Nice >> As the store nears its February opening, Lake County’s first Dollar General, in Nice, is becoming a preview of what a few other towns in the county can expect as the corporation looks into more location options.
In a matter of months, an out-of-county construction crew erected the box store. At some point, the electric yellow signs were placed at a doubled height from where Nice Frostie’s burgers and shakes used to advertise. Last week, a few locals were hired to piece the shelves together and line them with price tags.
In advance of its soft opening Jan. 30, the store now flies “Now Hiring” and “Coming Soon” signs. A few planters hold vines and lattice awaits their future growth with the hopes of blending the box store into its surroundings.
After smoothing out any kinks in its operation, the grand opening on Feb. 14 will be luring in its first customers with offers; $10 gift certificates are being offered to the store’s first 50 customers, “goody bags” to the first 100 and sales deals for the rest, Dollar General Director of Corporate Communications Dan MacDonald said.
From their corners of the block, the local businesses are warily waiting for Dollar General’s sliding doors to part for the community’s 2,000 potential customers looking for a deal. There’s a sense of worry.
“It’s going to hurt us,” Jagtar Singh, the owner of the Marina Market just a block down the street said. “I don’t know by how much yet.”
On the opposite side of the street, Mohammad Sadiq who owns a Tower Mart franchise location is also resigned to the implications of the retailer’s presence in the neighborhood.
Just four years ago he purchased his store with the life savings he brought over from Afghanistan. Already the poor economy is forcing him to use more of those savings to pay the gas station’s taxes.
He maintains the community doesn’t need the Dollar General.
“When you’re building a business, you have to look at what the community’s population is and what their needs are,” Sadiq explained. “Here, it’s easy to go to Walmart or Kmart for your other needs. It’s just a bus ride away.
“They will not make enough money and we won’t make enough money because they will take some of our customers. For this reason it’s not helping,” he added.
Two of three Nice store owners to appeal the decision, Sadiq and Singh are also resigned to the county’s ultimate verdict to approve the box store’s application for the Nice location. A Board of Supervisors meeting that heard those appeals concluded the opening of the Dollar General would create healthy competition.
“Competition is good, but between similar sized businesses,” Singh said. “They’ll have the better prices because they can buy in bulk.”
But with 75 percent of Dollar General’s locations in towns with 25,000 people or less, MacDonald describes the corporation as “part of the fabric of small town America.”
“There are many thriving, very successful small businesses that are our competitors in different towns,” MacDonald said. “They do quite well because of their niche in the market and their relationship with their customers.”
MacDonald notes the corporation’s literacy foundation as an example of the company’s commitment to giving back to its hosting communities. With Dollar General locations, Lake County schools and libraries will be eligible to apply for the program’s grant funding.
Community Development Director Richard Coel also sees the advantaged the stores will hold for Nice and other towns with pending location plans.
“I think they will be beneficial to local residents who don’t have the ease of transportation,” he said. “With that perspective, they fit in with some of our long-range community plans to try to get these towns more self-reliant and walkable to cut down on transportation costs and greenhouse gas emissions.”
In Clearlake Oaks, another Dollar General location has trailed behind the Nice location’s construction progress. It’s soft opening is anticipated in late March and the grand opening date is targeted for April 11.
Meanwhile, the Community Development Department is expecting a couple more location applications to eventually be filed.
A preapplication development meeting in mid-December with Dollar General representatives, county agencies’ staff and the public seemed to conclude locations at 21010 S. Highway 29 in Middletown and at 5505 Main St. in Kelseyville were feasible. A location in Loch Lomond seems to have fallen through, as use of the proposed lot presents a few obstacles, such as not being zoned properly and being located next to a wetland, Coel said.
Though he couldn’t speak for the store, Coel said he didn’t believe the company was planning on any more than four locations in the county.
