By Amy Bishop
Harmony, MN
Over a month ago a special council meeting took place to discuss the merits of placing a temporary moratorium on players such as national discount chain stores coming to Harmony. Not to stop them from setting up here in town, but to allow the council and Planning/Zoning committee to review and potentially update our very outdated zoning regulations (1970s); work that had began last year. Much has changed in 50 years. Fifty years ago many small towns had vibrant downtown business districts (sadly many have lost at least half of those storefronts that provided for most of their community member’s needs) and Harmony is certainly fortunate to have retained a vibrant down town. When these ordinances were written, mom and pop shops (if you will), didn’t have to compete on the very un-level playing field that are national chains (national competitor in question in this case, being Dollar General). Discussions have been taking place around town ever since, with much concern expressed over how such a business would impact our community. Since that original meeting (which was requested by the Harmony EDA Board), there has been a Planning/Zoning board meeting and another city council meeting. At their meeting, the Planning/Zoning board chose not to recommend any ordinance changes/updates to the council. At the city council meeting immediately following, the council chose to allow public comment by scheduling a public hearing at 7 p.m. on March 1 at the Harmony Community Center to get a sense for how the community feels about the topic. Thank goodness they voted (3-2) to allow us a voice.
Does Harmony need a Dollar General? Do the potential long term (negative) consequences outweigh the short term conveniences? I would argue that if someone is looking for the products these stores have to offer, there’s a similar store just a short 10 minute drive away in Preston, or a bit further in either Chatfield, Cresco, or Decorah. Some would ask, “Why would we send business out of town?” To that I would say shopping at a DG here in Harmony (if it succeeds), doesn’t keep dollars circulating locally. It ships them down the road to the company’s millionaire CEO and company headquarters in Tennessee. In addition, the company has already begun transitioning to self-checkout, rather than actual local people to fill potential positions available within the store, so the argument for job creation is also a poor one. Our communities are already struggling to fill local (far better paying) job openings, so I fail to see how a DG would even staff its store.
What benefits would a national discount retailer such as Dollar General provide our town? Tax dollars, sure, but so would any other business venture that might occupy that location. Some creative (and locally owned and operated) ideas I have heard include an event center (weddings, family reunions, fundraising events, etc), an indoor adventure location (rock climbing wall, laser tag, escape room, etc,), and also a museum for horse drawn transportation (buggies, carriages, and even ornate hearses). Yes, the location in question (Wheeler’s) needs a new roof, though few have been inside lately to see its overall condition. It certainly had not been kept up in recent years and now belongs to the bank. The impression that seems to be floating around town is that DG was the only option. It was not. Several local parties expressed interest in the building (some prior to there being a contract with Dollar General’s developer). They were not given the opportunity to see the building, which understandably makes it difficult to make an offer.
Of my many concerns regarding the potential long term consequences of such an addition to our town, the most serious threat I see is to the long-term viability of our local grocery store. Hometown grocery stores operate on thin margins as it is, and an additional dollar store competing (with their immense buying power) could push our hometown grocery stores close to (if not over) the brink. We all know that when a small town loses its grocery store there is little chance to regain one.
In my opinion, the “what ifs” of this scenario are NOT worth the immense gamble.
Anonymous says
We recently purchased and renovated a home in Harmony. We moved here because we loved the wonderful small town vibe this town has, and bonus for us all the amenities we desired. We spent a lot of time looking at area communities and though Lanesboro was a close second, we picked Harmony. We went all local for our renovations, supporting many businesses in town and were so very pleased with the prices but especially the level of professionalism and care and that personal touch that seems to be missing so much these days.
I can see both sides of this situation, understanding the need to get the building sold. However I have to agree that letting in a store that would be direct competition to not one, but many of the businesses already here seems like a risky decision. It’s only a short drive to a dollar store north or south for those looking.
When deciding where to buy our home we looked at many area small towns and found so many boarded up downtown businesses, that’s not where we wanted to be. We picked Harmony because of its charm.
So many good alternative ideas have been floated for that building. I wonder is someone might step up with something else that could be there. More conducive and enhancing to Harmony’s charm.
Anonymous says
Rushford, Preston and Harmony are all home to grocery stores that seem, coincidentally or not, to be located in towns where Family Dollar has either set up shop (Rushford & Preston) or are trying to do so (i.e., Harmony). I remember going with relatives to the grocery stores in Harmony and Preston back in the 1950s, and to my knowledge, they still exist in the same locations.
What might be the impact on Harmony if they allow Dollar General to locate in their town?
The non-profit Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) has received very positive marks from the charity evaluation site, Charity Navigator. If anyone cares to do so, they can go onto the ILSR website, then enter the terms “Family Dollar Moville Iowa.” This story will provide you with a close look at the potential longer term outcomes of a Family Dollar Store locating in their community. You can read an article dated December 6 2018 which many of you might find of interest.
If you read the preceding article, you’ll see mention that according to federal data, Dollar Tree and Dollar General stores, sister stores to Family Dollar employ an average of eight to nine employees while the small independent grocery stores provide work for an average of fourteen employees. If Family Dollar opens and the grocery store eventually closes, that would appear to be a net loss of five to six jobs.
