Local merchants improve our quality of life
With the gluttonous serving of gloom delivered by most media these days, fear and frustration levels are high. As I wandered through the county the past few days, a constant thought was how fortunate we are to have the variety of shops, cafes and services located in our numerous, for lack of a better term, “downtowns.”
Marin is made up of a dozen or so individual cities and towns dispersed within its 520 square miles—from Sausalito to Novato, Tiburon to Tomales. The unique character of each of these downtown areas helps make Marin special. During these economically challenging times, it’s more important than ever to support the merchants whose businesses contribute so much to our quality of life.
Empty storefronts are becoming more and more common. “It’s not good,” says a somber Peggy Curran, town manager of Tiburon. “Our downtown has seven vacancies, and DeLano’s Market on Tiburon Boulevard closed last Saturday.” When a store closes, a city loses more than a local convenience for customers, says Curran. “Last year, DeLano’s sales tax revenues to the city exceeded $30,000—and most of what they sell isn’t taxable.” All told, the Town of Tiburon received more than $550,000 in sales tax revenue in 2008, most of it coming from downtown merchants.
“It’s not just the loss of income that worries me,” Curran says, “Downtown is where people meet and interact—it’s the heart of our community.”
Doug Canepa, co-owner with his brother, David, of Mill Valley Market, now in its 80th year of business, is also concerned. “We know times have changed dramatically,” he says, referring to the competition his market faces in the county from Costco, Safeway, BevMo and Whole Foods, “but I have to ask: is price everything?” Canepa then answers his own question: “I remember my granddad extending credit to people in town who’d lost jobs. I saw my dad open the store after hours when someone needed a quart of milk, and we still provide display space for locally grown produce, including organic vegetables from the Canepa family farm in Glen Ellen.”
And, Canepa adds emphatically, “our prices are very competitive.”
