Orland organic ag magnate Charlie Johnson opines Socratically on the "community" thrift store being built on Madison's Main Street:
Does anyone know if there was ever a professional study and/or survey taken verifying the feasibility of a new thrift store and building in Madison? Was there ever a public meeting held to discuss the feasibility of such a project. What is the status of the "so called downtown improvement survey of needs" that was undertaken by the downtown improvement committee under auspicious of either the Chamber of Commence or LAIC? Was the thrift store mentioned in the top 10 needs within that survey? Does the investment group building the new thrift store have a professional prepared business plan for their endeavor? [Charlie Johnson, Facebook post, 2014.04.01]
Johnson's questions elicit an interesting bit of recent local economic development history from Rick Sterling:
Charlie, Interesting that you should ask. From 1998 -2002 I was the Executive Director of the Career Learning Center in Madison. At the time our center operated a Goodwill Industries collection site near the current location of Montgomery Furniture/Lewis Drug. We collected used clothing and household goods for Goodwill. At the time several people asked us to start a Goodwill (type) store. When I talked to John Silvernail at the Lake Area Improvement Corporation about this, he said a survey had been done among the Dakota State business students who made a recommendation for such a store. When I told John that I could get grant money to make the store a reality, he said "not only no but hell no." We don't want Madison to be a "junk city" [Rick Sterling, Facebook comment, 2014.04.01].
Fascinating. Sterling says that just 15 years ago, he heard popular demand for a thrift store, but the LAIC refused to support such a project, saying it wold be bad for Madison. Now the general public is underwhelmed by the idea of a downtown junk shop, but the LAIC supports the project with free land.
Everyone that I talk to ,regardless of political or income stripes, are not impressed with the thrift store idea. Consistent PR statement is that the new building is being built by private contributions/investments. That is true. But the investments are being funneled through the Madison Community Foundation. Thus any contribution will be tax deductible for the investors. Also the land was donated by LAIC which the property years ago through monies provided by the taxpayers of Madison. We still have a survey of needs that has yet to be made public. ICAP, a local, regional, and federally funded public agency will run the store to help with their financial coffers. Why are we having an anti-poverty agency that provides excellent programming through Head Start, housing improvements,etc. having to resort to a "bake sale " approach to make ends meet. Is that not a taxpayer responsibility through the county, city and federal resources? I find it hard to understand why an investment of $500,000 is not listening to the general public.
I barely shopped the thrift stores when I lived in Madison. When I come back home to visit, I will not be stopping in this community thrift store. I doubt you will have many, if any, out of town visitors stopping there. It would have been nicer to see something that would draw in locals and out of town visitors.
I still cannot see the merit of spending $500,000 for a new building in the hopes that the profits from that will help support ICAP's programs. Maybe it would be better to invest that $500,000 and use the interest from it to fund the programs. Or use one of the empty stores on main street for the thrift store to see first of all if it generates enough money to make it viable.
Do the private investors in this store expect a return on their money or is this a donation? Has there been a study done to see how much money this thrift store would generate, if it's enough to pay back investors and support ICAP? Or is this $500,000 going to benefit a few connected people and leave the city with another empty building, albeit a new one? These are questions in my mind. And also what about the present thrift stores that apparently aren't making a fortune and will be making even less with this new non-taxpaying competition; is this fair to them?
I think it's fairly obvious that this thrift store is not actually for the general public - it is a way to route some tax-deductible dollars, and it will undoubtedly be a repository for some various knocked-down, knocked-up goods that will also be tax-deductible donations for the people who have been pushing hard for this all along. In other words, increase your charitable giving without having to actually give to a charity or church.