I agree that Panera’s success is good news. Personally, I don’t love or hate Panera, but I think the deliberative planning process went the way it should have, and I’m grateful for that.

As to John Sisson’s suggestion about a consultative network, I’m intrigued. In the work of “business development” or “economic restructuring,” an important part of managing a village retail district, business retention comes first. So this is a good place to put our efforts. (See the Main Street Center’s introduction to what they call “Economic Restructuring”–you have to scroll down to it. Also see Main Street’s Eight Principles.) Business expansion is next: make the most of what’s already there. Last comes business recruitment–finding the businesses that belong in your downtown’s mix and convincing them to come. In a small way, by helping Linear Retail choose a restaurant over a bank (the high bidder for the soon-to-be Panera space), we participated in a recruitment process.

In the long term, there needs to be that kind of a support for local businesses. The Concord model John Sisson found is not a bad one at all, in my mind. There are similar “independent business alliances” all over the country. (See http://www.amiba.net , the national clearinghouse on such organizations.) In fact, the job description for the soon-to-be-hired economic development planner calls for him/her to help establish business associations, and it would be entirely appropriate for one such association to be for independent businesses. Similarly, the ED position calls for him/her to help establish a Main Street program (see links above), one essential element of which is the “Economic Restructuring” discussed above. So this needs to happen.

My question is whether we can do this now. Newton Villages is young enough that it doesn’t really officially exist. We are quite dollar-poor, though certainly rich in human resources. Beyond being short on money, we are also short on spare time (schedule scarcity being a close cousin to lean budgets).

Rather than trying to start from scratch, mining our own personal networks, maybe we would be more effective by helping connect The Sandwich Works to existing resources. Can the Chamber help? What resources can the state bring to bear? What about, say the National Federation of Independent Businesses? Or even the Extension Service of the University of Mass.? I guess I’m saying that I think we could do a lot of good by helping The Sandwich Works (or any other independent business) take advantage of the resources that are already there. The search costs involved in finding an appropriate program can be enough to dissuade a small business owner, who has absolutely no time to spare.

Thinking about the links needed to help The Sandwich Works, it occurs to me that the most important link would be a bond of trust with the shop owners themselves. We can only help if they are willing to receive help from us. Does anyone on this list eat there regularly? That could be the beginning of a conversation.

JS has a very important instinct that we need to follow. Some issues and challenges arise from the Panera application, and I think we need to confront them head-on. For me, the three concerns that Panera raised are: business mix, parking management, and preserving village character (chains vs. independents).

–Matt

I applaud the board of aldermen approving the arrival of Panera to
Newton Centre. I like Panera’s and so do my kids. I like the food, the atmosphere, and the service. I never once shopped at Tess or any of the other high-end clothing stores that preceded it. In fact, I’ve never once purchased clothes in Newton Centre (too expensive). I also never eat at the Pie place and almost never eat at Sandwich works, so neither will be losing my business due to Panera because they never had it in the first place.

Your idea of forming a local network of consultants to assist locally owned businesses sounds worthwhile. It also leaves me wondering though, what are the primary challenges facing each local business that is struggling. Strategy and consulting can certainly be helpful with some kinds of challenges (business model, marketing, etc.) but perhaps less helpful with other challenges (rent increases to an unsustainable level relative to the underlying business).

Anyways, count me in. Also count me in for any effort to identify and deliberately bring in the types of businesses that folks might want to see come to the area (like a good bookstore).

John Sarvey
Jackson Street