As the Greenfield elections draw to a close, a number of candidates have suggested what they would do to improve our city’s economy, and address the many retail vacancies downtown. But an economic development plan must detail not only what a candidate will do — it also must say what they will not do.
For the past quarter of a century, Greenfield elected officials (including our first two mayors) have been singularly obsessed with chasing after large, national retail chain stores to save our local economy: BJs, Home Depot, Tractor Supply, and Walmart. We have even down-zoned industrial land to commercial, and touted the growth of gas stations and drive thru restaurant chains.
According to Goldman Sachs, 11,000 U.S. retail stores have closed in the first nine months of this year. Such closures will “continue to aid growth for Amazon.” Nearly one-third of the malls in America are battling declining customer traffic. Amazon now controls more than 40% of all online sales in the U.S. Yet Greenfield’s leaders still long wistfully for a Walmart on ground zero.
Any economic plan for Greenfield needs to accept this reality: retail power concentrated at the largest corporations has devastated small retailers in thousands of towns like Greenfield. Yet no local candidates have come out and said “I will not pursue Walmart or Target as the savior of our economy.” No one is talking about the Big Shark in the room and the out-of-state developers who have profited off our land.
We have 10 acres of land at the end of the French King Highway. We have 162 acres of land that used to be in the French King overlay zone. For too long we have embraced big retailers and their $12/hr jobs as the panacea. Instead, our City Council and mayor need to acknowledge that we are already circled by box stores and Amazon. These corporations extract dollars from our local economy, creating a billionaire class like the Waltons and Jeff Bezos. Walmart shoppers killed the regional/family chains like Caldor’s, Ames and Rich’s 15 years ago. A big box located any closer to our downtown will find very little competition left to kill. It’s not enough to replace a dead Burger King with yet another auto parts store. This is a dead-end future.
Our population today in Greenfield is not much bigger than it was in 1950. Our per capita income has plummeted as the tool shops closed. Disposable income has shrunk. A city of manufacturers has changed to a city of consumers.
We need to move beyond the “pavers” who want to blacktop our green spaces, and say clearly that we want a new economic base that is not dominated by corporate retail giants. And don’t offer any of these giant retailers tax breaks or public subsidies to drain our economy.
Let the candidates talk about tech jobs and the internet — but let’s stop killing our small merchants by smothering them with retail monopolies. Ask your elected officials what they will not do for our economy.
Al Norman is a resident of Greenfield.