| Many times the closing of a door
causes creative people to build a bigger, better door. A few
years ago, the citizens of Powell, Wyo., found themselves with
a door closed, literally.
After the Anthony chain, which owned and operated
one of the anchor stores in Powell, was purchased by Stage,
the community
was never sure if the store would continue to stay open. As
Stage tightened its budget, stores around the region were
closed.
The store in Powell survived each round of closures,
but the inventory would continually change. Some weeks, the
Powell store
didn't receive any new merchandise and other weeks, it
would receive merchandise unlike anything or any brand in
the
store.
Community leaders would consult the local manager
and she would say, "I don't know if they will remain
open or not." Finally, the memo came from headquarters
that they would shut the doors. This was not what the people
of Powell wanted to hear, since no other stores carried the
range of clothing offered by Stage.
The notice of closure
The notice of closure put the Retail Strategies
Committee of the Powell Valley Chamber of Commerce into panic
mode. Replacing
Stage with another clothing store became the No. 1 item
on our agenda.
Having had several successes in recruiting businesses
to Powell, a community in northwest Wyoming with a population
of 5,200,
the committee members just knew that whoever we contacted would
certainly jump at the opportunity.
Each committee member was asked to make contacts
with any clothing store we thought might be interested. We
phoned, made personal
contacts, and used the Internet to learn requirements for
business relocation. We found that absolutely no one was interested
in
what we had to say, let alone what we had to offer.
Plan Two was quickly undertaken. I had heard that when Plentywood,
Mont., lost its Stage store, its residents sold stocks and opened
their own clothing store.
Members of the Retail Strategies Committee, Ken
Witzeling, Dave Reetz and myself traveled to the northern Montana
community
to check out their store and we were so impressed, we came
home with the attitude, "We can do this" and began to
make plans for our store on the trip home.
We gathered members of the Retail Strategies
Committee that had the same passion and contacted several
resources: the Wyoming Small Business Development office,
the regional representative for the Wyoming Business Council,
and
the city administrator. We decided to meet every week for one
hour and have a specific assigned duty for each meeting.
It was decided stocks
The group explored the various ways to establish
a business and chose to sell stock and have a full C-corporation,
not a limited liability corporation, nor a cooperative, even
though several articles have listed the store as a cooperative.
It was decided stocks would sell for $500 a share and no stockholder
would be allowed to buy more than 20 shares, thus eliminating
control from any individual and allowing it to remain a true
community-owned store.
We wanted to get the community's support,
and members of the committee met with several groups. The first
meetings were called with the existing merchants, 99 percent
of whom approved the project.
Meetings were held with various community groups
and the message was always the same: Keep moving ahead. Three
public meetings were held, and each meeting ended with a go-ahead
vote.
At each public meeting, people interested in purchasing stock were asked to provide their names and addresses. That list then became a database of
interested stock purchasers.
The Powell Mercantile Inc. was officially incorporated
in September 2001 and stock went on sale in October. A building
downtown was made available to the group, compliments of the
city of Powell, and regular office hours were established.
Ken
Witzeling, the chairman of the board, worked more than
400 hours in the office. Other members of the board assisted
when they were
able. The sale of the stocks became the buzz of the community
and one couldn't attend any event without hearing people talking
about whether they had purchased their stock.
The Powell Tribune, our local bi-weekly newspaper,
was very cooperative in getting the word out to the public.
They did
weekly updates and letters to the editor, and the editor
would use his editorial space every other week or so to give
his
very
positive opinion about what was happening.
We used ad campaigns, and the ones that got
the most attention were the personal testimonials from various
members of the
community. Their picture and a brief
story about why they purchased stock appeared in every
issue.
The ages
of these stockholders ranged from 9 to 94.
All of the ad material had to be approved
by the Secretary of State's Office in Cheyenne, and this is
something that
we cannot stress enough.
Securities law can vary from state to state,
so it was very important for the committee to contact the
necessary agency
in our state to have everything approved – from
the by-laws to all the correspondence being sent to potential
stockholders.
The process at the beginning took a couple days turn-around,
and then as confidence and trust increased, it was returned
by fax in an hour or so after they received it.
As the process moved along, Mike Reile, a manager
and buyer for another clothing store in Powell, jumped in
and offered
his expertise on buying merchandise His experience, and his
willingness to donate his time, allowed the committee to drop
the minimum amount to be raised in stock sales from $400,000
to $325,000.
After stockholders approved this amendment to
the corporate documents, the board had received enough money
from the sale
of stocks and began the process of sending Reile to market.
He was able to attend the market in Las Vegas in February and
the vision of our community store became clearer
as Reile returned with samples of the clothing he had purchased.
Fixtures were purchased, at about 40 to 50 cents
on the dollar, from stores going out of business from communities
as far away
as Boise, Idaho, and volunteers brought them back to Powell.
We had a volunteer hotline that we used any time we had work
to be done. We would put out the alert and the calls came in
immediately. We always had more people than we needed for each
task.
Many of those involved in this portion of the
project had not been involved in the community previously,
and to witness the
dynamics of this group was pure joy. Many volunteers continue
to donate their time at the store. You will find them gift
wrapping
during the holidays, assisting with getting merchandise ready
to display and any other task the board deems necessary.
In July 2002, the largest ribbon-cutting ever
held in Powell was held for the opening The Powell Mercantile,
Inc, or The Merc for short. After briefly telling the story
of how The Merc came to be, the ribbon was cut and the crowd
was told "let the shopping begin."
Begin it did and business has continued at a
great rate. The goal for the first year was $500,000 and the
store brought in $520,000.
Business increased 4 percent by the end of the first year.
The
second
year was
even
better,
with
a 6 percent increase.
The first half of the third year has also been
very good with 4 percent to 6 percent increases. With retail
down in many areas of the country,
it is very encouraging to continue to have increases. The 7,000
square feet at the beginning seemed like a large area to fill
with inventory, but in the second year it became evident more
space was needed.
The children's department was moved to a
basement store a couple of buildings down the block. The Jr.
Merc Down Under has become the place in the Big Horn Basin to
shop for babies, and tots to teens clothing.
Don't be afraid to try.
This effort taught us many things:
- We can solve our own problems. We do not
need to depend on corporate America for solutions.
-
Bring people in at the beginning of the process and keep
them informed and they will respond. Oh, will they
respond!
-
Setting aside personal interests and only looking out for
the good of the community will guarantee success. Everyone
involved
left their egos at the door and solutions were reached.
-
Don't be afraid to try. Success comes to those who
make it happen, not those who let it happen.
The doors of this important anchor business in
downtown Powell continue to remain open, and if the past is
any
indication, they will remain open for many years
to come.
Sharon Earhart is the Executive
Director of the Powell Valley Chamber of Commerce. |
