The Sioux Nation Shopping Center, the Pine Ridge Reservation’s only grocery store, runs some pretty stale stock photos on its home page:

Sioux Nation Shopping Center screencap, 2012.05.16

Maybe I’m just racist, but I get the feeling there might be a disconnect between the Sioux Nation Shopping Center’s marketing images and its actual market in Pine Ridge.

The Sioux Nation Shopping Center has also been selling some pretty stale meat. The Indian Health Service shut down the grocery store’s meat department on May 4 after several tribal members complained of getting sick from eating the store’s meat. Pine Ridge activist Debra White Plume, whose granddaughter is among those who went to the hospital after eating Sioux Nation Shopping Center meat, says the store has been repackaging old meat with new meat and labeling the mixes with new expiration dates.

The store made an effort to restock the meat department with fresh meat last week in time for “food stamp day” on May 10. However, Oglala Sioux Tribe officials shut down the whole store on Friday. The tribe is seeking a restraining order against the store’s management, but a hearing scheduled yesterday was cancelled, leaving Pine Ridge residents stuck for a fourth day having to drive to Whiteclay or Rapid City to stock their kitchens.

Cohn Wholesale Fruit and Grocery of San Diego operates the Sioux Nation Shopping Center, which it leases from the tribe. Native News Network reporter and commentator Levi Rikert shouts fraud and wants Cohn out:

The company deserves an “F” for FAILURE.

It has failed a group of consumers, many with limited access to cars, depend on them to buy their monthly food to put on their families’ tables. Cohn Wholesale Fruit and Grocery Inc. deserves an F for failure.

Mixing outdated meat with new meat to make hamburger to sell to the Lakota people can be likened to unscrupulous predatory lenders who trap disenfranchised into high interest rates loans with high penalties.

It is nothing short of fraud.

In both cases it is clearly taking advantage of those already disadvantaged. In both cases, it is fraud.

One has to wonder if the operators of the Sioux Nation Shopping Center take the stance:

“They are just a bunch of Indians, so it does not matter what we sell them” [Levi Rickert, "New Operators of Sioux Nation Grocery Store Needed," Native News Network, 2012.05.14].

The pictures on the store website suggest the owners are insensitive to the demographic they serve. The labels on the stale meat they were selling suggest much worse.

As the only grocery store on the reservation, Sioux Nation Shopping Center has a unique responsibility to its extensive community. Sneaking old meat into new packages violates that responsibility. If the charges are borne out, the Oglala Sioux Tribe should strip Cohn Wholesale of its lease and replace store management swiftly to keep Pine Ridge from becoming a complete food desert.

Update 21:48 MDT: KELO’s Derek Olson visits Mission and hears good things about the Rosebud Reservation’s tribally owned Turtle Creek Crossing. Opened in 2009, the grocery store is succeeding at providing jobs and turning dollars over in the local economy. Hey, Pine Ridge, can you import this business model?

Gary Coe of Lead is running for District 31 State House. Gary Coe also sells snake oil.

Actually, primrose oil. And progesterone cream. And lineolic acid. And herbal pain reliever (paging Mr. Kurtz…).

Yes, Gary Coe is a modern snake-oil salesman. The medicine show no longer travels; it advertises on the Internet. Coe’s “Resource Maxima” peddles all sorts of pills to make you happier and slimmer, although they all bear the asterisk of this disclaimer:

Statements on this site have not been reviewed by the Food and Drug Administration.  These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

That’s o.k.: the FDA is just government, and Coe’s candidacy is based mostly on the idea that government is bad.

Coe used to sell something called “Ageless Forever,” which was really just a copy of another health supplement called “AgelessXtra” without the corn extract. AgelessXtra maker Oasis LifeSciences sued Coe’s Resource Maxima for trademark infringement in 2005. The two companies settled two months later, when Resource Maxima agreed to pull its rip-off product. None of Coe’s current products promise eternal youth.

Coe’s magic pills sound like the magic sound bites he preached at Monday’s candidates forum here in Spearfish. Don’t talk about practical policy relevant to South Dakota. Don’t even talk about the actual planks of the Republican platform. Just keep repeating those easy and empty platitudes about socialism and progressivism and common sense; they’ll cure everything!

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In legal notes, I find no entry for “Resource Maxima” in the Secretary of State’s corporate records database. I also find no evidence that Coe has registered to do business as “Resource Maxima” as required under South Dakota’s fictitious business name rules. And when I go through Resource Maxima’s online shopping system to order some magic pills, the bill does not calculate any South Dakota sales tax, even though I indicate that I am indeed in South Dakota. Hmm… maybe the voters’ opinion of Coe’s candidacy will be as interesting as the Attorney General’s opinion of his business practices.

