Today an article appeared in the Kane County Chronicle titled “SG will welcome Wal-Mart.” I for one will not welcome Walmart. Erin and I are small business owners trying to start a retail business here in Sugar Grove selling dog supplies. I can hear the opposition now… “Ah ha! You’re just afraid Walmart will take all your business.” WRONG! I’m afraid they will take away our village’s integrity and values. Our target market is different from Walmart. Will it effect us? Yes maybe a little but Walmart shoppers are not our target audience.
So now that we have that out of the way, let me explain why I think Walmart is bad for Sugar Grove. From what I have learned through my own unscientific and hardly accurate survey of local business, its seems to me that the majority of folks who work in Sugar Grove LIVE in Sugar Grove. That said, do we want to be encouraging our residents to work for a company that doesn’t pay its employees well and doesn’t provide any benefits? What kind of message does this send? “The Village of Sugar Grove supports sweatshop labor and low worker compensation with no real benefits?” This is not the Sugar Grove I’ve envisioned. I really don’t understand how we go from an upscale retail center like the proposed Forest City project to Walmart. Are things that bad that we have to sell ourselves to the crummiest of the crummy? Why isn’t the Sugar Grove EDC pushing relationships with reputable retailers such as Target or Woodman’s?
In closing, I would like to leave you with this little video from the folks at JibJab. It absolutely says it all…
Also, I didn’t want to just highlight the negative from the EDC report at last night’s village board meeting. It was also announced that the EDC is working with Dunkin’ Donuts and Quizno’s to bring them to Rt. 47. I think this is great! I love DD coffee and Mmm Toasty! So way to go on those EDC!
Nice post! Thanks for sharing Big Box Mart.
WalMart is not right for Sugar Grove. You can’t argue that we have the demographic. You can’t even buy a house here for less than $300,000.
Sugar Grove has passed up businesses before because they were not the right fit. Are we desperate now?
Also, I heard that WalMart said that they planned to build in North Aurora so they could close the Galena store. That means we will get all the traffic from Galena. Plus, that Galena store is NASTY. So how do we know they will keep up the new store? There is no excuse for most of their stores being so dirty. I’ve been in Targets all over and they are NEVER dirty like that. Never do I feel like I have to shower after going to Target. I always feel like that when I go to WalMart, which reminds me never to go there again.
I’m not a WalMart shopper, but I’m also not an Aldi shopper and I’m not anti-Aldi. Aldi doesn’t have questionable business practices. WalMart does.
I just think this is completely wrong…
Wal-Mart is SO wrong! I really don’t understand? In Sugar Grove you have neighborhoods like Prestbury, Hannaford Farms, and even Settlers Ridge which will also have an estate home subdivision. I don’t even live in those neighborhoods. I just live in a town-home in Windsor West, yet I am not an Aldi or Wal-mart shopper. So I really can’t imagine that the folks in these other neighborhoods would be either. It makes NO sense at all. Lets have a town of totally up scale homes and fill it with the lowest scale retail shops. Who in the heck is going to shop at these stores???????????????? It’s already making me question if I really want to stay in Sugar Grove when it’s time to move from my town-home, and if this keeps up will I even be able to sell my town-home???? I just don’t get it at all, and I am not happy! I guess I’ll still be going to Geneva to do my shopping or even North Aurora (the new shopping area off of 88, behind the Auto Mall)
Hey!
This has nothing to do with Wal-mart, but please investigate the following odd and unusual occurence: when you type in “Sugar Grove, IL” into Mapquest, two towns in IL pop up. It appears as if there is a town in Mercer County with a name of Sugar Grove as well.
Todd wrote this.
I too would prefer not to see Wal-Mart in Sugar Grove. People are just too dang lazy to drive a few miles to the ones that are close by. Wal-Mart just doesn’t fit the rest of the village - Hannaford Farms and Wal-Mart - give me a break.
I loved the video of Big Box Mart! Thanks.
It’s funny how I found this site after typing in Sugar Grove Walmart in google, this literally popped up first. I have to agree with the masses on this. My wife and I just moved out to Sugar Grove about two months ago because, well, for the home size we wanted, this was the place.
Now we live in Windsor Pointe, which I think have nice homes, but are the “cheap seats” of Sugar Grove. My wife and I are self employed and are looking to grow with the community and have attended meetings, learned about the village, etc.
Wal-Mart just makes zero sense. Heck, we moved here when Aldi’s was being built, we first thought, oh that will be a nice place for a walgreens, then we see Aldi’s and we were like “What the ….” Nothing against Aldi’s, but with the meidan income home for Sugar Grove, I just don’t get it.
Wal Mart would make even less sense.
Oh well, the board says there needs to be more rooftops, well in Sugar Grove all there is is rooftops and all those rooftops are spending there money on Randall Road or Route 59.
I know many friends from the city or closer ring burbs who come out here and love the homes, but there is nothing besides homes. In order to attract more people, you need a healthy balance, which is severly lacking in Sugar Grove.
And the “down market” is not much of an excuse in the midwest where home prices continue to slightly go up due to the bubble bursting and subprime really effecting the east/West coasts and Florida.
So if Sugar Grove is to go Big Box, build a Target. Also for God sake built something on the huge block of corn Forest City owns, similar to The Glen in Glenview.
Oh, well, just my rant. Love the blog!