Small towns win big as residents shop at home

By Melissa Westphal

BusinessRockford.com

Laura Nordin got the best customer reaction last week as she stocked shelves at the new Snyders Drug Store in Poplar Grove.

A customer bowed, showing appreciation for being able to shop so close to home.
The new store is great for Nordin, too. She used to work in Rockford and now saves gas money on her commute from Capron.

“I’m down from a 28-mile commute to a 10-mile commute,” she said. “Right away, people have been saying how happy they are to have the store here and how they can save some money on gas.”

Rising fuel and food costs have meant bad news for residents and businesses alike. But they will likely benefit stores in smaller, rural areas as people stay closer to home. And sales tax collections in the Rock River Valley bear it out.

Big-box municipalities like Rockford, Machesney Park and Cherry Valley saw sales tax income decreases for the first quarter of 2008 compared with the first quarter in 2007. But towns like Durand, Pecatonica, Winnebago, Byron and Stillman Valley all saw increases.

The village of Winnebago saw a sales tax increase of more than 20 percent for the first quarter of 2008. A new Sullivan’s Foods, 703 N. Elida St., likely contributed, and village leaders have welcomed several retail outlets near Winnebago Road and the U.S. 20 bypass, including hair and nail salons, a coffee shop, a bank, a hardware store and restaurants.

And Byron’s two grocery stores, a Family Dollar that opened last year, a video store, coffee shop and a Verizon phone store all contributed to a rise in the village’s sales tax revenues, up more than 7 percent during the first quarter of 2008 compared with last year.

Robin Sisouk, executive assistant to Mayor Scot Nason, said gas prices keep her shopping trips closer to home.

“With three kids, we still make trips to Rockford, but only about every two weeks or so,” Sisouk said. “Times are hard, and consumers understand that.”

Reach staff writer Melissa Westphal at 815-987-1341 or mwestpha@rrstar.com.

What a jump
Monroe Center posted a huge sales tax jump for the first quarter of 2008 compared with 2007. The newly incorporated village earned $12,386.33 during that time in 2008, compared with $2,130.57 in 2007.

The windfall’s origin? Likely a newly annexed BP gas station along Illinois 72 near Interstate 39. The Monroe Center Oasis also includes the Sunrise Family Restaurant, which moved there from a different location in town.

The official view, unofficially
Rising fuel and food prices will continue to change spending habits, according to officials at Northern Illinois University, the National Small Business Association, and the Center for Small Business and the Environment. But it’s difficult to quantify because studies on the trend have never been done.

Traffic studies analyzed how far people are willing to travel to shop — but they’ve never had to account for record-high prices in oil.

“Rural retail centers are likely to see a lot more traffic as consumers are not willing to make the long commute to the big city,” Michael Hicks, associate professor of economics at Ball State University in Muncie, Ind., told The Associated Press.

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