Brace yourself for the Superstore Invasion

by Jean Martin

Superstores are snorting and pawing the earth, ready to break down the barriers well-meaning St. Johns citizens are trying to erect. Something tells some of us that we have seen all of this before.

A generation or more ago something similar was happening in St. Johns. The first grocery store to move off Clinton Avenue may have been Andy’s Shopping Basket. Dorr Anderson built a small cement block grocery on North US-27 just west of Clinton. Plenty of free parking was the lure. Appropriately enough, Sundance has cars for sale there now.

Soon the exodus began. Byerly’s moved out on East State and was swallowed up by Eberhard’s. The Kroger store moved from the second block of Clinton to a spot near its present location. The A&P, Eislers, and Don and Peg’s stayed put. One by one they closed for good. At the same time the little neighborhood groceries like Mrs. Austin’s in the southeast quadrant, Hunt’s on west McConnell, and one in the northwest quadrant began a rapid decline. Dedyne’s hung on, tried to adjust, and eventually closed too.

If those moves were inspired by the automobile, the present movement is probably propelled by something else. It isn’t really about zoning or convenience or progress. It is simply about money. But this is not only about the money that moves between the landowners and real estate developers and the big companies who plan on coming in.

Ultimately the money driving these changes is our money. Everyone who brings home a paycheck, buys groceries, clothing, auto parts, and medicine plays a part in this new wave of development.

If there were no reasonable expectation that we would all give up and shop with them, the corporations would not be interested in our farmland. But we have a pretty reliable track record here. When the chain groceries moved out to the outskirts of town, our parents followed them. And almost certainly when the superstores build their acres of shopping areas surrounded by acres of parking, we will go strolling in there with our money jingling in our pockets. From there the dance of life and death continues for these businesses until the next fad comes along to send the superstores packing.