We need to stop the spread of this ‘corporate plague!’

ATTENTION SHOPPERS:

If you haven’t already heard, Dollar General is planning to build/open yet another store in another small town along Highway 55; this time in Watkins. And – based on the volume and intensity of public opposition heard at a public hearing in late July – Watkins doesn’t want them here. We do not need this predatory chain-retailer to set up shop here and commence the killing of the locally owned small retail businesses that we still have in this town.

The first, and most certainly the hardest hit, will be our small-town grocery store. There are countless examples of small communities all over the United States which have experienced the loss of their local independent grocery due directly to the invasion of these dollar stores with their unfair and unscrupulous business practices. But you don’t need to take my word for it. Do a simple Google search on “Dollar General” and you will uncover a substantial amount of information and statistics showing them to be every bit the scourge on our rural communities that I’ve suggested here.

For well over 100 years, there has been at least one family-owned grocery store to serve the needs of the Watkins community. Believe it or not (according to a long-time former Watkins grocer), there were at one time as many as five grocery stores lining the streets of this small town! For several decades, there were at least three groceries on the same block on Central Avenue downtown. Today, J&R -Family Market stands alone as the sole survivor. This main street building has housed a grocery store for longer than any Watkins resident has been alive. 

So, is the small, locally owned, family business grocery store destined for extinction at the hands of corporate expansion and greed? Is this unprecedented wave of discount retailers popping up on the rural landscape simply an -example of progress? A new normal that we just need to accept and embrace? I don’t think so. And neither did the many people who showed up to the Public Hearing and expressed their contempt for the big corporate chain store trying to shove another cookie–cutter predatory business down the throat of our community.

What can we do? 

1. Do your own research and decide for yourself if we really need another Dollar General in place of a local grocery store.

2. Make your voice heard to the Watkins City Council.

3. Support J&R Family Market by shopping us. You will discover why we are “the little store with more.”

With great concern but still hope,

Jeff Babbitt, Co-Owner J&R Family Market of Watkins