Are the wages and benefits offered by the Family Dollar store sufficient for you to quit your current job and work for them?
Locally owned grocery stores have a stake in the community while national chain stores are beholden only to their shareholders, many of whom reside far away from Harmony.
If you perform a broader search on the ILSR website, you’ll find many more articles regarding the impact of Family Dollar Stores on the communities where it does business.
If anyone would feel more comfortable reading a story published by an internationally known news organization, you could enter the search terms CNN and Dollar Stores Are Everywhere for another perspective.
Would a new Family Dollar store add jobs? Do locals plan to spend just as much money at the local grocery store, allowing them to keep their heads above water, despite operating under razor-thin profit margins? Would some of the money normally spent at the grocery store be diverted to the Family Dollar store instead?
A couple of questions to ask in Preston, since it has both a Family Dollar and a grocery store, is how many people each store employs. Has the number of employees at the Preston grocery store remained stable after the opening of the Family Dollar store? Did the grocery store in Preston lose business after this occurred? If there is increased demand in the community, the grocery store could then expand and offer a wider selection of items for purchase.
If the Family Dollar store diverts enough business away from the local grocery store to cause the latter to close, would those jobs lost be smaller than the jobs gained by the Family Dollar store’s existence?
Try calling the Preston Family Dollar store and ask them what their fresh produce specials are this week, and see what they tell you. If the grocery store in Preston ends up closing, where would those who live there go for fresh produce?
It seems that the Family Dollar stores do not carry perishable foods, but merely highly processed foods, which can be stored on the shelf, in the refrigerator or in your freezer for a long time. If you have a friend who belongs to Costco, a monthly trip to Rochester would likely allow you to purchase all the packaged foods that are available at the Family Dollar stores. And Costco even offers a wide selection of fresh produce and meat. If the Harmony grocery store is forced to close, the only fresh food would be a much narrower range of options at the local Quik Trip store.
If the new Family Dollar store results in the closure of Harmony’s grocery store, you’ll be limited to whatever the Dollar Store has for sale.
Will Fillmore County succumb to the invasion of Family Dollar, Dollar General and Dollar Tree stores (all owned by the same company), joining the most marginal areas in our metro areas that have become veritable food deserts?
Harmony stands to make a change from which it will become impossible to return.
Jon says
I’m torn on this. Could a Dollar General attract additional people to Harmony, who will then spend money at local restaurants or stores? Possibly. Will this place offer new jobs to the community? Sure. Will they be full-time or part-time jobs? Will they be good paying jobs, that’s questionable, outside of the manager position. Otherwise, you’re looking at somewhere between $8-10 per hour. Which could still be helpful for those seeking employment in town.
I just hope that people continue to support existing businesses with ties to the local community.
Anonymous says
Perhaps a few have forgotten that in 2019 Harmony made the national news following their campaign to attract new residents by offering home construction rebates ranging from $5,000 to $12,000, depending upon the value of the home.
The tourist trade is a significant contributor to Harmony’s economy, in part due to the downtown area, where long-time family-owned businesses remain open, unlike many other towns that are limited to a single 24-hour convenience store and a downtown littered with empty storefronts. Should Harmony decide to welcome Dollar General, later reversing that decision will be even more difficult than putting excess toothpaste back into its tube.
Many years ago, I watched a documentary regarding an ubiquitous Arkansas-based retail giant, one that has opened thousands of warehouse stores all across the nation. It described the process by which this mega-chain takes control of a community, initially reducing prices at the newly opened store for a few months (6-12 months is typical) until all the downtown locally owned businesses have been driven into the ground. Once accomplished, the chain store’s prices then return to “normal”, after all other competition has been eliminated.
Hearne, Texas is perhaps best known to Fillmore County denizens as the hometown of the Minnesota Vikings Hall of Fame Defensive Tackle John Randle, but it’s also a town where this national chain opened a warehouse decades ago.
Hearne’s population in 1980 was 5418 and was more recently estimated at 4354 residents in 2019, during a time when the population of the Lone Star State has been exploding. This national chain decided to close the store in 1990, leaving behind a doubly diminished community.
While visiting family in Texas in late January of 2020, I decided to see Hearne for myself. Even though it was a Saturday afternoon, the drive and walk through the downtown area was surreal — empty storefronts, crumbling buildings, more than 90% of parking spaces vacant, and almost no sign of life. The only activity I saw were at the chain stores lining or adjacent to State Road 6, the highway connecting Houston and Austin.
Don’t just take my word for it — you can find free videos online of people driving through downtown Hearne or ask someone you know in the area to stop there and tell you what they’ve seen. One of those videos was posted on December 23, 2019, at what should be the height of holiday shopping season, and the downtown still appears mostly deserted.
With the opening of a Dollar General, a significant part of that which makes Harmony unique and attractive to tourists would vanish. Does sacrificing long-time downtown businesses, to be replaced by a Dollar General, make Harmony a more attractive tourist destination?