Around 150 people are expected to attend the Black Hills Bakken Conference here in Spearfish today and tomorrow. I’d be interested in attending as well to hear all the tarry-eyed oil-boom boosters tickle our fantasies of petro-wealth and asking if anyone is worried about the potential erosion of education and democracy.

However, I can’t make it, because (a) I have to work, and (b) I wouldn’t pay $500 to sit and chat with people. 150 people at $500 a head… that’s $75,000. When I was treasurer of the South Dakota Speech Communication Association, we were able to run our annual convention for a similar number of attendees at fancy-schmancy places like Cedar Shores for under $4000. The Black Hills Bakken Conference has more guest speakers than we did, but I’m thinking somebody’s making some money.

Also unlikely to be able to cover the $500 registration fee: North Dakota trailer park residents being evicted by developers to make way for oilpatch worker housing:

Forced evictions, of local residents from their mobile homes in the New Town area, to provide housing for predominately out-of-state oil workers has reached a new low. On Monday, April 16th, Four Native American residents of the Prairie Winds Mobile Home Park, including a 9-year old child, were forced to leave their home when landlord, Leroy Olsen, removed Heather Youngbird and Crystal Deegan’s front door. Olsen then cut the electricity and turned off the propane to the home, and told them they had to leave their home immediately.

…Residents of 45 trailers have until August 31st to move after the mobile home park was sold with plans to develop it to house oil workers. Future Housing LLC bought the property and plans to construct housing for employees of United Prairie Cooperative, formerly Cenex of New Town.

John Reese, the CEO and general manager of United Prairie Cooperative and agent for Future Housing LLC, has said the company is trying to work with the residents. Initially, the eviction deadline was set for May 1, but it’s been postponed until Aug. 31.

…Reese said in an interview last month the housing shortage in the area makes it difficult for him to find employees. Available land to develop housing is also difficult to find, he said [Kandi Mossett, "Front Door Stripped off Mobile Home As Forced Evictions Reach New Low in Bakken Oil Fields," press release, Indigenous Environmental Network, 2012.04.18].

I can live with movers and shakers keeping their networking sessions exclusive with high registration fees. But I hope Rep. Charlie Hoffman and his fellow interested parties will talk about the shaken movers who can’t afford to live in their homes around the North Dakota oil patch any more. Does new wealth really justify telling an entire class of workers they can no longer live in a community? The displacement of local long-time residents is as much an externality of the oil business as pollution, and we need to discuss how the cold-eyed corporations drilling our earth compensate us for that social cost.

Verifications Inc. surprised 140 of its South Dakota employees yesterday by telling them they will lose their jobs by November:

According to Verifications employee Becky Jacobson, employees in Mitchell were asked to attend a mandatory meeting Thursday, at which they were informed of the closures.

“It was horrible,” said another employee who asked to remain anonymous. “We walked into the room and there were Kleenex boxes on the table, so we knew.”

Mitchell employees were shown a video of Verifications President and CEO Curt Marks announcing the closures, Jacobson said.

“There was a lot of crying,” she said of the reactions. “It seems like we had been kept in the dark” [Chris Mueller, "Verifications Closing Mitchell and Aberdeen Locations," Mitchell Daily Republic, 2012.04.26].

Note that the bosses could have driven over from corporate headquarters in Wayzata, Minnesota, to break the news and maybe offer their thanks and their apologies in person. But no: to declare 140 South Dakotans a hindrance to the company’s profits, corporate sends videos and boxes of Kleenex. Not exactly an expression of the company’s Values of Solidarity, Commitment, and Courage.

Spread some irony on your toast: on its Testimonials page, Verifications cites unnamed clients as lauding their employee background-check and drug-testing services thus:

“I hate surprises. VI is proactive, not reactive.”

“It’s simple why we’re with VI: they never give us a reason to leave.”

South Dakota didn’t give Verifications any reason to leave. We actually worked pretty hard to bring them here, using state and local loan funds to build the Mitchell facility Verifications leases. We appear to have made similar efforts ten years ago for Verifications in Aberdeen. The company simply found cheaper labor in Arizona, India, and the Philippines.

These closings come on top of layoffs in Aberdeen last year of 15 employees who became obsolete because of technology.

Classified Hookah didn’t last long in Rapid City… and there doesn’t appear to be a single government regulation we can blame. Instead, conservatives looking for another smoky cause célébre will have to blame the tyranny of the mob—also known as neighbors seeking to live amicably in community—and a business owner who can’t follow his lease.

Classified Hookah and neighboring hookah lounge Sahara Nights made the news last week for stinking up the Buell Building in downtown Rapid. Other Buell tenants complained. A make-up shop owner found the lingering hookah smell so strong that she didn’t open her doors for business one morning. A weight-loss coach griped that the smoke smell infringed on her ability to sell “wellness.” Contacted by the press, Miami-based building owner Ron Bazac said he had to give the lounges a chance to improve their ventilation, but that creating a nuisance is a violation of the lease. Bazac says Classified Hookah told him they would only be selling hookahs, not operating them in a lounge setting. Oops.

