of diminishing returns for the county and, ultimately, the community.
To be fair to Wal-Mart, and other large chains, they have a successful business model. Nor can it be said that Kent County stores offer the range or price-match the choices available at a super retail store. Nonetheless, the gaps between what Wal-Mart wants to sell and what Kent County offers are not as wide as one would expect.
This is particularly true for the holiday shopping season. Literally dozens of stores from Rock Hall to Millington offer truly one-of-a-kind choices for the gift buying public, choices that a big box store would never sell. It is hard to believe that the bulk of one’s entire holiday shopping list could not be easily fulfilled within Kent County.
The “buy local” theme, while it may ring of a Chamber of Commerce spin, is the economic equivalent of a “stop smoking” campaign. Through public education and outreach, people do change behavior. With each purchase done locally, our county businesses (which are owned by our neighbors and friends) can slowly emerge from the great recession; they have a fighting chance of staying alive. In a region known for taking care of our own, it is hoped that the community can rally this year to support Kent County’s Open House next weekend, and throughout the rest of December.
Flo Williamson says
I envy the residents of Kent County and hope they are appreciative of the numerous local businesses, markets and farms that have home made and hand-crafted goods available for them. For all too many, “box stores” and malls are an unfortunate way of life. Hope to be visiting soon, to spend some holiday dollars in your lovely community.
Liza Brocker says
Couldn’t have said it better myself!
MBTroup says
For the most part, we can get what we need here in the ToC. That’s fine with me. Part of the reason I moved here was to escape the trappings of suburbia. Why drive 25 minutes to relive them? I hope I’m not alone on this.
It’s marketing. The open house is a good start. Do people know that you can get a decent pair of dress shoes from Paul? Do people know how many cool things can be bought at Twigs-N-Teacups? You do now.
Now, high ticket items are a different story. Why isn’t Apple, HH Gregg, or a full sized Sears in CoK? It’s not because the populace doesn’t want the items they sell. I see enough smartphones and flat screens to suggest otherwise. Once you’re in the store to buy the high ticket item, it’s no sweat to pick up something that you might have seen locally.
At issue is the overall retail environment (and the conclusion drawn from the Wal-Mart episode that CoK eschews all development). My assertion has been that Maryland’s Eastern Shore cannot compete in that marketplace with goods that cost 6% less merely one county away. I call once again for the inconsistently applied 6% sales tax to be replaced by an across the board 2% VAT. Oh, and now that Mr Cordish got his slot parlor in AAC, maybe a chunk of those profits can go towards updating Kent Plaza.
Not rich!!! says
While I would love to shop mostly in the county, one has to realize that the prices for most items bought in town are significantly higher than those itemsbought at Walmart, and I am not even counting the sales tax. There are lots of places that I would love to be able to shop at more frequently downtown but considering the prices, Ihave to go elsewhere, especially with 3 children, 5 nieces and nephews and numerous other relatives to buy for.
Marty Stetson says
It is not just the stores on High and Cross Streets here in Chestertown but those in the shopping centers we now have. Most if not all of those employees are Kent or Q. A. residents. Each of those stores that close cost us local jobs. Gas at $3.00 should be taken into consideration when you make that decession to go out of the area to shop. Your time is worth someting, why spend it behind the wheel of your car supporting those who add to our national deficent by purchasing oil from overseas. Stay at home and shop, support not only your neighbors but your country.
Keith Thompson says
The easy part is to encourage people to shop locally. The hard part is to determine why many local residents prefer to shop elsewhere. There are no easy answers but the questions do need to be asked.
doneitall says
It’s very easy to determine why local residents shop elsewhere. People shop at other places because, #1, they don’t want what the local stores offer (tourist items, useless knickknacks or overpriced trendy wear) or #2 because the standard fare starts out 6% higher and up. There would have been inexpensive shopping here with a wide variety of items available but downtown Chestertown would have none of it. So, now, for other than the well-to-do and the tourists, there’s no reason to shop here.
