'Closed' is the name of the game

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September 12, 2008

BY BARBARA GREENBERG The Commercial-News Fri Sep 12, 2008, 12:36 PM CDT

When the spirit moves me to make a pilgrimage to the mega store on the northern edge of Danville, I play a little game to pass the long minutes that the drive takes.

I repeat aloud one word as I drive. That word is “closed.”

I chant it as I pass the many vacant buildings where, in days gone by, I spent my hard-earned money. Apparently, I didn’t spend enough nor did enough other people.

This blend of stores and restaurants didn’t close because of a giant discount store. They had enough internal and corporate problems to do themselves in or, like Starbucks, they didn’t do enough market research before they opened here.

Depressing as it is to see one giant “For Sale or Lease” sign after another, I wonder what people coming here for the first time think of the welcome-to-Danville-where-the-stores-are-closed panorama.

Fortunately, that route isn’t the main gateway into our fair city. Most out-of-towners arrive here via the interstate. What they see when they exit isn’t a pretty sight either — fast food restaurants, gas stations, payday loan stores off one exit, a junk yard near another. But at least the businesses are doing business.

The local mall, which should be the retail Mecca of this city, can’t make the same statement.

Years ago, I had another retail-related game that I played when I couldn’t fall asleep. I’d imagine myself walking around the perimeter of the local mall; I’d name each store I passed. Most of the time, I’d be sleeping before I reached my starting point — there were that many stores.

It was the opposite of the closed game, but it wouldn’t be anymore. I can’t even remember the names of all of the stores that have left, but I remember my shock when the first one disappeared.

That store was Target. There were smaller stores that closed, too, but the standouts were the big ones, the anchors, like Penney’s and Hobby Lobby.

Another anchor, Steve & Barry’s, recently announced it will close soon. When it first opened I stopped in. I thought $8.98 prices would work here, but I noticed that there was way too much inventory for this market.

Once retailing gets in your blood, it’s hard to get it out.

We hear about one closing after another — some of places we need and enjoy, others that just feel wrong when so many have closed before. The frustration builds up — maybe it’s been building since GM and Valmont stranded workers here without jobs. Maybe it carried over into the calls to that toll-free number to bring Target back, even to Tilton. Maybe people have kept it inside for so long that they’ve finally had it up to here, wherever here may be for them, and they’re not going to take it anymore.

Some of that frustration may be showing up now in the protests against the Kickapoo closing. The informational pickets and petitions might just be the handiwork of former Hills shoppers who liked to eat at Applebee’s and used to buy their cars at American Cadillac-Oldsmobile.

Disenfranchised residents of Danville, unite. Don’t just lie down and let Buffalo Wild Wings buffalo you. Another restaurant will make only an initial splash here — it won’t solve the problem.

A friend of my daughter’s had an idea that could solve this problem of high expectations and diminishing returns. She thinks a branch of Hooters would go over better here than anything else. I’m sad to say I think she’s right.

Reach Barbara Greenberg at bgreenberg@dancomnews.com.

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