The author makes an excellent point in that with Dollar General, the profits would then be shipped off to their headquarters in Tennessee instead of remaining in the community. Those displaced when local stores are forced into bankruptcy would then be left to compete for low-paying jobs at Dollar General, face unemployment or need to move elsewhere. Local family-owned businesses, by contrast, tend to reinvest those profits in their own community, as that money could be spent on perhaps an addition to the home, remodeling, or any number of other goods/services offered by local businesses, who could then do likewise. Do the people of Harmony want to keep their money and tax revenues in their community or would they rather export them to Tennessee?
Many communities around the nation have changed zoning laws to prevent companies like Dollar General from setting up shop in their towns, and have valiantly opposed all efforts to locate such chain stores in their community. Stores like Dollar General do not create additional jobs when they merely hire a few owners/employees of businesses that they have recently ravaged. .
There is much that the leaders of Harmony could learn by interviewing representatives of communities that have both welcomed and those that have blocked Dollar General’s arrival in their towns.
Let’s hope that those leaders will arrive at a well informed decision.
Anonymous says
Perhaps a few have forgotten that in 2019 Harmony made the national news following their campaign to attract new residents by offering home construction rebates ranging from $5,000 to $12,000, depending upon the value of the home.
The tourist trade is a significant contributor to Harmony’s economy, in part due to its downtown area, where long-time family-owned businesses remain open, unlike many other towns that offer only a single 24-hour convenience store and a downtown littered with empty storefronts. Should Harmony decide to welcome Dollar General, later reversing that decision will be even more difficult than putting excess toothpaste back into its tube.
Many years ago, I saw a documentary regarding an ubiquitous Arkansas-based retail giant, one that has opened thousands of warehouse stores all across the nation. It described the process by which this mega-chain takes over a community, initially reducing prices at the newly opened store for a few months (6-12 months is typical) until all of the downtown locally owned businesses have been destroyed. In many cases, stores that have been operated by the same family for generations have been forced to close. Then the warehouse store’s prices return to “normal” due to the elimination of all competition.
Hearne, Texas was once best known to Fillmore county denizens as the hometown of the Minnesota Vikings Hall of Fame Defensive Tackle John Randle, but it’s also a town where this national chain opened a warehouse decades ago.
Hearne’s population in 1980 was 5418 and was more recently estimated at 4354 residents in 2019, during a time when the population in the Lone Star State has been exploding. This national chain decided to close the Hearne store in 1990, resulting in increased joblessness, an almost empty downtown and few options that didn’t require driving out of town.
While visiting family in late January of 2020, I decided to see Hearne for myself. Even though it was a Saturday afternoon, the drive and walk through the downtown area was surreal — empty storefronts, crumbling buildings, more than 90% of parking spaces vacant, and almost no visible sign of life. Other than an oversized police station (for a town that size), the downtown appeared to be almost entirely deserted. It seemed as if I’d stumbled across a set from “The Twilight Zone.” About the only sign of life I could find were chain stores lining State Road 6, a major highway connecting Houston and Austin.
Don’t just take my word for it — you can find free videos online of people driving through downtown Hearne or ask someone you know in the area to stop there and tell you what they’ve seen. One online video, running five minutes, twenty seconds, posted on December 23, 2019, during what should be the height of the holiday shopping season, predated my visit by about a month.
With the opening of a Dollar General, much that which makes Harmony unique and attractive to tourists would vanish. Why would anyone travel to Harmony to shop at a Dollar General when there are likely many more much closer to home?
The author makes an excellent point in that with Dollar General, the profits would then be shipped off to their headquarters in Tennessee instead of remaining in the community. Those displaced when local stores are forced into bankruptcy would then compete for low-paying jobs at Dollar General, face unemployment or need to move elsewhere. Local family-owned business, by contrast, tend to reinvest those profits in their own community, as that money could be spent on perhaps an addition to the home, remodeling, or any number of other goods/services provided by local businesses, who could do likewise in return. Do the people of Harmony want to keep their money and tax revenues in their community or do they want to export those to Tennessee?
Many communities around the nation have changed zoning laws to prevent companies like Dollar General from setting up shop in their towns, and have valiantly opposed all efforts to locate such chain stores in their community. Stores like Dollar General do not create additional jobs — they merely hire a few people whose former employer has been forced out of business.
There is much that the leaders of Harmony could learn by interviewing representatives of communities that have both welcomed and those that have blocked Dollar General’s arrival in their towns.
Let’s hope that those leaders will make a well informed decision.
Corey Whalen says
I would like to know who was interested in the old wheelers building? Where they going to put up a new building there. I think we all better understand that the First southeast bank of Harmony does alot for this town, with out them I don’t believe there would be much left. Also I buy alot of my groceries in the our local store, but when something is not offered in this town we do have to travel to get what we need, and while we are in another town we usually get groceries there, I’m sure I am not the only one doing the same thing. If you keep people in town, all the business will do better. If this ordinance is passed, the future for our kids will get alot tougher, not to mention the price of fuel to be driving. Finally the grocery store is not all by it self. They have other stores in other towns. And do a great job, if there are some items that are on the selfs that are the same as the box store, they can make changes to put other selling items on there shelves. And let’s not forget about a larger branch gas station that keeps getting bigger and does take business away from our local grocery store.