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Discover Mid-America — July 2006
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Kinda sad
by Bruce Rodgers, Editor/Publisher
One question I am repeatedly asked by advertisers is some variation on “What are other people saying about business?”
Sure, I coax it out sometimes by first asking some variation on “How’s things been goin’?” But I’m not being specious. I want to know and appreciate an honest response. This business of publishing this publication depends upon the health of its advertisers. It’s that simple.
Where the pressures to stay in business are different — different operating costs, for instance — in retail and particularly the wholesale antique business, an enterprise can survive without advertising. I’ve had dealers, part-time shop owners and wholesalers tell me that they didn’t need to advertise. I always figured it was a money thing — not wanting to spend it — more than anything. And, I’ve gotten the feeling that some small business people just want to stay the way they are — not really grow, not really adapt. To some being in business means more than and involve some personal intangibles outside just the ring of a cash register.
I have nothing against that. People get in business for various reasons and sometimes being the biggest on the block isn’t something all that desired.
Still, it’s tough when business people close their doors. When an antique shop closes, the community loses more than a business. It loses a connection; and since antiquers can range far and wide in their searches, when an antique shop closes the community loses connections to other communities outside its own.
I’m not sure many chambers of commerce, or local, county or state economic development people recognize that. Many seem more enamored with Wal-Mart than homegrown businesses.
But big-box retailers are the same anywhere. An antique shop, with years under its roof and reflecting the tastes and quirks of its owner and dealers, is rarely duplicated. Like an antique itself, an antique shop is one of a kind. It’s that reason alone why people drive miles and miles to an antique shop. The chance exists that you can walk away with something special and unique. Big-box retailers give the shopper something he or she can use — not something to cherish, admire, speculate about, ponder, bargain over or pass down to a new generation.
By Labor Day, one of my favorite antique outlets in one of my favorite small towns will have closed — Ma & Pa’s River Riverview Antique Mall in Napoleon, MO will be shuttered.
“It isn’t the ‘90s anymore,” said Vicki Merritt, “as I’m sure you know.”
After 19 years, Vicki and Bob are closing the doors. They’re going to travel and give themselves the time and space they deserve.
Napoleon will lose one of its biggest businesses. Mostly that will leave city hall, the bank and the post office — the old general store closed a while back — on Main St. From my vantage point, losing Ma & Pa’s has gotta hurt a town of barely 300. For non-locals, there isn’t much reason to pull off 24 Highway and turn north to Napoleon with the antique mall gone.
From the standpoint of a city guy — sick of the sameness that has come over America — it’s kinda sad.
Bruce Rodgers can be contacted at publisher@discoverypub.com.
> Editor’s Notebook Archive — past columns
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