Every year I find a few good Christmas presents at Shawnee Trails and I was doing the tour today. I was looking at their nice selection of messenger bags today and was looking at some of those nice North Face windstopper gloves for the Mrs.
I was kind of pleased to hear about the new Dick's coming to town, but after talking to Rick the owner of Shawnee Trails, now I'm not so sure. I really sounds like Dicks is a great big box store, lots of inventory, sale prices, nationwide buying power, you know the drill. Rick points out that Dick's is going to directly complete against 7 existing businesses and many of them are locally owned.
Let's do a list -
Shawnee Trails
All 3 bike shops (though the bikes on the website really stink, more like Walmart)
Outdoor Store
Hibert's in the Mall
Forgot the last one.
I guess the barn door is open and the horses gone on the big box store issue, but it is always sad when yet another set of local businesses have big box land in their turf.
5 comments:
All this talk about Dick's reminds me of the classic monologue from "Team America: World Police."
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0372588/quotes
Peter, you're right about the cow being out of the barn, but bikes can't stink.
The two models of Schwinn brand bicycle sold at Dick's are priced between 250-350 dollars, so they may be cheaper than you are prepared to spend. But cheap is a relative term. (Like 'stinky' ...stinkier, stinkiest).
The local businesses you list that Dick's will compete with are niche market shops. Shawnee Trails has a loyal following, as do all the local bicycle shops, apparently. The other place, Hibert's is in the mall. Too bad for Hibert's. If the Outdoor Store can't compete, then too bad for the Outdoor Store.
The question I have is how much tax Carbondale derives from a store like "Dick's Sporting Goods"... and does the city give these "Enterprise Zone" stores an unfair advantage over Shawnee Trails and other indigenous businesses.
Anyway, at least you didn't title your post "Dick's Sucks" (Save that one for later.) ;-)
Or "Dick's, an up and coming retailer".
Or "Dick's sticks it to local businesses"
Dick's also sells a lot of stuff that no one in Carbondale carries, like an actual selection of camping gear (sorry Shawnee, but the limited inventory doesn't match the plethora of outdoor fun-places in Southern Illinois).
The game in bikes is that you can't sell over the internet except for really crappy brands. Dick's has a high end shop with repair in many places. Don't know if they will put that in here.
Talking to Will, "The Bike Surgeon" today, who said the "Dicks Sporting Goods" in his home town had a high end bike shop. He thinks the business it will hurt most is Phoenix Cycle, which has the identical brands etc. that Dick's has.
He reiterated what you said Rick said about 7 businesses being hurt by this new business. He also said they don't have to pay property tax for 10 years (a provision of hte Enterprise Zone).
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