To the Cook County commissioners
I am writing in opposition to the big box chain store issue in which Cook County is considering including such stores within its boundaries.
1.) Because of our remote location I fail to see how such stores can thrive in Cook County. Are we hoping to attract Canadian buyers? Who would willingly drive from Silver Bay to shop at a Dollar General? Better to drive south to Duluth and have a larger array of such stores to choose from. Certainly tourists won’t shop at a big box store when they can do so at their own home location. The nature lovers who frequent the Boundary Waters are surely not interested in picking up “made in China” doodads.
2.) Consider the Shopko in Two Harbors as a model for this type of store. The argument for increased jobs cannot be made convincingly since whenever I’ve been in the Shopko I’ve noticed two things: a greatly reduced inventory which makes the place seem empty, and a skeleton crew of perhaps five employees. I can’t understand how the place keeps its doors open.
3.) If you envision a Dollar General or other big box store pulling in lots of business, who will be paying for the changes to our road infrastructure?
4.) By allowing these big stores in, you are choking out the smaller merchants. Our population is not so large it can support both, and invariably the smaller merchant suffers. We already have a few vacancies downtown. Are you hoping to turn Grand Marais’s downtown into a ghost town?
And then there’s the “charm factor”— Grand Marais’s very appeal is that it’s not cluttered with these big box stores. Is it worth shooting ourselves in the foot over a Dollar General and the few families who’d like to purchase diapers more cheaply?
I urge you not to endorse the incursion of big box stores. If you really want to promote the town, encourage increased business by following the model of North House School and encourage the development and expansion of the Art Colony. Or invite a junior college to Grand Marais. Or start a writers school like the one in Iowa.
Surely Cook County commissioners can think bigger than big box stores.
Pam Dorris
Grand Marais
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