Hello, Maurices, and welcome to Whitewater. I’m John Adams, a blogger from Whitewater, Wisconsin, and I welcome your latest store, one of a seven-hundred store chain, to Whitewater. I am sure that your corporate leaders, and those of your multi-billion dollar parent company, Dress Barn, have made a smart decision to offer popular products to Whitewater’s consumers.
I believe in the right of Whitewater’s consumers to choose from any number and kind of retailers, from small shops to large retail enterprises. Consumers should be — and are — able to decide sensibly for themselves without the interference of government, including meddlesome, municipal bureaucrats. If some merchants wish to organize privately to persuade customers to shop at mom & pop stores, I think that’s their right, too.
(I’ve contended before that the best way for a mom and pop speciality store to succeed is through exceptional service and distinctive products. There are many such stores in Whitewater, and I am happy to offer those merchants my loyal patronage.)
I don’t think, though, that government — including local government in Whitewater — should take sides between small shops and retail chains through a Buy Local campaign that’s principally an anti-chain store campaign. It’s not the place of Whitewater’s mostly middling bureaucrats to take sides between kinds of merchants. (Predictably, after trumpeting and adopting the Buy Local program in one of his Weekly Reports, our city manager doubled-down on his paternalism with a repeat endorsement in a subsequent Weekly Report.
I’ve written along these lines before. See, Whitewater Local Government’s Favoritism of Some Local Businesses Over Others.
You’ve received a happy welcome from a local merchant’s group, and I am glad for it. I know, though — and you know, too — that that same group receives city support for a campaign that includes a bias against large retail chains just like yours. Your success will not depend on those who talk from both sides of their mouths. Residents will see through this double-talk, talk that often comes at taxpayers’ expense, and will choose for or against your business based only on your services.
Although I’m surely not your target customer, I wish you well, as I would any venture, to win support privately in the marketplace, without government support or opposition.
Good luck!