“What’s the Hubbub? We Already Have Big Boxes”

(1,298 Words)

(An op/ed piece published March 11, 2006 in the Door County Advocate, a Gannett publication)

Why such a flap about big box stores? In almost every recent issue of the Door County Advocate, letters to the editor express opinions either for or against a possible Wal-Mart Super Center. While it’s great that this topic has prompted so much public reaction, the fact is that these fears (or cheers) are probably based on conjecture: Wal-Mart has not officially confirmed any plans to expand into a Super Center in Door County.

Still, an anti-Wal-Mart group has mobilized and even started a picket campaign to air its protests, much the same as a politician campaigning for office. Planted on front lawns and plastered inside store windows, its message begs for attention. “No big box development here,” the signs proclaim. “Save Door County,” they plead. The protestors behind the signs are afraid that a Super Wal-Mart will wipe out smaller local stores in Sturgeon Bay. I think it’s a little late for that. How quickly they all forget.

In the 1960’s, we still had that quaint charm that some people think we still have, today, and fear losing. We had more cherry orchards than condos and only one bridge. We had a soda fountain, a Woolworth’s dime store, and an A & W drive-in, for example. We had two small grocery stores: Fisher’s and Red Owl. One day, Pamida discount store came to town and Woolworth’s closed. A few years later, the grocery stores jumped on the big box caravan, bringing us Econo Foods and Pick & Save on Egg Harbor Road. Krist’s tried to anchor the west side of town, but it couldn’t seem to compete with the two east side stores and also closed.

More big boxes moved into Sturgeon Bay during the mid-1980’s. Wal-mart, Prangeway, and K Mart arrived with their low prices and sprawling design. Target was the last to appear, but only after Prangeway lost its six-year struggle to keep pace with Wal-Mart and Kmart. With three new discount stores on our shopping horizon, Pamida soon fell by the wayside. Today, Palmer Johnson Yachts occupies that building. The competition soon overwhelmed Kmart, as well. Its empty shell still stands as a reminder that it takes more than selection and cheaper prices for a retail business to survive and, perhaps, a community the size of Sturgeon Bay cannot support more than two discount stores at one time.

If we consider the history of these failed businesses, then the anti-Super Center group has legitimate concerns that deserve careful consideration. To imply that a Super Center is the first sign of big box development in Sturgeon Bay, however, is like looking at life with blinders on.

It seems unlikely that big box development would hurt downtown shops, since they offer specialty merchandise that chain stores don’t stock. Ultimately, those who want to remain loyal to certain businesses will continue to do so, while those who shop with the lowest prices in mind will also continue to do so. There are many issues to consider, regarding big box development, but there have also been many advantages. Studies show that more development creates more jobs, lower prices, more selection, more sales tax revenue, more traffic to neighboring businesses, and more convenience for the consumer. More job openings help to stabilize the local economy.

The reaction of these protestors seems to be a symptom of a much larger problem. The issue, as I see it, is that Wal-Mart has been chosen as a scapegoat for the general opinion that there has been enough building expansion in Door County. Judging from the history of other building projects that have sought to win approval in this area, most will agree that the fights have been long and bloody. For this reason, I believe that the underlying fear that Door County faces is not the possible arrival of yet another big box store but its fear of growing bigger. We are afraid of growth and we seem to be afraid of change. Door County no longer resembles what residents and visitors have grown accustomed to.

Look around you--Sturgeon Bay is very much a town with growing pains. There is big box development on both sides of the bay, from the new Justice Center on County S to the new city police/fire department now being erected on Michigan Street. Like a mammoth Lego project, it snapped together, eliminating green space and trees, overshadowing almost every other building in the neighborhood.

Still, we try to foster the illusion of a small-town atmosphere that so many still crave. Our downtown businesses rejuvenate their facades with an eye toward “historic” design. Others try to reinforce that image by offering vintage horse and buggy rides through “historic” downtown or old-fashioned trolley rides around the county. In summer, they offer tugboat rides and airplane tours of the area. Drivers, however, must endure traveling on main streets that are as lumpy as wagon trails.

Logic seems to have taken a back seat to development if current trends are allowed to prevail. On the one hand, scenic beauty abounds in the water around us, but public park benches sit lonely and unoccupied on the shore. Perhaps the view is now too obstructed by the boat slips that jut out halfway across the bay, from Bridgeport. Of course, one might make a similar observation about Stone Harbor’s castle-like spires that rise into the sky from the east shoreline, their sprawling façades dwarfing Third Avenue shops and looming through Louisiana Street and along First Avenue like an ancient prison.

Even our shipyards have taken a beating. With the decline of shipyard building in recent years, Peterson Builders razed its property, leaving a gaping hole in the south side of town that exposed a sudden new vista of shoreline we didn’t notice, before. Enter Shipyard Partners to propose a new crown to cover this filling of razed rubble and, voila! We now have a whole new big box development, disguised as a yacht harbor/condominium/retail project.

I find it very ironic that our employment office is relocating into a big box building at Cherry Point Mall, while a local furniture store is closing down and moving out of that site. Where will people find work in a market where winter listings are barely a column long; while summers find the classifieds glutted with ads for hospitality businesses that are so strapped for help that they’ve resorted to importing foreign students into their work force?

Meanwhile, Door County is on the cusp of cutting edge information technology communication, with Brilliant Cities reaching agreements for its fiber optic services in most communities. State Highway 42/57 continues its transformation from two lanes that will eventually merge into the same divided highway that now leads north from Green Bay. After further construction and much wrangling, three bridges will offer access to a peninsula of approximately 9,400 people. The map is drawn and the arrows point to the desire for more business, but what message are we really sending?

It should be easy to see that big box development is already here, and that it has already exacted a price from us—a price that has cost some space, some existing businesses, and some discomfort about our future. The diversity and increasing scope of building expansion in Sturgeon Bay is stretching its boundaries in much the same way that a matron strains to put on a tight girdle. From its stately bed and breakfasts to the proposed fast food chains on S.42/57, Sturgeon Bay is already in the midst of building sprawl—a sprawl that may, in several years, become another suburb of Green Bay. I believe that is as it should be. Sturgeon Bay is to Door County what Madison is to Wisconsin. It’s about time we saw some progress—leave the quaintness to Northern Door.