Update: Here is a Cudahy NOW story on this.
What the heck is happening to Packard Plaza?
The once-venerable Cudahy shopping center — which has already lost Aldi in the past year or so and is facing the closure of Merchandise Outlet — is about to lose another significant retailer: Dunham’s Sporting Goods.
I confirmed the closure today. I posted a message on their Facebook page, and I got this response …
Yes, our Cudahy location is closing. However, please note that we do have a store in Franklin that is less than 6 miles away (http://www.dunhamssports.com/store-map/) from Cudahy.
This one hurts. Dunham’s is the only business of its kind on the South Shore, and it’s a favorite destination of mine for sporting goods for me and the kids. From batting gloves for Christian to fishing gear for me, our family shops there often.
I’d like to know what you think about the demise of Packard Plaza, and Dunham’s. Remember Gimbels? Post your comments below!
(FYI: Merchandise Outlet is in its “final days,” according to its website.)
South Milwaukee Blog 
Wait a minute didn’t you vote for a Wal Mart. Why in the world would Dunhams want to shut down just because they will be undersold by a global corporate monster that you helped allow into the greater community?
Yet they relatively recently added a new store on 27th Street right down the block from a Walmart there. So that’s not it …
Does the property owner get a tax break or some other monetary incentive that makes it either more profitable to unleased space — or at least enables him/her/them to not lose money if space isn’t leased?
Does the property owner get a tax break or some other kind of financial break/incentive that makes it just as profitable to have unleased space — or at least so he/she/they don’t lose money if they lose tenants?
Good question. I don’t know.
Its the geography Eric. The area of the South Shore is bounded on the east by the lake. There is a limited area that any retailer can serve and Wal Mart will squeeze competition out. Next is Pick and Save on Packard, Sears Outlet, and Kmart. This isn’t about anything other than a regional monopoly. When retailers have a limited area from which to draw customers then there are a limited number of customers to draw from. Cudahy’s retail areas will become a ghost town. South Milwaukee’s stores aren’t far behind. Our downtown here in SM needs to diversify to avoid the same. Mom and pop stores are shutting down left and right. What is being done to encourage any healthy alternatives to the Wal Mart?
Unfortunately, I fear that Bryce is dead on. The larger, more regional businesses that are more experienced know what it is like competing with Wally World and they end up losing. I speculate that Dunham’s is getting out while still in the black, though likely barely. Most other stores in the area probably operate somewhat thinly in the black, so with the added competition from Walmart will put them out of business.
The only way to compete is to distinguish ones’ business differently, have better customer service, better products, a better atmosphere, a larger breadth of services, etc. Even then, everything comes down to price, so it is neigh impossible to actually compete with a Walmart.
Guess people must be saving up their money to go shop at Walmart.
Perhaps if we really try, we can blame the loss of the Packard Plaza Sears, Gimbels and Penneys on the as yet unopened Walmart as well.
If we really try, just maybe we can stretch our minds that far
I’m not quite old enough to remember a gimbel’s or sears there, but it boils down to the facts that there are only so many consumers in a given area. Said area’s demographics are such that the area is barely able to currently support more than one big box type store, especially of the dept store variety. Like I said, I’m not old enough to know when sears or gimbel’s went out, but I’d guess that the opening of other stores somewhat nearby, such as Kmart, may have had something to do with it. People perceive Walmart as a less expensive place to shop (though it’s debatable whether that is correct), so they will go there to spend their money, not to other local stores. Plainly, all local businesses that compete with Walmart are in trouble due to it being in the area.
That is called competition. It is not government’s job to determine if there are too many stores of one kind in an area.
Gimbels was bought up by Boston Store. Boston Store has gone through several owners since then. The Gimbels at Packard Plaza shut down because everyone went to the mall instead. Same with the Sears downtown, and Sears on Forest Home Ave and the one at Packard Plaza. Penneys contracted and moved out to the malls also. Aging infrastructure plus consumers lured by mall shopping shut down a lot of stores.
Wal Mart is a part of a new equation regarding this. Essentially the big box intent of Wal Mart like stores is to function as a single retailer mall, no competition and no local sourcing other than token. Cheap foreign goods being sold by low end wage earners in stores heavily subsidized by local taxpayers. You support big box low end retailers like Wal Mart every time your taxes subsidize them by tax breaks, and tax revenues that substitute for health care for their employees via Badger Care.
