Large Sporting Goods franchise moving into old K-Mart building (photo?). It'll be in The Southern tomorrow, but you heard it here first (unless you heard it somewhere else), courtesy of a press release sent out from the Mayor's office to all the media. (Yes, Bloggy. This is media.)
The new business sounds like a good fit for Carbondale. To my knowledge there isn't another sporting goods place in town. Maybe in the mall, but the mall doesn't count. ;-)
Dick's Sporting Goods, the leading online sporting goods retailer.
8 comments:
This is good news, wonder if they are going to take down the building and start again or leave it?
My guess is they will use the existing structure.
These are pretty good stores. Should be a natural fit in The Dale.
Yep, good news indeed. This last summer, the wife and I were looking for a frisbee and couldn't find one in Carbondale anywhere ... if we ever find ourselves in the same situation again, we're covered.
Although my athletic days are over, I do have a pool table. Now I have a supply store, especially since K's is going bye-bye.
The arrival of a new, big, retail outlet is what it is: probably good for consumers, bad for the mom 'n' pops (if there are any such places left), and additional tension ripping at downtown merchants. The mayor gets his picture on the front page of the paper, as if it mattered who wore that hat. And maybe Carbondale gets some incremental increase in revenues because of sales tax receipts. (I wonder what is the effect on existing sporting goods stores?)
But how much can we continue to slice up the retail goods pie? The velocity of money has an end point. Aside from the occasional community contributions of a national chain, does anyone believe that national franchise revenues will be re-invested in Carbondale?
Certainly a vigorous retail sector is important, especially here, where much of our population is transient. However, it's not enough. The jobs that are created are not particularly high-paying, except perhaps for a few management positions.
Carbondale, and all of Southern Illinois, need to recognize that economic progress can't happen on the backs of retailers alone. We need a production economy. We need to have our resources and our labor create or add value.
Ribbon-cuttings and photo-ops will not revive a moribund private sector. We must have more to sell than fluctuating retail demand.
Hope the city didn't offer Dick's any sales tax rebates to get them in here. From what I've read, taxe abatements or rebates are never a deal maker nor a breaker but rather an unneeded perk that companies try to get.
I think we can point to the tax incentives for The Gap moving in to the Mall as a tipping point in the direction for retail in Carbondale. Sometimes it is the right thing to do, just not as often as it is used.
I dunno. As anonymous pointed out, money from stores like The Gap, Steve and Barry's and B&N doesn't, except for wages (which tend to the low end), get reinvested in the local economy. If I recall rightly, 17-20% of revenues generated by a chain stay to support the local economy, whereas with a locally owned store, 67% stay there.
I was much more in favor of the tax incentive given to the Southern Illinoisan for their expansion than I was of the one offered to the next hotel (Holiday Inn?) locating out on Reed Station Road.
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