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Editorial: Shop local? People are listening
Op-Ed · August 13, 2015


Rod Ness popped out of his chair Saturday morning and ran after a Hoover’s Hometown Days parade float — a pickup truck pulling a trailer with a poster on the back asking: “Would it kill you to shop local?”
The person behind the float? A mystery.

On the trailer were a variety of skeletons presumably representing a man, woman, child, cat and a dog or two. Next to them are a row of tombstones including the names of businesses which have come and gone, like Joe’s Pizza, The Comeback Bar & Grill, Sour Dough Bakery, Champagne’s (restaurant), Paulsen Lumber, Just For Women and more.

The “shop local” message is what caught the attention of the director of the Cedar County Economic Development Commission, but he was unable to make contact with the driver, who wore sunglasses and a hood and had the windows rolled up.

The City of West Branch has a registration form for the entry, but on the signature line it only reads “Concerned Citizen.”

The person wrote on the form that they represent “Citizens of Downtown,” and added a message: “This float is dedicated to the memory of deceased businesses in West Branch, reminding you to shop local. Their lives depend on you. Remember … only you can prevent empty storefronts.”

CCEDCO a few weeks ago unveiled a campaign that goes a bit further than the usual “shop local” message by trying to show residents a truer picture of the value of local assets, which includes small businesses.

The “Grow Cedar” campaign wants to turn attention to everything the county has to offer and show people how they, the business or resource or organization, and the community as whole can benefit by local support.

“Let’s build on what we have,” Ness said. “If we can improve our communities and help local businesses be successful, that is as important as bringing new business in.”

Ness said that healthy, vibrant communities will draw new businesses. It’s not that CCEDCO will stop trying to reach out to potential businesses, but that it will do more to help the ones already here.

This approach makes sense. When you decided to move your family to West Branch, you probably took a look around to see what it was like, first, asking yourself if the community had any personal pride through how it took care of itself.

Run-down buildings and empty storefronts are never a good sign. A busy downtown is.

West Branch does a better job than most supporting new local businesses, though not every new start-up survives. Certainly the list of businesses that came and went could be longer, but let’s also look at how many came to downtown and are still here. In recent years, that includes Pink Pony, Main Street Sweets, West Branch Emporium, Reid’s Beans, Brick Arch Winery, Eastern Iowa Physical Therapy and more. A lot of the businesses on the mystery trailer listed food establishments, and many on our short list fall into that category.

So, to the mystery man behind the float: Somebody’s listening.

In fact, many people are listening.