Did you guys read my story Wednesday about the numbers of businesses downtown?
You hear often about all the empty business in Arkansas City, and how more and more businesses are closing, being run out of town by the ugly big box store.
Well, I decided to check it out, so I walked up and down a four-block area, and counted them for myself. From Adams Street, north to Chestnut, there were a grand total of four - yes FOUR - empty storefronts. There were 54 that had some sort of activity going on.
I did my little walk just after 10 a.m. on Wednesday morning - not exactly when you would expect businesses to be at their peak.
Eleven of those were government type offices, or places like Sally's Palace that don't really fall into a commercial category. there were eight businesses that were not open at the moment for whatever reason, leaving 34 commercial type businesses open at that moment.
"All the empty buildings in Ark City" seems to be one of those urban myths.
I didn't look real closely, but it seems there are only one or two empty businesses south to Madison, and not all that many north, but i didn't walk the street and count them.
I was also trying to think of how many businesses have closed in recent years.
There was a furniture store that closed, but there's a new store in there already. A Jeweler closed and that one is empty.
I think maybe a second-hand store closed. The grocery store shut down recently.
What other ones ?
One reason for the perception of "all the empty buildings" idea might be the upstairs. If you drive down Summit, your eyes are naturally attracted to the second floor, especially in your peripheral sight.
Many of those do look empty, and many are boarded up.
A little dressing up there wouldn't hurt.
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I believe another reason many people think downtown Ark City is diminishing is because a couple of decades ago, there were many more businesses in town. My mother has lived here since 1967 and she reminisces about all of the restaurants and stores that used to be here: Total Petroleum, Maur-Nuer/Rodeo Meat, Montgomery Elevators, A&W, Taco Pete's, Newman's, the drive-in, Gloria G's, Otasco, Western Auto, JC Penney's, Gamble's, Sealy's Music Store, Long's, Merle Norman, Woolworth's, Kresses, Painted Pony, Montgomery Ward, McClellan's, Harvey's Fashions, Belew's, Park's, several shoe stores, Bud's Barbeque, El Taco, Pizza Pub, and the list goes on and on. She remembers buying her prom dress, jewelry, and shoes here in town. This is next to impossible now. Many of Ark City's residents have lived here for many years. In comparison to several decades ago, Ark City has lost much of its businesses and restaurants, making it necessary to leave town to buy these products.
Ark City has lost much of its businesses and restaurants, making it necessary to leave town to buy these products.
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yes many businesses have left, but my point was, that many new ones have started.
I am just trying to point out the truth that our downtown has a lot of businesses in it, and many of them are doing ok.
It is true that many have left in the last 30-40 years, and many new ones have come in.
The days of the big department store - Woolworths, Kress, McLellans, Montgomery Ward - are gone. You wont find them in any towns anymore.
The next time you take a trip, stop and look at some of the downtowns of relatively small towns. Some are better, and a lot are worse.
The internet has changed the world too. Many of us shop in a totally different way than we did even 10 years ago.
I just thought of something. What about using some of empty spaces above the downtown shop as a temporary annex to the library until they can expand? I'd certainly hate to see them discarding an old book for every new one.
sounds good to me Nick.
AND, you could have coffee shops
and all sorts of things ..
live music, eating places, anything you could think of.
many need repairs .. but i wonder, what would happen if some enterprising people got busy and made some things happen?
weirder stuff has happened :)
i remember reading in the Traveler in the 1880's, and very early 1900's .. some business owners were very creative, ..
some had "entertainment" upstairs for those railroad workers that passed through town, was a thriving business .. and during prohibition,
they were used to supply illicit alcohol.
not saying we should do that, but just that people have been creative in the past :)
it would be cool to be able to walk down summit and hear some local guitar player or singer ...
