Regarding the closing of Sam’s Place (June 13 Sun Chronicle), it is no mystery why the downtowns of Saco and Biddeford (along with other towns) are struggling.
1. The local governments approve the construction of the shopping centers with the big box stores while failing to address the issues that keep shoppers and large anchor businesses away from their downtowns (parking, delivery issues, aging buildings, restrictive codes, etc.).
2. Customers go wherever they can buy products the cheapest, and they don’t care that the small business owners can’t buy wholesale products in large enough quantities to match or beat the prices of the mega purchasers.
3. Most stores now offer sales every week, so customers have become trained not to buy anything unless it’s heavily discounted or they have no choice but to pay a higher price.
4. Most stores (big and small) only hire people part time and for low wages, then they wonder why people don’t buy more. Duh! Obviously, people need to be paid a wage they can live on. Now it’s at the point where having two or three part-time jobs still isn’t enough.
5. New small business owners open up their business without checking to see if there’s enough demand for their product or service, or without checking to see how much competition there already is in the area.
Do we really need another Oriental restaurant, pizza shop or tattoo parlor? They also often pick their location based on the cheapest rent, not based on how much customer traffic they are likely to receive. And, some small businesses spend all their money opening their shop, so they have no money left to advertise and let people know they exist. Then they wonder why people don’t come in to buy anything.
6. Many small business owners pick a storefront that’s too small for what they need. If it’s a retail store, sometimes there’s so little product that even if they sold everything in the store, they wouldn’t be able to pay their rent. And small “hole-in-the-wall” restaurants often have so few tables that even if they were open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, they wouldn’t be able to serve enough customers to stay open.
For business owners who lament the competition that comes from cheap imports and (the fact) you can get it cheaper on the Internet, the answer is that in addition to your storefront and your regular merchandise, you should also sell cheap imports and sell (online). That’s what I do.
If you are a small local business that’s struggling and depends entirely upon walk-in customer traffic, you’re in big trouble. You need to make the necessary changes to expand your customer base outside of the immediate area, and the sooner the better. If you wait for the government to do what needs to be done, you’ll be waiting a very long time.
Complaining about all this stuff won’t change anything. Taking action and changing our behavior will.
Dana Perkins of Saco is the owner of Art Service, a local business that includes commercial art and fine art, signs, truck lettering and window lettering, ships and lighthouses in bottles, and online sales of gifts and home decor items. He also does magic shows and performs as a ventriloquist.
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