Last updated on 2013.07.22
South Dakota may be the #1 state in the country for business, but not if your business is providing basic goods and services in small-town South Dakota.
Sanborn County just lost its only grocery store. KELO reports that Darin's Market in Woonsocket has closed. That means that, if the Duke boys lived in Sanborn County, they couldn't hazard a trip to the grocery store without breaking their probation by crossing the county line. The nearest survival groceries are 15 miles away in Wessington Springs at TJ's. Woonsocketeers' closest supermarket is Coborn's in Huron, 24 miles mostly north. Having to drive more than 10 miles for groceries meets the USDA's definition of "food desert"... and this in the heart of state that prides itself on raising food to feed the world.
If you're really hungry in Woonsocket, you can still stop for chips or a Snickers at the Express Stop downtown (one of my favorite places to stop for gas on Highway 34) or the Express 2 Cenex toward the east side of town. But you can't live on C-store filler. And if you're trying to get workers or even retirees to move to your town, telling them they'll have to spend 30 to 60 minutes in the car every time they need milk and meat and eggs is a serious hitch in your pitch.
Keeping a grocery store open in a town with fewer than 700 people and a county that's lost population for 40 years is not my first choice for a way to make a living. Woonsocket Mayor Lindy Peterson says the city has a lead on a buyer for the grocery store, and we can only hope they do.
Perhaps the Governor's Office of Economic Development should think about this rural development issue. If government has any place at all in inserting itself in the free market, maybe the Daugaard Administration should redirect its economic assistance from big business and communities that already have a leg up to Woonsocket and other small towns that are struggling to keep grocery stores and other basic businesses and the vital jobs they provide in rural communities.
Of course, that assumes our leaders really are interested in keeping places like Woonsocket alive.
The more people drive the more revenue is generated by fuel taxes and transportation costs. 66 county seats: now that's economic development. The catholic church sure is pretty, though.
Denny to Woonsocket, Let them eat cake. Economic development is only applicable in larger cities, villages need not apply, they just need to keep voting republican.
Now Cory, as you know, I think Denny is the worst Governor we've had but on this we have to be a little bit fair.
The company that is coming to our small town is, from what I've been told, using the REDI Fund.
So at least in our case the Governor's office has helped.
But he could always do more, no doubt about it.
In South Dakota you can be two blocks from a grocery store and be in a food desert. Distance is not the only factor.
REDI funds, etc. should be accompanied by investment pools so banks can make loans for riskier and larger ventures in rural area by spreading the risk. This could have been done years ago, but such ideas are always opposed by Aberdeen, Mitchell, Rapid City, and Sioux Falls because they have larger banks (and markets..although the internet has changed that).
Good idea Doug. The bigger cities want the companies to come to them.
What they don't understand if more people move to a small town they'll still come to the larger town to buy things.
Helping small towns helps bigger cities
Is there any possibility that the reason the grocery store in Woonsocket is closing is because the people have already chosen to drive to Huron or Mitchell?
However you think of DD, the Redi Fund is not his nor was developed by him. To Doug's idea, the Community Foundation has been helping to develop revolving funds for quite some time.
Your right Less. But I just wanted to be fair.
When REDI was initially getting set up, I contacted legislators about setting up funds to spread risk and make the program useful for more rural areas. That got no further than my proposal to limit interest rate on farm equipment loans to the lowest rate same companies had in other states. SD rates were 6% higher than those same companies charged in ND.
Here is another proposal. Doctors, clinics, etc may not charge cash customers more than the lowest charge they make for the same procedure they agree with insurance company, etc. Charging two or three times as much for cash payers is absurd and obscene. See how far that idea will get in SD.
"Here is another proposal. Doctors, clinics, etc may not charge cash customers more than the lowest charge they make for the same procedure they agree with insurance company, etc." With my 5K deduct recently going to 7.5K Blue Cross, they smack me down like Billy the Kid. That will be another veto if it gets any traction at all.
El Rayo, that is a distinct possibility. The market casts its judgment everywhere. Folks in Madison do the same thing, buying all sorts of groceries where they work, in Sioux Falls and Brookings. I don't know how many Woonsocketeers commute to work. The town has a relatively high median age so that might mean more retirees who don't have a daily excuse to go to Huron or Mitchell. But yes, if I were a grocery impresario thinking about buying Darin's Market, I'd want to do a little market research, go door-to-door, and ask folks in the neighborhood where they've bought their groceries in the past year.
South Dakota was able to give development money for pipelines, even though other states didn't and the pipeline that is already in and pumping is paying about 10 cents on the dollar compared to what they said they would pay the school districts and counties affected and the pipeline company is not even US American, so what are we complaining about?