After a long, secret and unsuccessful courtship of Walgreens which included a costly and controversial change from a roundabout to new stop lights. The Village Board apparently did not give up on the idea of chasing a chain and have said that they recently landed , CVS/pharmacy. While on the face of this its a worthy cause, a closer look at the Village and I am not so sure. One of the main stay businesses in town is Door Creek Pharmacy, so they have spent their time bringing in a direct competitor chain store to one of the few major businesses in the Village.
The question is will we see CVS pharmacy supporting the local paper with ads? Christmas in the Grove or Fireman’s Festival be sponsored by CVS? will we see the CVS owner supporting local businesses/restaurants like the owner of Door Creek? Will CVS be on the T-shirts of the Cottage Grove little league or soccer teams? Will they employ local workers and give back to the community? I say no and personally VOW to never step foot in, or a dollar at the new CVS. I plan on fully supporting(sometimes more than I would like) the local pharmacy and the local business owner. I believe that the decision to pursue CVS makes us a weaker community in the long run.
I understand the love of competition, and maybe Door Creek will be able to compete against a major chain like this, but the odds are against them. In my opinion the village board would be better serving the community had they listened to the people and pursued complimentary business instead of same business. In the current tenure of the “conservative” Village board, numerous business have packed up and left the Village(Euphoria Salon, Verizon wireless, etc…). Cottage Grove even lost, what I considered to be our signature business at the time, Fired Up Pottery. The “conservatives” on the board (6 out of 7) had very little interest in working with them to stay, while the one lone wolf on the board did her best( story here of how the owners perceived the situation).
The Cottage Grove planning commission will tackle this topic on Wednesday, lets hope there is some opposition. Next thing you know they will be begging Wal-Mart to locate to the Village! I personally feel that its important to shop locally and vow to never set foot in, or a nickel at, the new CVS!
Jeff,
Interesting story. I know the owner of Fired Up Pottery, and she says her business really took off after the move. She seems to attribute the change to the fact that people in Madison have a smaller radius of travel than people in towns and villages do. In Cottage Grove, her shop was not inside most Madisonian’s radius of travel. Relocating inside of that radius gave her access to a much larger potential customer base. This is a story I have been meaning to post as an example of why density is important for our local economy.
The Cap Times had a related/unrelated story in the paper today.
http://host.madison.com/ct/news/local/govt-and-politics/article_d34bd458-2007-11e0-b830-001cc4c03286.html
CT: What about Walker’s claim that Wisconsin isn’t business-friendly?
CB: I don’t see it. My businesses and much of the business in Madison are based on good-paying, highly professional jobs. He’s coming from Milwaukee County, and the type of business people he is surrounding himself with are looking to find all the lowest common denominators. They want to keep the minimum wage low, keep benefits low and keep regulation off of businesses. It’s a race to the bottom.
CT: Have you had problems operating because of government regulations?
CB: Give me a break. I operate in one of the most regulated industries out there. My industry and the hospitality industry thrive when we have a healthy environment for people to live in and when we have a healthy middle class. Then people eat out. A healthy middle class is way more helpful to me than a tax cut.
I am glad that she is doing well at her new location. I considered her a signature business in CG, because when mentioning where I live, many people used to say “thats where fired up pottery is”. I also have friends who came over here from the far west side to have children’s Bday parties. That brings 4-7 cars of people to the Village spending money at the Gas station, local restaurants etc… I’m certain that none of those people will decide to drive to CG to visit the CVS.
Unfortunately, it seems that FUP leaving the Village was greeted with a collective yawn from our “conservative” village board.
I read the article from the Herald Independant, and it sounds to me like the Village President (Mike Mikalson, whose day job is being a staffer to well known transportation expert Steve Nass) is a real bonehead when it comes to transportation safety. Installing traffic controls (stop signs, or lights) can increase the potential for some types of crashes, and often that potential can be worse than the problem the controls are supposed to solve.
Traffic Engineer typically have a list of warrants the need to be met before a traffic control is justified, and it sounds to me like Mikalson threw all that out and insisted on putting the stop signs in anyway. Sometimes common sense can steer you wrong in transportation policy. Look at the crash statistics – they never lie!