I read Eve Fisher's letter to the editor in last night's Madison Daily Leader with relish (and a spicy Italian sub with chipotle sauce). She aptly condenses a wealth of public commentary on the proposed publicly subsidized thrift store in Madison into four rock'em-sock'em points. With Ms. Fisher's permission, I reprint in full:
Dear Editor,
I've read the June 11th article re the Thrift Store, and I can assure LAIC and the steering committee that they are pushing for an idea that almost no one in town likes or supports. The following are some of the reasons:
(1) Madison is already the home of two dollar stores, Loopy's, the Flea Market, the Pawnshop, 2nd chance, Unique Boutique, and the Front Porch. A new thrift store will in no way fill a need, a niche, or add value or "progress" to Madison's downtown.
(2) No consignments, eh? Just donated stuff? Why should the citizens of Madison just give the thrift store stuff to sell? And, if they do, won't it all be crap that basically otherwise would go in the landfill? And who on earth would want to buy it?
(3) Since "the steering committee had spent six months visiting thrift stores in other communities... [to] create a practical plan for Madison's proposed thrift store", why on earth didn't the steering committee (or the LAIC) bother to ask the citizens of Madison first what WE would like to see downtown?
(4) Number one among the answers of what most people in Madison want is another grocery store. If Madison can handle nine different secondhand/consignment stores and yet be told we need another, surely we can handle two grocery stores, which would provide competition and service to Lake County as a whole.
I hope that this thrift store will not be passed without a vote by the people. And I strongly encourage the steering committee and the LAIC to actually talk to a variety of Madison citizens and ask what we want, instead of telling us what they think we should want to have in our community.
Sincerely,
Eve Fisher
Note: open citizen participation is a key aspect of this debate. You readers have submitted over a hundred comments to my three posts on the thrift store over the last couple weeks. But I'm not convinced the steering committee wanted a lot of public input. According to the minutes of the May 31 Madison City Commission meeting, after numerous citizens voiced their objection to the use of city funds for the project, "Jerry Johnson stated that he would support the Commission tabling the issue for 30 days in order to provide more information to the citizens." They didn't see engage us in public dialogue; they said give us the answers. The steering committee's Question and Answer sheet embodies the mistaken Madison philosophy: we're not here to involve you in finding answers together; we're here to tell you our answers.
Has anyone in Madison ever looked into the community surveys that towns like Brandon have had the University of South Dakota's Government Research Bureau conduct? Some people believe they are a waste, but when I read things like this and see clear dissatisfaction with the LAIC it strengthens my belief that this type of community assessment is helpful and often needed! They seem to result in more of the "finding answers together" activity versus the "tell you our answers" attitude that Cory mentioned.
You can read about the Brandon community survey a bit at usd.edu/grb
Even Milbank, less than 3,700, has two grocery stores. A Supervalue and a Food Warehouse.
While I entirely agree a grocery store is a much higher priority, thrift stores get lots of good stuff. Hard to believe a large store in Madison could get enough of that good stuff, but Eve is wrong that it's just junk.
I look forward toward making a pilgrimace to Madison to shop at your new store, and eat breakfast in your fine eating establishments, and visit the corner bar in Wentworth as well.
There's a double-bind here, John. If Eve is right, the store will carry crap that won't add much sales value to Main Street. If Eve is wrong, if the store can tap a supply of quality items, it will compete with the consignment shops.
I think it's important to remember that Madison had two grocery stores up until Mr. Roeman bought both grocery stores and closed one down, giving himself a monopoly. In the past, I'm told, Madison supported three and even four grocery stores. I don't think we can go back to those days, but I know we could support two.
A tricky question, Eve: given that we want a second grocery store, what can the city and county and LAIC do to bring one in? Could we do that with the same resources the thrift store is asking for?
This is very interesting: How much money are we willing to give in handouts to attract businesses that directly compete with existing businesses that have made it on their own?
That's a good question for our friends at Custom Touch, who in the latest Chamber newsletter gush about all the assistance (like that million-dollar tax kickback) that the city/LAIC has given them. How do the other homebuilders feel about that?
No Cory, that's the question for the taxpayer. Do the benefits outweigh the cost? Custom Touch is putting a lot of Madison residents to work. If they continue to be successful and expand over the next few years, then the money is well spent. Let's say that we build the thrift store, but end up driving the other stores out of business by doing so.
Competition is a good thing, but if you do not have the population base to support the multiple stores, some will go out of business or all will struggle to barely get by.
Custom Touch is putting those people to work because the market supports it, not because they tricked us into giving them an extra handout. They will expand or fail based on continued housing demand. The city could have saved that one million dollars to support another project... like the million-dollar thrift store.