Community Business Problem

New shopping centers and restaurants are nice additions to a community in some ways. It's a neat to have a new selection of shops and places to eat, but other older businesses lose customers and they cannot compete. Think of the local hardware store in a small town that has been running for almost 100 years and Wal-Mart opens a store just a few miles outside the town. People flock to Wal-Mart, which kills the local store's business and they eventually shut down. I looked at the blog "Sprawled Out", and in the city of Franklin, Wisconsin, restaurants are shutting down and the blogger addresses a specific one across from a Northwestern Mutual Campus. Even with hundreds of people working across the street from the restaurant, it still could not stay open. New choices for dining and shopping and the poor placement of the old restaurants and shops has led to the closing of a few local businesses.

The blogger feels like his community is no longer embracing local business anymore and he finds that frustrating. He illustrates his point by saying, "The former Sentry grocery store, a huge building, is vacant. Walgreens next door is threatening to tear it down to facilitate a drive-thru window." It has become a huge problem across the United States and the destruction of local business is here to stay until something is done about it.

-Chris P.