Slow but steady community effort
 
By MARLENE KENNEDY, Executive business editor
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First published: Friday, January 9, 2009

It was time to check back with Melinda Little.

She is one of the organizers of Saranac Lake Community Store Inc., an effort by residents in that Adirondacks community to create a Main Street retailer to sell needed but hard-to-find items like yarn, crochet hooks, underwear and shoelaces.

They launched a public offering in July 2007 to raise $500,000 for the store, filing a prospectus with the state to sell shares at $100 each to any New York resident. The minimum purchase was set at one share and the maximum at 100 shares. They expected the store to debut late in the year.

Saranac Lake, if you've never visited, is deep in the Adirondack Park Preserve, a three-hour drive from Albany. The so-called tri-lakes communities — Saranac, Tupper and Placid — are tourist magnets summer, winter, spring and fall. But the residents who live there year-round faced a dilemma when discounter Ames Department Stores went out of business in 2002, shutting off a pipeline to some everyday purchases.

Wal-Mart seemed eager to step in — it had floated proposals before for sites in Lake Placid and Saranac Lake. But a vocal group wanted nothing to do with the retail behemoth. And so the community store idea was born.

It's not unique — community efforts to create locally owned general stores have been successful elsewhere, especially in the West — but the Saranac Lake Community Store would be a first in New York.

Before its doors open, however, the prospectus must be completed.

To date, $326,800 has been raised from "over 400 investors from more than 50 different communities across the state, including Syracuse, Monsey, New York City, Albany and Rochester," says the Web site of store organizers.

A year ago, when I last conversed with Little via e-mail, the total stood at $219,500. She admitted then that the organizers were "a bit tired and keenly aware that we still have a lot of work ahead of us."

This time, she sounded more optimistic — or as upbeat as words in an e-mail can seem.

"We received c.$2,500 in investments over the holiday (without any push on our end) from people who wanted to buy shares as gifts for their family members," she wrote this week. And, she said, "We have $4,000 in additional matching funds, which we are promoting on our Web site and will also use as an incentive at our next share party, which is planned for later this month."

"Share parties" — supporters inviting friends and acquaintances for wine and cheese and a soft-sell on the community-owned idea — are one way organizers keep up their visibility. They also set up tables at Main Street events — the Fourth of July parade, the annual Winter Carnival — and hold open houses at the temporary office they have downtown.

But what about the recession and the constant drumbeat of layoffs and diminished 401(k) accounts? Wasn't that having an effect?

"So far, the economy hasn't seemed to be a factor," she wrote. "I think people realize that it's more important than ever to get the store up and running."

But what about this item on the group's Web site: that organizers asked for and received "one more extension" on the offering, taking the deadline to mid-June. Were they signaling an intent to give up if the $500,000 wasn't raised by then?

"We're trying to create a sense of urgency by that statement," Little said. "We've only been at this for a year and a half, so I don't see anyone throwing in the towel, as long as we continue to show progress."

But what about Wal-Mart, which has continued to prowl the Adirondacks, largely lacking in big-box stores?

Last May, when a longtime plastics factory closed in Tupper Lake, developer Nigro Cos. of Albany was said to be interested in buying the property for a retail center.

And since a handful of Nigro plazas have Wal-Mart as an anchor, it was thought the retail giant finally would get its central Adirondacks wish.

"We have talked about it but aren't too terribly concerned for a number of reasons," Little wrote of Wal-Mart, pointing out that the community store's business plan projects "needing only to capture a small amount of the potential market (less than 5%)" on the goods it wants to sell.

Besides, she said, "Tupper Lake is still quite a schlep." So "if we have what they want here, there's no need to go over to Tupper." And, she promised, "we will be able to be a lot more responsive to the wishes of our customers."

Spoken like a true Main Street retailer.

Executive Business Editor Marlene Kennedy can be reached at 454-5492 or by e-mail at mkennedy@timesunion.com.
    

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