I love small, local businesses. My favorite new business, lately, is the little
guitar shop where Cosmos Coffee used to be, on Snelling by Marshall. I hope
they can survive. Their prices *crush* Guitar Center - I even asked them if the
merch was "hot". It's not. Just a great value.
But this city has done a great job stacking the deck against them. Talk with
small local business owners. What's the biggest issue in their lives?
Government.
Small, local businesses are dying *because* of government.
Want to help local business *and* "the community?" The best thing you can do is
top trying to "help" local business and the community via the political process
- government and all of its appendages.
I urge you all to read "The End Is Near (And It's going To Be Awesome)" by
Kevin D. Williamson. Central thesis - markets (for example, the market for
small, local businesses) are impossibly complex; they and the needs they serve
and the niches they fill evolve *constantly*, based on *getting people to
choose them*. People say "no", the business fails. People say "yes"? The
business survives (until people say "no" again. Bridgemans and Embers were huge
businesses, until people chose something else. Blockbuster was a Fortune 500
company, until people chose to stop watching VHS and DVD. But there's no
shortage of casual restaurants or home video, is there?) Businesses come and
go, as markets change - but if there's a need, someone will fill it.
But politics? Politics is all about oversimplifying the impossibly complex to
the point where someone like a Betty McCollum or a Todd Akin can understand it.
It *never* evolves. And politics, by its nature, picks winners and losers.
That's what politics is; trying to negotiate who the winners and losers will
be.
Small, local businesses are dying, and chains are taking over, *because* of
government.
Government ran a light rail line down University; the businesses that didn't
die during construction are facing either rising taxes and rents if they're
near the stops, or diminished parking, gutted foot traffic AND rising rents if
they're in the wastelands between the stops. Small, quirky local businesses can
afford this less than can big chains, who have regional and national volume to
help ride out transitional periods. Chains 1, Small Local Businesses 0.
Neighborhood residents awash in "NIMBY"use, and abuse, the government system to
pick and choose what goes in "their" neighborhood. Fussing over niggling,
anal-retentive zoning restrictions (Cupcake) or misguided political correctness
(Midway Firearms) or just plain neo-puritan vindictiveness (countless
neighborhood bars) have ended many a small local business, even when the money
and the market was there for it to be a success. National chains 2, Small and
local 0.
And all of you folks who were working for the smoking ban ten years ago? Wonder
why so many "local" bars and restaurants closed, and/or have been replaced by
Buffalo Wild Wings, Champs and the like? (Someone will chime in around this
point to say "that's just anecdotal!". Yep - anecdotal and universal. Ever
wonder why so many Saint Paul bar owners are Republicans?) *The local
businesses didn't have the financial oomph to survive that hit on their top
line*. B-Dubs does. Adios, local bars and restaurants. Chains 3, Local 0.
Government-backed business loans? Sorry. Those loans are issued according to
guidelines written by politicians. Who has the resources to bend the pols' ears
while the laws are being written? Locals, or big businesses? You only get one
guess. Chains 4, Local 0.
Most of you are suggesting government solutions to "fix" the problem. The
"fixes" will, themselves, distort the market, causing bigger problems later on.
Example: Downtown Saint Paul. Government spent like drunken sailors for decades
to give us...what? A vast empty canyon between Minnesota and Jackson; Expensive
arenas at taxpayer expense to subsidize a few bars and restaurants. If the Wild
go away, so will the party-time on West Seventh; an artificial party zone in
Lowertown that will be used four months out of the year, but will jack up
prices for those few people that actually live in the area. Chains 5, Local 0.
And that doesn't even include all other problems from the city (DSI, potential
"living wage" laws), state (insane regulations) and federal (Obamacare)
governments throw in their way. Chains have the resources to prevail over all
the above. Mom and Pop stores? Sorry. Chains 2,300,003, Local 0.
When I first moved to Saint Paul 27 years ago, there were *lots* of funky,
quirky local businesses; chains had their place, but they didn't dominate
entire stretches of places like Grand or Snelling like they do today. Since
then, we've been beset by a city government that has gotten more and more
interventionary over time.
And the more interventionary government has gotten, the worse the lot of small
local business.
They are not in any way unrelated.
The best thing you can do for small, local businesses is get City Hall and all
its agents as out of the way as reasonably possible.
I know this forum. Many of you will regard that idea as heresy. That IS the
problem.
Mitch Berg
The Midway
Rest of post
On Wednesday, February 5, 2014 9:09 PM, Jim Mork <<email obscured>>
wrote:
Monica. People are responding to this comment in a previous post of yours:
"I would guess, however,that helping small businesses get loans or tax
incentives for small businesses would help-why do chain businesses get them and
small businesses do not? "
So we are not "misunderstanding". We are responding directly to some you
posted.
As to other things a city can do, I'm pretty sure a government that valued
something beyond mere tax base could find ways to help long-term businesses
survive or expand. And, yes, listening to them is a key item. That's what
council members are there for. Perhaps address that to the offices of those
council members.
As to tax breaks. I'm not so sure. Everybody and his brother is always looking
for tax breaks. Things that cross my mind. Why should the average taxpayer make
up for taxes lost because someone has a personal ambition? Plus, way more
businesses fail due to the lack of business-owning qualifications than from any
sort of environmental cause, is there some reason to give a break just to start
a business that will fail? There comes a time when the "nanny state" concept
can apply to someone who wants to sell antique items or model trains or
whatever. I'd say for a lot of these businesses, a home base with no external
props is a better way to go.
Jim Mork
Cooper, Minneapolis
About/contact Jim Mork: http://forums.e-democracy.org/p/4TkJedLzW2MpKz8IlgiAVX
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