On October 29^th, 2011, a new store opened in a small town in upstate New York but it was unlike anything the State had seen before; with over 600 investors The Saranac Community Store is a community owned department store serving residents and visitors.  The New York Times published an article about the Community Store on November 12^th, 2011, that reports on the opening of the store in Saranac Lake (a town in the Adirondacks with a population of approximately 5,000) and also provides a bit of background on this retail model and examples of residents taking charge of economic development in their own backyard.

The idea for the Saranac Community Store was borne out of necessity.  In 2002 the local department store closed and the residents no longer had easy access to consumer goods for daily life such as clothes, home goods and bed linens.  Year round residents living in Saranac Lake were then forced to travel 50 miles to Plattsburgh for these items.  This was deemed unsustainable and unacceptable so a group of residents started looking into retail alternatives, primarily alternatives to big-box stores.  When the group learned about the community store model, they knew they were on to something.   It took over five years to secure enough funding to start the Community Store, but last month the 4,000 square foot space located across from the Hotel Saranac was completed and stocked with inventory from clothing to baby strollers and hardware to comforters. The NYT article reports that the first day of sales totaled $7,000.

Community stores are popular in Britain and there are examples in rural parts of the western United States, but there are no others like it in the northeast.  In 2006, after residents of Saranac Lake identified the community store as a retail model with potential, they invited a representative from Powell, Wyoming, to come and talk about their community store, which opened in 2002 and is known as the Merc.  The Merc was started after the main department store in town shut down and residents were worried about the impact on other stores in the area so they sold shares and opened a community department store, which now brings in $600,000 in sales each year. Shareholders of the Merc even receive annual dividends from the store’s profits.  The 2006 presentation by the representative from Merc was attended by 200 people.  Afterwards residents of Saranac Lake were even more focused on pursuing the community store plan by developing a business plan, initiating funding, navigating the legal process and establishing a board of directors. 

While the Saranac Community Store is still getting its footing, it is an important and interesting example of communities indentifying a need and figuring out a way to respond to it without accepting their fate or waiting for someone to save them.  Thinking outside of the box has helped Powell, Wyoming, change their fate, and residents and visitors of Saranac Lake, New York, are optimistic as well.

Sources:

Cortese, A.  (2011, November 13). A Town Creates Its Own Department Store. The New York Times.

The Community Store in Saranac Lake. http://www.community-store.org/. Accessed November 13,

                2011.