2009 Preview: Downtown Woes Will Continue
Editor’s note: This is the second in a series of Ocono.com’s predictions for 2009.
In spite of bold promises, downtown will remain empty
Call us pessimistic, but we don’t think that the hard economic times will impact only the development of the city’s south side. The long awaited conclusion of last summer’s major downtown reconstruction project won’t be the magic bullet for bringing Oconomowoc’s downtown into economic prosperity. Sure, it will be nice to be able to get around town again, but lets face it, stores we don’t need or want to go in aren’t going to bring us downtown.
As much as we love the idea of buying a $6,000 lawn chair, we’re probably not going to buy more than a few of them in 2009. — Actually, that’s not fair. On the Deck is exactly -not- the kind of store we’re talking about in this post. If I was in the market for a $6,000 lawn chair, I’d probably head down there tomorrow.
Here’s the thing, we actually went downtown more times last year than we had in any recent memory, largely because of the quality of the stores that are down there. Downtown has some good stores these days: Ice Cream and Candy Shops, Comic Shopes, JC’s Restaurant. We love them all.
But here’s the thing: If you open a crappy store, you’re going to close. If you have bad customer service, you’re going to struggle. If you’re a jerk, you’re not going to make it.
However, quality stores, with proprietors with great attitudes and smart business plans will also struggle– that’s just the economic reality of it all. Lets not pretend its about downtown. Every business has got problems. Downtown shoppes need to stop pretending that they deserve some kind of special treatment from the government and the people of Oconomowoc, and instead focus on running a good business. Good Businesses run by smart Business people will still struggle in 2009. But expect marginal, menial businesses run for the convenience of their proprietors to close up shop in 2009– and that’s got nothing to do with location.
Tomorrow: The High Cost of Going in Circles.
