Wal-mart has located itself just out of town now no one visits the downtown area, most small businesses have gone under.
Kids leave just out of high school and never return.
Help! It's my home town and I'd like to see it survive!
2007-02-09 00:04:31 · 7 answers · asked by dawn_sometimes 1 in Social Science ➔ Economics
Many towns are old and quaint but unless there is a strong monetary reason for their existence they die. You'll need to either create good paying jobs or attract wealthy people that do not need jobs. Good paying jobs come from things like an auto assembly plant or a major university. Wealthy people may want golf courses, private airfields, great restaurants.
2007-02-09 00:49:32 · answer #1 · answered by Thinker 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
You can't. Its called progress.
It might seem frightening at first but it can be a good thing in the long term - even for your small town. It might give the townsfolk the opportunity to re-invent the place into something new.
A small village near where I grew up went through this a few years ago. It wasn't wal-mart, it was a new bypass instead. Once the new road opened, the village traffic dropped to nothing and local businesses like restaurants, pubs and newsagents faced a few very hard years but this has now passed, businesses have re-invented themselves and things are now pretty good.
Maybe your town council might like to do something to promote interest in something your town excels in - Lace making / Ironmongery / Paragliding being a few examples of places near me (Bedfordshire, England).
If you're really that committed (and I hope you are as thats a good thing), then get involved with making some of this happen. Who knows, perhaps you could help your town rediscover (or discover anew) something to make your town a real draw.
It won't be the same but then nothing ever is.
2007-02-09 00:23:24 · answer #2 · answered by matt 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Was it the Wal-mart that did the damage?
That would indicate a fundamental weakness: downtowns have been in increasingly bad shape for thirty years, and that's hardly Wal-mart's fault. Sam Walton once pointed out that he didn't do anything that other retailers could not. Wal-mart put stores out of business, but those stores did the same to their predecessors: Montgomery-Ward, Sears, Western Auto, Woolworth's, IGA, Landmark, and whoever bought out your local power company--all of these coldly out-maneuvered the little stores that once lined the peaceful streets of your town. They themselves were killed off by the Krogers and K-marts of later years.
And unless you have an exceptionally unusual town, retailing shouldn't be much of a factor. Kids aren't going to stay in your town because the Wal-mart is there or is not there. They'll stay there because there's growing industry, or a climate that encourages it.
Your town is a victim of changing times and fashion, and there's generally little that can be done about that. But the least you can do is to find out where your local kids moved, and why. I suspect that you'll discover that it was economics and the prospect of future opportunities.
How old are the people who run your town? How old are the people who run the towns where your kids moved?
2007-02-09 00:34:23 · answer #3 · answered by 2n2222 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Unfortunately, this is a national pattern. Downtowns are dying. I love Target and Walmart's ok for certain things I need. Mom and Pop businesses can't compete.
2007-02-09 00:14:48 · answer #4 · answered by Debra D 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Life goes on. Start something else. What do you all do
after shopping at Walmart?
2007-02-09 00:12:58 · answer #5 · answered by wcsj 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Dynamite!
2007-02-09 00:13:00 · answer #6 · answered by Gary H 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
ahhh, free-market capitalism at its best
2007-02-09 00:08:44 · answer #7 · answered by chavito 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