How’s that old saying go again? ‘You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone’?
That phrase can be applied to many situations, and when I think about the rural landscape and where we call home, I believe it more than applies to the small town business sector.
If there’s one thing that hit home the most with me in covering all the happenings during last fall’s civic election in Outlook, it’s that people showed such a vested and public interest in how they want their community to be run over the next few years, the likes of which I haven’t seen before. I’d be buying groceries or covering some event, and on more than one occasion I had people come up to me and talk to me about the election and what direction they hoped Outlook would be heading in.
The constant topic that came up in these brief chats? Local businesses; questions such as what tax breaks might be available, how do we draw more businesses to the area, how does Outlook stay competitive with places such as Saskatoon, those sort of things.
I think it just comes down to one simple thing, and it’s not hard to figure out what it is: support your local businesses.
I would imagine if someone posed a public opinion poll on this topic, it might split the vote down the middle, which doesn’t surprise me. This town’s close proximity to Saskatoon by way of Highway 219 is great, but that really depends on what side of the equation you’re on. If you’re someone with a young family who wants to cruise up there to spend the day doing some shopping, maybe see a movie, and then getting some dinner, it’s fantastic and more than convenient. But if you’re a local business owner - a grocery store owner, theater manager, or a restaurant owner - your views on the city being so close are likely much different.
In the last couple of weeks, Outlook lost a restaurant as the Lucky Dragon closed up shop and the owners reportedly moved to Ontario. For some time before the move, they were offering a coupon deal in the pages of this newspaper, and the only thing we can be led to believe is it was because business was down. That’s a shame. Farewell, awesome spring rolls and shrimp low mein.
My own mother closed up shop on her business in Conquest recently, Ma’s Tavern. There were several factors in that decision; the building is very old, and she sees the new liquor privatization laws as unappealing to small town bar owners, but the other factor was that business had been on a steady decline. It’s great to hear kudos on a job well done or a ‘Sorry to hear you’re closing’, but sometimes it leads to business owners asking, ‘Well, where the heck were you?’
It’s a balancing act between staying loyal to the businesses in your own backyard versus the deals and sale prices that city box stores can afford to offer; one that we all undertake from time to time. No blame game here. Hell, I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve even run into the Walmart in the Stonebridge area to grab something and come across two or three people from town who were loading up on groceries. Hey, I get it; those rollback prices can’t be ignored sometimes, and I mean that Walmart is RIGHT THERE on the edge of the city, so it’s like you’re in and out within minutes.
But those city trips to buy groceries baffle some people. I used to have conversations with town officials about the ‘lure of the city’. One view was that if people were looking to save money, particularly at a time when fuel costs were unpredictable and hazardous to your wallet, then they were failing because it’s an hour to the city and an hour back. I can see that; for the money you might save at the till in the city store, you’re burning it right back up while driving to and from the city to begin with.
I look at the downtown business corridor in Outlook and wonder where things will be in a year or two. This one’s open, that one’s open, that one’s closed, that building’s vacant, so is that building, and so on and so on. I’m not sure where things go from here, but I do know that if people continue with this perceived attitude of ‘Well, the city is RIGHT THERE, and I’ll buy from that business downtown next time’, then the ripple effect could wind up costing Outlook big-time.
We need to pay more attention to the businesses that call this area home. We need to find a way to foster economic growth.
It’s time we get more vocal about local.
There, I’ve even provided the slogan. That’ll be a nickel to me every time someone in the Lake Diefenbaker region says it.
For this week, that’s been the Ruttle Report.
