Editorial: Let’s focus on growing business

Many of you will be able to relate to this story. When your editor was a boy, Kearney Street (or “main street” as home folks like to call it) was a busy place. There were many stores on the three blocks of downtown; and if you needed something, you could probably find it there.

We had a grocery store, a variety store, a photography studio, a dry goods store, a couple of furniture and appliance stores, beauty and barber shops, a soda fountain, a movie theatre, the electric company, three or four clothing stores, a feed store, a hardware store, a farm implement dealer, an office supply and printing shop, a drug store, two banks, a pet store, an auto parts store, a variety store, a dry cleaners, a boot maker, and other things that time has erased or blurred from memory.

And of course, then as today, Kearney Street wasn’t the only place where business was conducted. Across town there were three or four other grocery stores, another drug store, a donut place, a Ford dealer, and a General Motors dealer, two lumber yards, and more.

Like many small towns, Clarendon has seen a lot of businesses disappear. This week, we learned that Stavenhagen Video will be the next store to take a bow and exit from the stage of local commerce, leaving just a handful of actual retail stores on Kearney. We could ruminate for a long time about the causes of this phenomenon… Internet sales, the short distance to the Big City, people who just don’t “get” the real value of shopping at home, and on and on and on.

Several businesses have come to town over the years. Some have survived; others have not. Self-employment is not an easy thing and not for the faint of heart or those with little business sense. It is a fact that most small businesses will fail within the first year or two. If you can make it past that point, you’re doing pretty well. If you can make it 27 years, like Bill Stavenhagen did, then you did really well.

Some may say the future doesn’t look too bright for downtown Clarendon or business here in general, but perhaps this is a good time to consider what we do have going for us. As usual, the two biggest assets our community has are Clarendon College and Highway 287. We used to add Greenbelt Lake to that list; and while the drought has taken a terrible toll and nearly dried up recreation on the lake, it is still a tremendous asset and a good employer for several families.

Those three things alone are assets that many towns would give almost anything to have. Add to those our unique heritage, some brilliant young minds, the ethic of Texas Panhandle people, the influence of agriculture, and the natural wildlife in Donley County, and we still have a lot going for us. Our economy, our attitudes, and our imaginations must change somewhat to capitalize on those assets however.

From your editor’s standpoint, we need to make several things to happen in order for Clarendon to thrive. For businesses in general, we need to clean up our town. We need to look at it from the view of the visitor and do all we can to make a good first impression. (Getting rid of apocalyptic signs might be a start.) If every property owner on US 287 made sure their place looked the best it can, it would improve the overall attractiveness of our city.

For downtown, we again need to clean up and fix up. We’ve made progress on this, but more can and should be done. The Mulkey Theatre is a huge draw every day and especially at night. It pulls people off the highway, and we just need something else to catch their attention while they’re pulled over admiring the neon.

The Enterprise asked our Facebook readers this week what they thought we needed downtown. Here’s some of what they recommended: an ice cream shop, a pool hall, wine and cheese bar, new sidewalks, an activity center, a ban on storage buildings, more block parties, and more 5K runs. But the most popular answer was different versions of this – a good restaurant or steakhouse with live music and adult beverages.

We are fortunate to have a variety of restaurants in this town, but we still need a good destination restaurant on main street to serve as an anchor for other businesses and to pull traffic off the highway. A destination restaurant – like those in McLean and Lakeview – is not something put together on a shoestring budget. It’s an investment. It’s a place that has to be a good experience for the customer from the time they pull up to the curb to the time they payout and leave. A restaurant has one shot with a new customer, if that first experience isn’t good, there likely won’t be a second one.

For any new business to make it in this town we need to check our attitudes as customers and as potential employees. As consumers, we must find a way to support our local businesses and recognize that they drive our local economy, support our local charities, and are – to paraphrase an Alan Jackson song – “the little men [and women] who build this town.”

And it’s high time for some tough love with our workforce. Your attitude as an employee impacts directly your employer. Learn to count change, be happy when waiting on the customer who is ultimately paying for your salary, and above all don’t act like it’s a bother or an inconvenience to wait on someone. We’re all in this thing together, and the people at the front counter and waiting tables are the first impression that many people will have of a business. If that impression isn’t good, customers won’t return.

Working together, Clarendon can thrive. But we have to make it happen and not just wish for it to come true.