Please note…
The series, “13 Things You Can do to Kill Your Community,”
is a set of satirical open letters by
Doug Griffiths
which appeared as individual weekly contributions to
The Wainwright EDGE
during the spring and summer of 2005.
The series is not intended to be taken as instruction
for actually harming your community; rather its critical aim is to
increase awareness of everyday things we may not
recognize as being detrimental to our community.
13 Things You Can Do to Kill Your Community
by Doug Griffiths, MLA Battle River - Wainwright
Ensure New Businesses are Not Enticed
The second in the list of thirteen things you can do to ensure your community’s failure (remember that this is meant to be sarcastic and only taken literally if killing your community is your ultimate goal) is to ensure that new businesses are not enticed to your community by competitive tax rates and services, especially if they may be competing with existing businesses.
In touring the province, we found that communities of about one thousand people in which there was one grocery store, that grocery store owner barely made enough money to support his or her family. However, in communities of roughly the same size where there were two grocery stores, interestingly enough, both did quite well. Likewise was the case in communities of three to five thousand when it came to restaurants.
Where there were only a couple of restaurants, both suffered. But where there were many restaurants, they all seemed to do well. There are many more examples I could provide but space is limited.
What is more important is why that would occur. People in general like choice and variety, and they like to feel they are purchasing in a competitive environment that assures them the best price. In communities where competition is limited we found that people would chose to drive to another community where there was more choice, more variety, and better prices because of competition. Essentially, their dollars would leave town.
Now it seems that councils and or community members did not like the idea of giving new businesses encouragement to locate in the community, or local business owners enjoyed their monopoly within a community and feared competition (we all like the idea of competition unless we’re the ones being competed against). Either way, successful communities have looked at the long term, the jobs that will be created by the new business, the long term tax return from a business that locates in a community, and the benefit of having competition to local businesses themselves.
Think of it this way: if two thirds of the people in a community shop elsewhere, that only leaves a third of the pie to one business, but if everyone in the community stays there to shop because of choice, variety, and competition, that means two businesses each getting fifty percent of the pie.
I have not heard of much of this happening within our communities because we seem to be acutely aware of the need for businesses, any businesses, to come to our communities, and try to attract them all. However, if the death of your community is your ultimate goal, be single-minded, think of only today, and don't foster a climate that will entice businesses or lead to competition, variety, and choice for community members. That way, they will shop elsewhere, the remaining businesses will close their doors, and you will lose your community.
Next [in this series] I will be talking about seniors and youth.