In my opinion, the bottom line to this debate lies in the fact that many of the businesses in Ark City are not retail establishments and do not offer choices or variety. I remember a lot of the stores mentioned by mary b. I remember shoe stores and clothing stores that offered competition. I believe it would serve the community well if our leaders would activly recruit business that encouraged competition. I have noticed recently that many of walmart's prices have increased. They started out low when the new store was opened and now have gradually started to rise. I have to wonder if this is because there is no real competition. You know, I really enjoy living in Ark City despite some issues; however, because of the lack of options, I do travel outside our community regularly to shop, especially for clothing. Being a parent of a preteen girl, it is a very big issue if everyone has the same clothes. Therefore, it is "unacceptable" to shop where everyone else shops. Choices. Variety. Those are compelling reasons to shop elsewhere. As long as the only retail clothing store (other than consignment shops, goodwill, and he salvation army thrift store)is walmart, shopping out of town will always be an issue.
Some good points Carla.
There is another clothing place in Arkansas City. I dont know much about clothing - I just wear what my wife gives to wear - but at least for women, there is at least one other option in town.
That is one thing about small towns. It isnt economically feasible to offer lots of choices when there are not enough people to shop.
Another clothing store, or shoe store, probably wouldnt survive.
So maybe we will always have to do a little shopping out of town.
Ive not been impressed with the new super walmart at all .. It isn't very "super."
theyve really just made it bigger and don't have much more stuff than they had to start with.
Local businesses do need to be supported, and the businesses need to do what they can to keep customers happy and coming back. It's definitely a two-way street.
ok, I have finally got into the blog thanks to my old faithful "old" computer built up from a game computer with windows 95. Takes a long time, but worth it. My "New" computer built by a local "builder of computers?" crashed every way there was to crash. And it wasn't caused by viruses! It was poorly built. A new computer is ordered (North end!) and I hope to be up running with it soon.
Ok, I know what James is saying that we need "new" or "big box" stores in order to entice more jobs. When we do this, is it not typical of what most are saying about the new Wal Marts? They come in with promises, drive out little businesses that cater to the town people, offer little more than they had in the original store, and no staff to run a "big box" store. Shopping is not pleasant there and little personalization or interaction with the help, they just don't have time! I still say you can't beautify downtown to make it "shop worthy" and bring in big box stores! Are the town people who LIVE here not speaking up? We wanted Village Market for the services they provided. A little higher in cost factor, but always personalized attention. Bryant's is still with us, for now, Ace Hardware too, but bring in big box and down they go! They can't buy volume to supposedly get the cheaper cost??? They aren't really interested in the person, just the buck and however they need to get it. It's a cost factor, it takes a lot more overhead to run a big box store, they pay MCDonald's wages and the work a lot more intense. Cheaper prices? Well, yeah, on a few items and the rest are jacked up to pay the overhead! Now, I can't say that our "local" businesses, some, aren't doing the same things, because some are! I'm a victim of that many times over. This is a competitive world we live in and like it or not, everything has to be earned! For me, it is so neat to walk into a business and have them say, "Hi Jeri, how's it going and how can we help you today?!" Walk into a commercial bank, store, whatever, and you are just a person in line. If we want big city living, then move to the city. I love small town living. I am a native Californian, if I wanted that lifestyle, I could go back. I LIKE this lifestyle. You say us old timers don't like change, well, You are more right than wrong! We do need to progress, but not at the expense of why we choose small town living. We will support the businesses that provide good, honest services. We will need to occassionally go out of town for more suffisticated items. We have a hospital, but how many need to go to Wichita for more up to date technalogy that little towns can't offer? When you move to a small town to get out of "city" living, you should know that not every need can be met in that town. Even I remember when Ark City had stores; shoe stores, woolworth, restuarants. We had a varity to choose from. Now, we have Wal Marts! I don't know the answers and I try not to pretend I do. Like in the "old" days, what's so bad about leaving the country to visit the "City"? A day out of the country!! At least you can go by car and not horse and buggy! A family outing? Does that even exsist any more? Family closeness, looking forward to a trip to the "big city"? Eating out at the "big time" restuarants?
Is there anything wrong with that picture if you want down to earth small town living, the closeness of that and not everyone out to make the all might buck, but offering personalized, honest services with integrity? To me, if you want to keep the businesses in this town open, then go back to treating people with respect and back to the old addage that made the small businesses successful; "the customer is always right!" whether we are or not!! Quality service with a personalized touch has earned many of my bucks. When I don't receive quality products, lied to and treated like many "big box" stores treat people, I am out of this town and will be happy to shop in a small town that will offer that! That's my story and I'm sticking to it! Right or Wrong!!! Jeri
Now we are making progress! I was thrilled to open my Traveler this early, fall Sat. morning to read that KFC is coming back to town! And, ya know what? We don't have to subsidize them, we don't have to give them a ten year tax break, all we have to do is go enjoy their chicken and new building and welcome them to Ark City!
