A sad postscript to our Monday discussion of rural population drain and economic development: Gale Pifer reports that Chester Hardware has closed. Owner Denny Benson, grandson of Chester Hardware founder Emil Benson, says he loved the work and the interaction with the community, but he had to give in to economics:
...operating a hardware store in a small town just isn't feasible anymore. My accountant has been urging me to get out of the business for six years or more. I would have liked to continue the hardware store, but the overhead in operating such a business just doesn't make sense in these times [Denny Benson, quoted by Gale Pifer, "Chester Hardware Closes Its Doors," Madison Daily Leader, 2013.04.01].
You'd think that if any small-town hardware store could survive, it would be Chester Hardware. Chester has all those Sioux Falls commuters and weekenders coming through on their way to Lake Madison and Lake Brant. But Lowe's and Walmart down the road still cream them. Oof: is the free market dictating the end of vital retail in any town under 10,000?
Benson's neighbor David Artko recognizes Benson kept the store going for the sake of the community, not his wallet:
I suspect it hasn't been financially feasible for many years.... People here are most appreciative. I wonder just how many small towns in South Dakota would have loved to have a store like this in their communities [David Artko, quoted by Pifer, 2013.04.01].
Every town would like to have a downtown hardware store. But how many want a store that continues on benevolence rather than dollars and sense?
I'm working up some more thoughts on this topic for my South Dakota Magazine column today. Stay tuned!
Update 11:14 MDT: Column done! Read "Free Market vs. Small Towns" and counter my pessimism!
What do small town folks expect? They complain about high prices and shop in Sioux Falls and then wonder why they never get any new stores.
Nearly unlimited government farm payments and parallel huge size increases in farm machinery are or have already destroyed rural America as a habitat for humans.
Limit ag program payments and some of these huge operations will croak.
Small towns marketing of themselves is full of hypocrisy and nonsense. Businessmen who advertise that we should patronize our hometown stores don't shop locally themselves. They promote nonsense like play ground like swimming pools and bass fishing ponds that will never attract anybody but knuckledheads. They refuse to do things like blade sidewalks for snow and do timely street sanding and snow removal and then wonder why nobody wants to live there.
Grocery stores charge double and triple prices for basic groceries. Local hardware stores may be charging 3 times prices at Amazon stores. There is something to be said for convenience and timely availability, but getting royally screwed for those rare bits of convenience doesn't override the pain of price gouging.
There are good reasons for living in small towns, but but they can be over-ridden by municipal and school incompetence and crony capitalism ripoffs.
I enjoy a full belly laugh every time I read of the SD Supreme Court and Bar's still born initiative to get law students saddled with debt to practice in real rural South Dakota. The judicial system realized this was a joke over 35 years ago when they reorganized - no longer supporting empty county judges, consolidating into a handful of circuits with most judges quartered where the people actually lived.
Douglas, I'd love to try that experiment with farm payments and see if it made a dent in the ag-industrial complex's draining of rural populations.
DB, there's something to your comment that aligns with what Douglas says about local marketing. Folks have to quit complaining, quit making stuff up, and face the reality of their economic situation, as Denny Benson appears to have done. Then we have to ask which small towns stand a realistic chance of not simply hanging on, but of sustaining a healthy, non-crony-dominated economy and culture.
As I ask in my SD Mag essay, what is the lower bound population (and other conditions?) for a sustainable community?
The critical mass for communities is not just for the community, but for specific elements of communities. I have started reading the book TIPPING POINTS which has been around for awhile. Now about $7 at B&N. Loosing one key business, or one key business leader, or one key educator may be a tipping point for a critical element of a community and then a rapid decline begins whether or not it is recognized immediately.
Communities can do some marketing, but not sure what works there. We were in Sioux Falls over the weekend. I have not been there for years. Lots of farm ground when I was there last is now covered with houses.
Keep adding on to the SD college system in Sioux Falls, and some more South Dakota colleges will be back into plowed fields.
So much for irrelevant predictions and assumptions.
Maybe related, Douglas: my friend Toby worked at Kenyon College, in the town of Gambier, Ohio, population just 2,400. Of course, the county in which Gambier sits is smaller than Lake County, SD, and has a population of 61,000.
I can't believe this, twice in a day I am in agreement with Wiken.
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Small towns have mostly been run on a, you have to shop here basis for the last hundred years with a resistance to change. And now UPS and Fed Ex drop without sales tax and inventory margins necessary for the local store. Ag is so large local retail can't buy for ag's cost because no one wants another middle man including the warehouse.
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Rural America will survive with the exodus from the cities as Obama finishes cleaning house, for a look through the silver lining in all this. The next housing bubbles, Newell, Faith, Buffalo, Lemmon, St Onge.........