Classified Hookah owner Trevor Schmidt must have reread his lease. He’s getting out:

Classified Hookah in downtown Rapid City closed Wednesday and is selling off its furnishings and hookah supplies, its owner said.

“We’re closed,” owner Trevor Schmidt said. “We’re shut down.”

The lounge at 524 Seventh St. in the historic Buell Building recently raised the ire of its neighbors, who complained that loud music and the smell of hookah smoke were penetrating the building, irritating them and driving away customers.

“We’re just looking to end the drama and relocate,” Schmidt said. He said he would probably take the business to Sioux Falls [Barbara Soderlin, "Seventh Street Hookah Lounge Closes," Rapid City Journal, 2012.04.21].

The discussion of the closing on Facebook is, like so much of Facebook, predictably juvenile. One commenter equates the closing to bullying… because expecting your neighbors to follow their lease and not infringe on your rights is bullying. The bullying commenter also flies the race flag, saying her closed-minded neighbors oppose hookah because “it’s not a white past [sic] time.”

Classified Hookah didn’t close because of bullying or racism. It closed because the owner thinks it’s just too much drama to follow a couple basic business rules: respect your neighbors and follow your lease. Downtown Rapid City neighbors and landlord alike can now breathe a sigh of relief.

And for you poor tragic souls who think “hookah is the only thing young adults have to do in this town“… well, try opening your minds. Go out for dinner. See a movie. Go for a ride. You’re in Rapid City, in the Black Hills! If you’re telling me you can’t find anything to do, either you’re smoking something or you aren’t trying.

Hey! How about some color with your coffee?

Welcome to Common Grounds... would you like some abstraction with your latté?

Common Grounds in Spearfish has graciously invited me to display some of my paintings for their caffeinated customers this month.

(L to R): Polar Gem (2006), Near Witness (2012), Trinity 47 (2005)

The back nook has room for a combination of my older paintings and some works fresh out of the paint can (don’t worry—they’re dry!).

Nothing cryptic -- a spring triptych.

Remind the artist to move the chair six inches north next time he takes pictures… or come pull up a chair and take a look yourself! See these paintings and more all through April at Common Grounds, 111 East Hudson Street, a stone’s throw from the new stoplights on Main here in Spearfish. Coffee’s on Monday through Friday, 6 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturday 6 to 6, and Sunday 6 to 5. Enjoy!

A friend sends me the latest Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, which finds that South Dakotans just barely miss the top ten for folks who feel like they’re living the good life. We rank 11th on personal perception of well-being. A number of our neighbors make the top ten:

1. Hawaii
2. North Dakota
3. Minnesota
4. Alaska
5. Utah
6. Colorado
7. Kansas
8. Nebraska
9. New Hampshire
10. Montana

Iowa is 16th; Wyoming is 21st.

That list got me thinking about the Tax Foundation’s ranking of state business climates, in which South Dakota ranks second:

1. Wyoming
2. South Dakota
3. Nevada
4. Alaska
5. Florida
6. New Hampshire
7. Washington
8. Montana
9. Texas
10. Utah

Hmm… there is some overlap there… but then I put the rankings on both the Well-Being Index and the Business Tax Climate Index into my spreadsheet… and get a correlation of -0.04. That means, basically, there is no correlation. You can’t look at business tax climate and predict well-being, or vice versa.

Gallup also breaks down the Well-Being Index by Congressional district. South Dakota is one big happy family by district, so on this scale, our whole state is compared to all sorts of little gerrymanders in California, Texas, and New York. Our state ranks 104th out of 436 districts (including the District of Columbia). That’s roughly proportionate to our 11 out of 50 rank on the state-by-state count.

California ranks 18th for overall well-being, but it holds five of the top ten spots for happy Congressional districts.

I got curious as to whether I could find any correlation between Congressional district party preference and well-being. Looking at the 103 Congressional districts that have higher well-being scores than South Dakota, I find 52A% held by Republicans. That’s slightly lower than the 56% of all Congressional seats currently held by Republicans.

Ah ha! I thought. Maybe Republicans correlate just slightly with a more dissatisfied electorate. But then I run the correlation between well-being rank and party of Representative for the whole list of districts (where, in a gift to my conservative readers, I let Dem equal zero and GOP equal one): -0.05. Again, no substantial correlation.

So the big news on these numbers is no news. Enjoy your breakfast!

Last week’s report that Madison saw a 12.5% increase in sales tax receipts during 2011 got me wondering about the relative economic health of my hometown Madison and my current metropolitan madhouse, Spearfish. This year-end summary for 2011 shows Madison with a 12.22% increase in municipal tax due for 2011. On that metric, Spearfish posted a measly 2.71% increase.

