While I wholeheartedly believe that we should support local businesses, the health of large chair retailers is also important to a community. A handful of companies, three of which have chains in either Plymouth or Canton, are in serious financial trouble: Blockbuster, Rite Aid and Borders.
Personally I’ve never cared much for Blockbuster. But until the company ditched its no late fee policy, I liked to get movies that were difficult to find at other stores. Rite Aid, although its prices are higher than other stores in some items, can be a convenient place to get last-minute items of all sorts. The local Rite Aid seems to be a well-run store.
Borders, to me, would be the most tragic loss of all. It’s located in Canton but serves our community. It is a great place to hang out and get hard-to-find magazines. While amazon.com has better prices on many books, Borders’ sales items can be a steal. Books are things I like to peruse before buying them and it will be a sad day when books can only be bought from the internet.
Hopefully these companies will rebound. The last thing this area needs are three more closed businesses.
The retail market is flooded with “convenience” stores. I could easily live without RiteAid since the prices are high and you can purchase the same things at CVS, Kroger, or even Target within a few mile radius. Blockbuster had the movie monopoly for too long. It’s difficult to feel sorry for them when they were raking in the cash and putting the smaller family owned stores out of business. Remember the Video Place next to Little Caesars or the place on Main Street (where Needles and Pins is now) just north of Ann Arbor Rd?
I feel you, K. I’m not a big fan of Rite Aid (it’s OK) and I really don’t like Blockbuster too much.
But boarded up businesses are bad for a community. That goes for the mom-and-pop places as well as the corporate chains. One, they are an eyesore. Two, closed businesses = lost jobs. The folks that work at Blockbuster — I have a neighbor that works at the Plymouth store — cannot, in this lousy economy, easily go out and get another job when that place tanks.
I couldn’t care less about the Blockbuster or Rite Aid corporation, but there are workers that will be negatively impacted.
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