"crony capitalism ripoffs"
Most small town business owners that compete with big box stores are not living high on the hog as shown with this story. I don't see the high prices as gouging because not only do they have the same overhead, but they have to fight lower sales numbers. I have yet to see prices 2-3 times higher in our local merchants. At least that is not common if it does happen with certain products. Usually 10-20% is common, and sometimes things are actually cheaper.....like Milk.
Small towns are doomed: wipe them from the map and rewild the West.
http://www.ewg.org/agmag/2013/04/epa-study-points-ag-pervasive-river-pollution
They have the same overhead? Building, taxes, rent, salaries are all lower in a small town. It's hard to comment specifically on Chester Hardware, other than I think they used to install furnaces and provide some services (maybe even plumbing) where there should have been a good profit margin. Doug W. is exaggerating, but 30 to 40 percent higher is common and I have seen a few things almost triple in price. When people have a family and are on a limited income, they have to make their budgets work. They want everyday low prices or they will go to Sioux Falls, which just compounds the problem, and Chester is only 35 miles away. And while I'm not comfortable naming names, I can think of quite a few businessman that bang the drum to shop locally, but you see them in Walmart or Sam's Club with a full cart, more often after they retire, but not always. It's best to accept people by and large are going to act out of self interest and you won't be disappointed and waste your energy trying to get people to do something they aren't inclined to do.
Just read Cory's post. We should note Madison right now is having a flurry of home sales and Chester's real estate prices are well above ours. They are closer to SF, but Madison has some good things going for it. If Madison can take a real step forward remains to be seen.
Interesting, John! Any idea where those buyers are coming from?
I haven't heard but I'll try and find out. The rental market is also strong and tenants want higher quality, but there's still a disparity between salaries, what people can afford, and cost of building profitable units.
I'm told it's a mix of renters buying, people upgrading, and out of towners leading at times to multiple offers. That's big fun in the real estate world. People obviously weigh the pros and cons and want to be here.
" Doug W. is exaggerating, but 30 to 40 percent higher is common and I have seen a few things almost triple in price."
Hmm?
Most of us will probably buy locally if prices are a few percent more and sales tax is 6%. People don't buy off the internet or drive miles unless they can't get products locally, or prices are absurd. Two recent local examples: 1. Mayonnaise $6.85 per 30oz locally and about $9.00 per gallon at Sam's Club.
2. Pur water filters $23 each locally and 6 for about $40 at Amazon.
3.Buss Light switches $14.95 locally. $9.95 at Menards. I haven't checked internet prices.
A coop farm store is closing here in Winner. They have often had products not easily available elsewhere in Winner. But, service was often less than even polite and prices often absurd. Even their current deep discount prices are still above regular retail for similar products. Their board of directors and managers are not interested in providing service to small producers and homeowners. They see their future in a handful of producers in each county buying by the ton.
I am not holding my breath in waiting for legislators and a President finally figuring out that putting more and more people into smaller areas with associated concentrated pollution is not a real great idea. But, that kind of federal realization may be the only thing that can revitalize rural America. State legislators are so influenced by flatulence from ALEC and similar reactionary mythology providers that they are nearly worthless.
Having lived in the Chester community for many years I know well the positive influence the Benson family, especially Denny had on this progressive area. The demise of the Chester Hardware is sad. Thank you Benson's for all you have done! JP
Doug provides a perfect example of the state's economic mindset exercised by private producers: everyone is focusing on the big producers and ignoring the rank-and-file consumer, worker, and citizen. That's a fundamental problem. Small towns are about the little guy, the individual. We like small towns in part because we matter as individuals. We mythologize farming for the same reason, because we celebrate the notion of a family with a red barn, a white fence, a couple cows, and a cornfield captaining its own destiny, not acting as a cog on the Monsanto machine. The destruction of rural America is as much psychological and economic.
caheidelberger
2013.04.04 AT 11:34
Interesting, John! Any idea where those buyers are coming from?........... The exodus from the cities has started long ago Corey, it has picked up it's pace since the Great Depression started and we ain't seen nuthin yet.
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The new paradigm in the banking industry is to let the depositors carry the losses as in Cyprus. Let her buck.
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It isn't just our state Corey, empty rural towns are everywhere. Less so where populations are denser. We are just less dense out here if ya can believe that.
They're mostly extended white families from Minnesota and Iowa seeking tax havens and shelters from cultural diversity.
Ya "Lar" an title 19 while there at it.
Les: South Dakota's reliance on federal aid to SS recipients ensures its moocher state status. How the GOP gets away with sending hypocrites like Kristi Noem to DC defies rational thought.