We can put those sales tax numbers in various contexts. Madison is the 15th largest city in South Dakota; it had the 14th highest municipal tax due. Madison outperformed the next largest city, Brandon, by 25%—that’s what Brandon gets for living right next to Sioux Falls. Spearfish sales tax collections also outperformed the city’s population rank: the 11th largest city had the 9th highest municipal tax due, beating 9th largest Huron and 10th largest Vermillion.

But we would expect bigger towns to have bigger sales tax numbers. What happens when we look at municipal tax per person? This number gives us an idea of a fair portion of the dollars cities have available to spend on public services for each of their constituents. This number also serves as a measure of the economic activity going on in each community and the relative kick each person can get from it. I ran numbers similar to these last year when discussing Russell Olson’s Chamber of Commerce goals; let’s run ‘em again on the 2011 data:

In 2011, Madison’s sales translated into $425 in municipal sales tax due per resident. If you add up the municipal sales tax due from all municipalities listed and divide by the residents of those municipalities, you get an average tax per capita of $528. Calculate the same average for the 53 municipalities larger than 1000, and you get $556.

Madison’s below-average $425 means it ranks 50th for municipal tax due per capita. On Spearfish’s above-average $639 ranks it 12th for municipal tax due per capita.

As a look at the top ten on the above table reveals, tourism can make a big difference in per-capita sales tax revenues. Importing tourist money adds a lot of dough that the locals in Deadwood, Wall, and Murdo could never generate on their own buying bread and socks. Spearfish has a notable advantage over Madison on the tourism front.

However, tourism doesn’t seem to fully explain Madison’s below-average per-capita sales tax performance. 26 sizable towns outdo Madison in this metric, including the not-uniquely popular tourist destinations of Milbank, Britton, Platte, Huron, De Smet, Clear Lake, and Lemmon. And interestingly, Sturgis, which hosts the hottest one-week tourist event in the state, ranks just five spots above Madison, with $443 in municipal tax due per capita, just 4% more than Madison.

By population, Spearfish is 1.62 times larger than Madison. Yet its taxable sales are 2.39 times larger than Madison’s. Let’s look at taxable sales by economic sector (data from the Department of Revenue) and see where Spearfish gets the extra boost:

By taxable sales, Madison generates more wealth for public use through manufacturing and wholesale trade. Spearfish gets its big sales tax advantage over Madison in retail and services. Let’s pull out a few subgroups from those two sectors:

The hotel and lodging figures certainly the impact of tourism, with Spearfish doing nearly ten times as much business giving folks places to sleep. Spearfish also shows proportionately better performance with its restaurants and recreation businesses.

But check out some of the less touristy categories. Spearfish retail gets disproportionate boosts over Madison in sectors driven by homeowners: building materials, hardware, and garden; home furnishings and appliances; and arguably, apparel and accessories. Maybe Spearfish is enjoying some medical tourism: the hospital and clinics here draw ten times the business of Madison’s health care facilities.

Interestingly, Spearfish grocery sales, with two grocery stores plus a Super Walmart, are roughly proportional to grocery sales in Madison’s local monopoly grocery market. Competition is nice, especially when Safeway’s tight produce inventory practices leave them short on bananas every third time I visit, but perhaps a second or third grocery store doesn’t draw that much more out-of-town business.

One really odd statistic jumps out from the retail numbers: the disparity between the economic performance of eating and drinking places in Madison and Spearfish. Here at the northern gateway to the Black Hills, one would expect a booming restaurant business. The dollar figures under “eating places” attest to that difference, as does my personal gustatory experience: ask me where to eat in Spearfish (not just “I’m hungry,” but “I’d like to take some friends out for a nice meal”), and a half-dozen eateries leap to mind that I can enthusiastically recommend. Pose the same question about the restaurant scene in Madison, and I feel apologies bubbling up much sooner.

But if tourism supports a wider range of successful eateries in Spearfish than in Madison, you’d think that spillover would apply to the drinking establishments as well. Bikers, BHSU… Spearfish bars ought to be booming, too. Yet Spearfish drinking places reported less in taxable sales last year than Madison drinking places. Whatever portion of Spearfish’s economic success is driven by tourists, Spearfish bars aren’t getting a proportionate piece of the action. And unless Madison’s bars are that fair city’s unsung tourist beacon, Madison locals are buying and drinking a whole lot more alcohol than their Spearfish counterparts. Perhaps those sales tax figures are more proof that Madison has a disproportionate fondness for the bottle.

The next director of Madison’s economic development corporation (hey, big dreamers and go-getters! Have you applied yet?) should take a close look at these numbers and be ready to talk to Pat, Mike, DeLon, and the rest of us about what Madison can do to catch up Spearfish in its lagging sales areas.