Steve Mensing, Editor
♦ Someone recently asked me why I “hated” Downtown Salisbury. I don’t hate Downtown Salisbury. Hate really isn’t a part of my emotional makeup. How I think and feel about Downtown Salisbury is as follows:
When I lived in Salisbury from 2008 to 2014 I seldom if ever shopped for anything in Downtown Salisbury except at Simply Good, Growing Pains, and Innes Street Drugs and I chowed out at Go Burrito, Uncle Bucks, and Bangkok Downtown, and chain restaurants like Panera Bread and Outback. Most of the Downtown independent retailers don’t carry anything I’m interested in and they sell at list price or above.
I never do list price or above period. I live on social security and whatever shows up from books I authored. I had plenty of money at one time and now I’m a Gandhi in cargo shorts and a t-shirt. Never was a prisoner of money. I’ve always been motivated by what turned me on. To me money is sometimes an impediment to the balanced living and genuine happiness. Creative flow has more hitting power than el dinero.
Here’s some of the downside of Downtown Salisbury retailers:
• As a rule I won’t support any merchants forming a monopoly to keep out chain stores and chain restaurants. A NIMBY coalition, linking arms with merchant groups, City Hall, and historic preservation folks block even small chain retailers from moving there. Chain boutique stores would attract more customers to a destitute area where vacant storefronts are piling up.
• I do not approve of the groundless claims of “shop local” organizations that make big box chain stores into corporate ghouls who don’t contribute to the local economy and tax base. Reality Check: the big box chain stores in Downtown Salisbury are enormous contributors to Salisbury’s tax base. The big box chain store employees also contribute to the local economy. In fact the much maligned Walmart Super Center likely contributes more to Salisbury’s tax base than all the independent retailers on North and South Main combined. It’s also easy to note a number of the big box chains contribute enormous sums of money to philanthropic causes.
• As a rule when I buy an item I always go for the best prices. While I still buy stuff at brick and mortar spots, if I require something large I shop mainly on the internet. The prices are unbeatable there. In the not too distant future the shift to internet and rapid local delivery will further deteriorate Downtown retail districts. The internet is the place!
In time the Downtown merchants will likely realize they were used. Surely its must occur to some they are paying the highest Downtown taxes anywhere in North Carolina. That Municipal tax is making the cost of doing business in Downtown Salisbury onerous. It won’t be all that long before the Downtown merchants will also notice they are not scoring any of the alleged $5,000 per person per year from persons working at the new School Central Office. All that orchastrated “groundswell” for the cameras amounted to nothing.