As I have said, I am for progress, but not common sense for progress. We are getting a business back, using the old building where they where before with new faces. That gives us four choices for taking home a chicken meal; Country Mart, Dillons, WalMart and now our KFC! To me it makes sense, when you use what you already have to bring new businesses into town, then you have gained and so have we tax payers!
If we could find a "big Box" store that would utilize the old WalMart building, then we are utilizing what we have, we fill the empty building we have in this time and we get the benefit of the big box.
I still won't admit to fact that I like the idea of that kind of box store because I still say it will hurt Bryant's and Ace Hardware, but if this town has to have bigger, supposedly better choices, then offer them our exsisting buildings!
Speaking of businesses, I am on my new computer that I ordered thru "one of our own businesses in this town!" I am supporting our businesses because they made me feel special, took the time to explain and make logic of what I needed for my needs, catered to this ignorant computer user and came to my house, set it up, transferred my data and got me up and going in a pleasant, personal way. Best of all or maybe I should say, in addition!, they did everything they said they would do and when I went to pay the bill? Guess what?? That too was exactly what they said it would be! They even installed a floppy disc for me that was suppose to come out of my own unit, but because of the "problems" with my old computer, they put in a new one and the cost never changed. Hurrah for this business in the North end of town and they have now "earned" my businesses! I AM A SATISFIED CUSTOMER!! Hint Hint!
Now, to me, that is keeping business in this town and it is making progress utilizing what we have to our town's benefit and theirs' too! Welcome KFC and thank you for my new toy and a wonderful buying experience!
Jeri Martin
I am considering moving back to Ark City after having been gone for 10 years. I will admit that AC is probably at the bottom of the list of places that I want to live but I have the opportunity to do something very cool. My family currently owns a downtown building and I would like to renovate it and make it into living/retail space. My husband and I would like to make it a green building and I think it would make a very interesting model for small towns. The cost maybe too great but we are currently in the research process. We are coming to town Arkalalah with an architect friend for a site survey.
My fear is that Ark City will reject/not support anything too progressive. I would love to have a lounge/coffee shop and a women's clothing store.
Like many posters have stated, the answer to the ills that plague AC is not big box stores. They only contribute to urban sprawl and make your town less unique/charming. Every freaking town in the US greater than 10,000 people has those type of stores. Imagine if we had shunned that and looked toward microenterprise development to create unique stores within our own community. Alas, the damage has already been done but it doesn't have to be the end of what was once a thriving town with variety.
I am fully aware of my idealism and I hope that doesn't turn into cynicism. I am prepared to return and try to do something that will not only benefit me but the town.
My fear is that Ark City will reject/not support anything too progressive. I would love to have a lounge/coffee shop and a women's clothing store.
There are some progressive minded people here ... just look at mozitti's, the italian place ..
if you bring what you describe, maybe have a band or a singer now and then ... and some quality shoes ... you'll do well :)
james
Well, currently I live in a huge city in New York state:) Progressive to me might mean something different to someone else!
I would really like to check out Mozetti's when I am there. I heard they have good food.
I have faith in the town or I wouldn't move back but moving from such a diverse place it will be a big adjustment. However, I did spend 23 years of my life in AC and a small town in OK so I know what what I am getting into.
I am thinking about starting a blog after we do the site visit in October so I will look to add it to your list.
I would love to see a blog about your adventures. You could even start before you leave New York.
I had a lot of culture shock moving here from South Carolina. One was 12 inches of snow the first weekend I was here. I had not seen that much snow altogether in my whole life. I was amazed that life went on pretty much as normal. In South Carolina they shut down the whole state over 4 inches of snow.
Even just talking is hard at times. Getting used to people being more direct - and learning to be more direct - was quiet an adjustment.
Let me know when you get going on the project. We can put something in the Traveler about it.
James
the traveler
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