MD Eastern Shore says
Keith – you have summed up the situation perfectly. Command and control economies have failed throughout history. Simply insisting that people shop locally will never work. They must be enticed.
I used to work in Chestertown but now live in Philadelphia. I estimate that I spend half as much on lunch in Philly as I did in Chestertown… so the end result was that I brown bagged for lunch a couple of days a week in Chestertown, and the local merchants lost out. What I can buy from a street vendor in Philly is of equal or higher quality and is also faster.
I liked working in Chestertown and I still miss my commute past the cows and the farm equipment. But there is a determined group of people in the area who want it to stay just the way it is, no matter what. The opposite of growth is death, and that group has clearly voted against growth. They fought Walmart because it was bad for local merchants, and they won. But the local merchants are struggling anyhow when the logic of the anti-Walmart crowd says they should be thriving. How is this possible?
doneitall says
MD Eastern Shore, you are entirely correct. The “I’ve got mine so let’s shut off the process” crowd is very much alive in both Chestertown and throughout the county. Development is at a standstill beyond any economic causes, young people leave in droves due to the lack of employment and affordable housing and shopping is non-existent. The retirees and landed gentry would be happy if the cows were all cardboard cut-outs (no mess, no smell) and the farm machinery stayed idle in the fields and off the road. A wonderful picture for their drives through the country as the county decays around them.
Kevin Shertz says
One of the challenges we face is that our economy, both locally and nationally, has become highly dependent on consumer consumption to stay afloat. This dependency on consumption is occurring at the very same time that consumer credit is contracting, and people are saving more of their money to pay off their existing debt than spend it on new things. People can no longer use their house as an ATM to buy their latest toy boat, car, or electronics.
The spending habits of people for the last 20 years will be vastly different than the spending habits for the next 20. And, we can’t assume that the things that were considered of value in 2005 will be of interest to people in 2015 (and 10 years younger than the original buyers of said merchandise.)
We are in the middle of an uncomfortable phase in this country where Baby Boomers are wanting to retire and deciding to sell off their assets. The open question: is anyone able to afford what is being expected for them, and furthermore, is anyone really all that interested in them.
These are difficult times. And we’re all in this together, young and old.
watchplaid says
What I save for a decent loaf of bread and some milk alone at Walmart covers the cost of gas for the trip to Middletown and back. This is not an exagerration. The new bakery on High Street is wonderful. I went once and won’t be able to go back because I can’t pay that much for a morning sweet. When I look around the business section of Chestertown, I see shop owners who, I suspect, are not struggling to pay rent or mortgage, car payments, or electric bills or feed their kids. They are all perfectly fine shops. I wish the owners well. But until the people who DO have disposable incomes open up their wallets, please don’t expect the rest of us to do so, because we just can’t afford it.
Lou Michael says
The wisdom of the editorial; and that of essentially every posted comment is clear. What many may not know, and some may not wish to remember, is the hairs-breath close call this community had just a few years back when WalMart purchased land on which to build here just on the northern edge of Chestertown. After a very complex series of public and legal debates that raged for months, the outcome was, and is, that WalMart is not planted in our midst at Chestertown. Today readers have choices. They may go to WalMart in Dover. Or they may shop in Chestertown. Or they may do both. Had those who fought so hard to allow WalMart into our midst prevailed, there would be no such choices today. The shops of every persuasion that make up downtown Chestertown, simply would not be here. This place would be quite different from the place that attracts and pleases so many advocates today.
