Michael Loje wrote:Jim, it comes down to this. Do people really want to buy what you are selling? Do people know you are there? Does your product or service have appeal beyond Lakewood borders?
That is important. Is Walmart selling or likely to sell your product? Those are things that fledgling operators sometimes ignore. For instance, opening a bookstore just aimed at local residents probably won't work.
My guess would be the McD franchisee is not looking for additional Lakewood clientele. We already know he's there. He is looking for the "out of town" impulse buyers who are most likely to travel Detroit rather than Sloane. And, traffic is greater on Detroit.
As for your repatriated friend, what type of business do they have? Why would announcing they are closing increase their business? Will they do something similar here?
Michael
This is Lakewood my friend, common sense and business savvy must be thrown out the
window. This is the town, where you can drag a horse to water, show them the water,
put their face in the water, open their mouths and place water in it, only to have it spit
back out, until they are going to die of dehydration then and only then will they turn and
ask, "Why didn't you tell me there was water here?"
There is very little common sense or business sense here. It is a city of, I have a great
idea for you to do to help me, but please do not ask me to do anything, as I am the one
in need of the help.
As for my friend, I am not sure what he and his family will do. Frank owned and started
Manja on Madison. Sold and moved to the promised land of Collinwood. Opened Collinwood
Cafe, right next to Collinwood Arts. Beautiful place, great location, neighborhood embraced
Frank and family and talked him up, but it business was slow. The promised land was not
so full of promise* and he decided to close. It was at that point everyone said "How sad
it was he was closing, and we must do something..." My generally thought was talk, does
not always translate into bank deposits. Frank has bought and moved back to Lakewood,
I would love to see him do something here again, but who knows. I am glad he and his
family moved back, good people, good neighbors.*
We can go through many issues, Frank prices, menu, liquor, delusions of what Collinwood
is or wants to be, etc. The fact is, Collinwood Cafe had a lot going for it. Still, it was not
until it was leaving that people went ohhhhh we must save it. With Frank's help they did,
it is now the Collinwood Arts Cafe, and Frank proving his value as a neighbor worked hard
to make the transformation seamless and easy. However, I am watching the very same
thing happen to it right now. The same cycle. So it will be interesting.
As Bryan Schwegler so often says, it is up to the business to make people want to go there
and in the world of commercialism and free market it is true. But then we could have other
influences causing the problems, and the business takes the hit not because of themselves
but because of what happens around them. Other businesses rely on the romance of the
minute like the Beck Center. Quality of plays up, Scott Spence one of the best directors in
the state, art, cafe, classes better then ever. We all want to save it, we all want to keep it,
but do we all want to go? Or go enough to keep it viable. The same is with restaurants
right now in Lakewood. As the new taste on the Detroit Chow Line pops up, older more
established restaurants end up losing a little as new ones succeed a little. While it is the nature
of things, it does effect a community and what is there. The new girl/guy always looks more
interesting than what you are familiar with. In Lakewood any month in the black is a great
month. People do not realize how tight margins are, it does not take much to cause even
a successful business to say, "Why?" To my knowledge Three Birds was doing fine, owner
sells.
I suppose I am not really lamenting the flow and the change as much as wondering why
it happens. Or how it causes so much expenditure of emotion, and clash of people. As you
point out, Go to WalMart, Builder Square, and merely talk about Lakewood Hardware, and
Lakewood Hardware fails. One must go to Lakewood Hardware and buy, if a person wants
the great service Glen offers. The truth is, one might have to pay 5% even 10% more for
caulk, if they want to keep the ability to buy screws one at a time.
As others have said. If you can outbid McDonald's then you can get the theater. It just
seems a little hap hazard for me.
* I place this in, as a disclaimer. Whenever I post what could be construed by small
minded people as negative comments of another city. We have one Lakewoodite using
faux names mailing those comments to other Observer papers, saying "see Jim hates
you and is playing you for fools." This would be because that person has some deep
seated hatred, and true lack of honesty in their city, their neighbors, in me, and in
themselves. Simply put terribly unhappy with their lives in general. The fact is while I
like most communities in this county, and all over. I LOVE LAKEWOOD. When I mention
Crocker Park is soulless, it is not to pick on them, it is because I am being critical of the
hundreds of empty homes and apartments there. That it is the dream of one person, Bob
Stark, a man I admire, but it reminds me of Hershey, PA.. I do not hate Crocker Park, I
do go there occasionally, if that is what a person wants they should go there. I would say
I am far more critical of the city I love, Lakewood than these other cities. Adults, sane
adults would understand this and why, small minded people filled with hate, would be
incapable and would work to marginalize the project. The project is, each project owned
by people that live in each city, and they can decide what is best for their city. It is not a
large national multi-million dollar company telling you they "are local" it is local owned,
operated, and in the end answers to the community it is in. Very simple concept, one seat
at the table for all. To that point, if they tell you they are banned, they are liars. If they
say their account was shut down while we ask them to talk to one of the advisory board
about their "games." It might be true for 6 people in a city of 51,000.
Sorry did not mean to rattle on, but...
peace