Listen for that giant sucking sound that Ross Perot talked about. The only difference is that the money is not going south of the border. It all empties into corporate coffers in Arkansas.
If you talk to the people who work/worked at the Merchandise Outlet, Dunhams, and Aldi , they will tell you they they closed because of the contraction in customers that is going to happen next spring when Wal Mart opens. Our neighbor works at the K mart. He is very worried. The Pick and Save will close because Wal Mart is situated halfway between the St Francis and SM stores. The Cudahy Pick and Save won’t last because its owners will decide it is going to under perform in a tight market. Walgreens in Cudahy employees are also worried. How many local jobs will be lost versus jobs created. Will Wal Mart be hiring all of these out of work area residents at the same wages and benefits or better than they had before?
You can shop there if you like but we won’t be a willing party to this big box from out of state coming in and pushing out all competition. Its their business plan but its not our lifestyle. Bryce and Debby Ruddock
…and you are completely within your rights not to shop there if you don’t want to.
Your claims about all these other businesses fearing Walmart just don’t hold water. Why would Dunham’s open a new store right next door to Walmart in Franklin if they were afraid of competition? Why would Pick ‘n Save tear down and rebuild a new, larger store across the street from the Franklin Walmart, let alone build another new store three miles south, if they were afraid of competition? Walgreens is opening new stand-alone store on every corner, it seems. Why would they do that if they were afraid of competition?
Stores are moving into these areas, not away from them, because they want to benefit from the increased consumer traffic that Walmart and other large retailers bring. It is not government’s job to eliminate the competition of businesses that can’t, don’t know how or don’t want to operate and compete successfully.
Read my earlier post about their being a lake a half mile east. When a retail business cannot draw customers from every direction then surviving here becomes iffy under these new circumstances. 27th St and 76th St business districts are able to draw customers from a wider area than any district close to the lake. Proximity to major shopping districts and this isn’t one are how large businesses have survived and prospered up to now. They left the edges to smaller stores and smaller businesses. Now with Wal Mart gaining entry to these here to fore neglected by them areas the paradigm has changed. Go count the empty store fronts in SM and Cudahy; then go back and count again in a year. What works for Greenfield does not work for any small burb on the lake. Their business district is larger and covers both 27th St and 76th St. Here its Packard and S Chicago with a little Milwaukee Ave tossed in.
Its all about geography. If I wanted to shop Wal Mart I certainly would not shop at one just 3 blocks away that will greatly alter, probably for the worse, our local retail business community. Only time will tell and these decisions having already been made, dwelling on it on my part won’t change anything. Consumer choices as to where to shop locally are taking a big hit. This reminds me too much of Nixon’s Ag Secretary, Earl Butz, who told farmers to “Get big or get out.” The results of that policy has destroyed many a farm over the last 40 years.
bryce that being near the lake is a myth whitefishbays downtown is closer to the lake than cudahys is they still have a theatre almost all the store fronts are occupied the problem with packard plaza is the 92 year gentleman that owns it raised the rent because the rents werent paying his taxes anymore and he would not fix anything the aldis closed because they wanted to expand eastward and the owner wanted alot more than double to rent the extra area merchandise outlet had water problems the last 2 years that the owner refused to fix so bernie the owner of merchandise outlet decided it was time to retire as for dunhams their lease is up and decided since about half the mall was empty there would be a drop of customers so it was a no brainer
Demographics play a major role.
Here is a good cause/reason to how Whitefish Bay is able to support a ‘more vibrant’ downtown area vs SM:
http://www.clrsearch.com/South-Milwaukee-Demographics/WI/Household-Income?compare=Whitefish+Bay%2C+WI
Here’s for Cudahy vs. Oak Creek:
http://www.clrsearch.com/Oak-Creek-Demographics/WI/Household-Income?compare=Cudahy%2C+WI
As you can plainly see, the household income demographics of the areas play a huge role in what the community can support. WF Bay has >65% of it’s households making more than $75k per year vs. SM’s around 35% or so.