Jack the Mailman says
The shopping choices in Chestertown/Kent County are the specialty shops that cater to folks with a little more disposable income and tourists, or the trifecta of dollar stores; Dollar Tree, Family Dollar, and Dollar General. This dichotomy is this town/county in a nutshell.
faith says
I love Ctown. I love shopping here. But, there are a LOT of things you cannot buy here. I have a young son. There is no place to buy shoes for him (that are not sneakers), there is no place to buy him a blazer. Our grocery stores are terrible. Often, to get everything on my shopping list, I have to go to both stores, and still not get everything on my list. I used to own a retail business here, and know full well the difficulties of competing with the internet, catalog shopping and tax-free delaware shopping. But the bottom line is, there is just not enough population density for local merchants to provide everything that we need. Kent County is a microcosm of the rest of our country. The well-to-do and the poor make up the bulk of the population, with a dwindling middle class. There is plenty of shopping for the well-off, and like Jack the Mailman said: Dollar Tree, Family Dollar, and Dollar General (not to mention Roses) that provide plenty of China-made inexpensive crap for the poorer among us. It’s just sad when you have to drive to another state to buy your son a pair of dress shoes because Peebles can’t be bothered stocking the few pairs they might need, and Paul’s has pretty much completely let go of kid’s shoes and concentrates on shoes most of us can’t afford.
Jessica says
I would love to see this put to a town vote. The WHOLE town, not just downtown.
jake says
I’m afraid MD E, Jack, faith, and doneit are correct. Downtown caters to the tourists and local gentry. Your options for household goods, clothes, et al. are Roses and the dollar stores… or the overpriced, usually mediocre selections of the strip malls. I’d rather wait til I’m over the Bridge, or near Easton or Dover.
I remember the week I moved here (2001), the KC News had two opposing headlines regarding… 1) the defeat of Walmart and 2) seriously questioning why KC can’t attract high-tech firms … You could not make up such an out to lunch contrast between fantasizing about reaping the benefits of development without the obvious cost of having in place certain amenities.
This is not to say Ctown should or ever could duplicate the new box-store park in Easton, much less the Annapolis mall. But one has to allow a balance of sane development, history, and bucolic charm.
Leigh says
I try to buy local and support Chestertown as much as possible, but when I walk into the Village Bakery and pay $3.45 for a large coffee it makes me very angry. I’d rather stop at the Wawa and spend $1.00 for a nice hot large coffee. $3.45 is highway robbery and I’m still angry about it!
Katie says
I’ve lived in QA/Chestertown for almost 5 years & I still can’t get over how behind and archaic it is over here literally and figuratively. Downtown Chestertown is dead by 6pm or 7pm if your lucky & don’t even get me started on how gross Kent Plaza is. Unless I’m desperate, you won’t ever find me in the Acme which on any given day might have three cashiers and hoards of annoyed customers waiting in line. Super Fresh is okay but I will pay extra money in gas to get everything I need at Middletown Wal-Mart & ; not be met w/ a blank stare when I ask an employee where I can find coconut milk or blood oranges.
Residents are delusional to suggest we can get everything we need in Kent County. Seriously? I have three small children and last time i checked NONE of them were interested in crappy trinkets or used books. On more than one occasion I attempted to buy @ Dockside Emporium (trying to give local business) and every time I experienced snotty sales people who weren’t interested in helping me. Every last one was a snob and not at all friendly.
No thanks I’ll go to the outlets or Annapolis mall to spend my money. Kent County is their own worst enemy; until they realize agriculture isn’t generating revenue it will continue to die a slow death.
Aleks Smolens says
The process of turning an individual, into a customer, and into a patron is what has to be looked at here. I think there are at least some local businesses that miss that fact. If one person speaks badly of you, it’s really, really bad for business, especially in a small community. In effect, 12 vocal, angry customers can doom a retail outlet around here much more easily than people thing.
I also think that there are two groups of retailers around here. There are people who use thier business to feed a family, and retired folks who use it as a hobby. The difference being how essential “profit” is to what they do every day. If your goal isn’t to make money, but to have something to do, then by all means, conduct business how you see fit. If you want to make money, make sure people leave your store with your product, or happy, and preferably with both.
Mr. Smith says
I will still drive to walmart in middleton, save 6% tax on everything and thing even more because of the prices. I will bring my plastic bags to chestertown .