Perhaps that elderly owner needs to take a page from the big box rule book and lean on the Cudahy Common Council to get the taxpayers to support new infrastructure for his site. That way the taxpayers there could be in the same pickle as the rest of us will be. Misery loves company. One of the problems with Cudahy and South Milwaukee is their inability to retain the next generation of residents as members of their respective communities. Not sure about everyones’ experiences with this but my children and many of their friends moved out and did not come back when they reached the age when they could do so. Many factors affected that of course. No movie theater was one but any South Shore shoreline community with a single screen could not compete with any multiplex. The multiplex theaters in Oak Creek don’t count as they are miles inland. Regarding the affect that a big box store will have on the economies of the two shoreline cities we’ve been discussing, again only time will tell. When it happens we can talk about it again. If it does not happen then I am adult enough to admit that I was wrong. I might have to revamp my understanding of economics then but would do so.
I see both sides of this argument, but I am more inclined to let the free market work. Will Walmart negatively impact some local businesses? Of course. For those who are already on the edge of closure, or those who don’t make strides to differentiate, they may be in trouble. If you try to compete on price with Walmart, you will lose. But I also think Walmart will help some area businesses. The increased traffic alone will help improve that retail corridor.
In that vein, I believe the argument made by Chris H. and others here is a sound one — similar retailers can survive and thrive even when located in close proximity to each other. How else do you explain three home improvement stores within a quarter mile of each other on 27th Street, or the fact that wherever a McDonald’s opens, you are also like to find several other fast-food restaurants in very short order? Yes, we have the lake to our east, and Highway 32 is not 27th Street, but the principle remains true.
And I return to the argument I’ve made before … I don’t believe that one Walmart, in a region with dozens (scores?) of big stores already within a short drive, will be a tipping point for South Shore retail. I just don’t see the dominos falling like some do once Walmart throws open its doors. With the continued growth of Howell Avenue, 27th Street and other retail corridors near South Milwaukee, those dominos would have already fallen.
I am also heartened by our strong base of local businesses in South Milwaukee, as I wrote about in my 12 Days series before Christmas. I know many of these retailers personally, and I am convinced they will be just fine. I guess only time will tell.
In the end, I think there is something else at play with Dunham’s and Packard Plaza. Blaming looming competition from Walmart is too easy.
If the market was free then the Common Council would not have granted any concessions to any of the TIF recipients. The only local business beneficiaries to any of this will be restaurants and filling stations. You cannot build a resilient business community by selling it to outsiders. You contradicted yourself, as the idea that the example of 27th St vs local business here is similar is so out of whack as to be ridiculous. You’re young enough that you will probably see more of the consequences than I and if you choose to move from a community that you find wrong in 10 years then well look back at this moment in time and ask yourself just how we got to this juncture. Yours was one of the votes that enabled the selling and twilight of South Milwaukee.
I don’t see a contradiction. Of course, I realize 27th Street is not Highway 32. But there seems to me (no economist, mind you) that there are rules of retail that play out to varying degrees all over. And I see it with my own eyes.
We’ll obviously have to disagree that my vote “enabled the selling and twilight of South Milwaukee.” I think that is an overstatement, hyperbole that has too often entered this debate. I believe in South Milwaukee’s future, and its best days are ahead of it. I look forward to seeing those better days.
Sad to see it go as well… I don’t think the unopened Walmart has anything to do with the closing. Just a horrible location and the owner of the property may be having issues. Not sure, but it sure seems like it. So many small / large busness’s have come n gone from that location. Maybe we will get one in “Grant Park Plaza”…….
Totally off topic Erik, but has the South Milwaukee Street Department run out of salt already? It’s Sunday afternoon (Jan. 13th) and still the streets aren’t salted. Oak Creek seems to have an abundance. Maybe we should consider consolidation.
Melanie: No, we’re not out. In fact, I talked with the Street Department last week, and they said we’re doing really well vs. budget on snow/ice removal. I’ll check on what’s going on with yesterday’s storm. I thought I saw a salt truck out earlier … but this is a tough one. My whole driveway/sidewalk is sleet/ice, not even shovel-able.
Erik, of course we are not out, we have barely had a winter yet! Probably all that global warming. You have forgotten my sarcasm? I do appreciate your fast response though. You will need to salt your driveway.
I did not have a salt truck go up or down or street. It is still icy. I thought they could at least salt once seeing that property taxes increased 1%. Maybe they forgot about the 4th District !
I was just told four salters are out today spreading salt and calcium chloride (which works at lower temperatures). Salters were also out over the weekend, but, as I’m sure you can tell from your driveways and sidewalks, the temperatures, at least over the weekend, and timing made salt rather ineffective. With sunlight and daytime warming today, hopefully that changes things. Thanks very much for your continued patience.
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