Hutchinson Leader - Business - Comments

Scheels won't be coming

April21 — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 18:28:54 -0500

Scheels won't be coming anytime soon, I've talked to people there, they are not interested since St. Cloud /Mankato have stores.

The only way to become an

B@ssDoctor — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 07:35:34 -0500

The only way to become an attractive community to shop in is to bring businesses like this to town. Gotta start somewhere I guess. I do believe that Best Buy probably have people alot smarter than me/you working on analysis studies. I am pretty sure they did their homework and weren't throwing darts for the next location.

If we could bring a Gander or a Scheels to this town, I believe they could make it as long as the base the store size on population and passersby going through Hutch to go fishing,

Can a town of 16,000 support

wildchild — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 22:27:07 -0500

Can a town of 16,000 support a Best Buy? That is the question. Do not rely on the BIG DRAW from outside. Anyone outside 20 miles in any direction will go to either St. Cloud, Willmar, Mankato or the twin cities. Those locations have much more to offer plus a larger population base to start with. Come shop at Hutchinson Best Buy, after you can eat at Applebees or Taco Bell.

I hope this succeeds but have serious doubts. I'd like to see the parking lot on a weekday evening, I bet (after the novelty wears off) it's very quiet.

Thanks for the research

krusen — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 16:10:28 -0500

Thanks for the research B@ssDoctor.

Guido,
So you think this town can support a Best Buy, but cannot support a Scheels? Personally, the main reason I drive to nearby larger cities is to find a place that has a decent selection of sporting goods or hunting/camping gear. Very rarely do I need to travel to find some sort of electronics or media that I can't find here. If one were to poll the residents in and surrounding Hutch, I would bet that they have a similar opinion. Not to mention that I have been to Scheels stores in other cities that are smaller than the Office Max building. I somewhat agree with you on Gander mountain, but can't a guy dream a little without getting attacked by some random guido?

As far as the restaurant plea goes, don't you realize that there is a new fine dining establishment opening very soon on Main St.? This is in spite of the fact that naysayers like you said that Hutch cannot support another restaurant.

Not when towns like

B@ssDoctor — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 11:16:36 -0500

Not when towns like Rochester or Mankato don't have them?

Hellooooooo:

Gander Mountain
#481 1940 Adams St., Mankato, MN, 56001, (507) 345-3600
#367 3470 55th Street NW, Rochester, MN, 55901, 507-252-2033

Scheels Sports
Mankato River Hills Mall
1850 Adams Street, Suite 6
Mankato, MN 56001
507.386.7767

I don't think anyone will

guidotkp — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 10:07:48 -0500

I don't think anyone will take over the old Office Max or Cub Foods buildings because they are both being paid for many years...Best Buy will be a nice addition to this town...Now if we could only get another restaurant. It's getting old going to the same restaurants. As far as Gander MTN or Scheels, we are WAY to small for stuff like that. Not a chance. Not when towns like Rochester or Mankato don't have them. Hutchinson isn't big enough

It's too bad Best Buy chose

muellerleile — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 09:44:32 -0500

It's too bad Best Buy chose not to utilize one of the empty buildings in that area.

I'm not sure how badly this

krusen — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 16:52:10 -0500

I'm not sure how badly this town needs a Best Buy, but it would be nice to see a Gander Mountain or Scheels in one of the buildings next to it.

It is good to see three new

ThAtSsOrAvEn — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 11:49:46 -0500

It is good to see three new restaurants opening in hutch. This will give all the folks of this modest village to put their money where their mouths are... many people have droned on and on about wanting non-fast-food type options. I hope that these same people will take out their wallets and purses and actually keep these food businesses open.

Kudos to these three! It's

JHat — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 11:00:59 -0500

Kudos to these three! It's good to hear that there are still people brave enough to open businesses in these trying economic times! Restaurants are a risky business with a 50% failure rate in the first year. Liquor sales provide a higher profit margin then the razor thin margins offered by food alone.
The City Council should approve both of these new applications and help support these brave individuals.

While the article does not

FritoBandito — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 22:19:30 -0500

While the article does not mention the service will be offered in Hutchinson - I've found that grocery shopping is not that difficult.

I have used Coborns Delivers

duluthlover — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 17:45:35 -0500

I have used Coborns Delivers in the past when I lived in St. Cloud and I could not have loved it more. I was able to shop in the comfort of my own home and not have to fight with bringing all my kids with me. I hope that Hutchinson decides to use this service. I will be the first to sign up for it if they do.

Somebody please tell me how

Canthelpbutlaugh — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 10:27:21 -0500

Somebody please tell me how this can be a bad thing for this community and the surrounding area? Why so many negative comments? Some of you need to find some hobbies, maybe you wont be so bitter all of the time!

Flowerladytoo has summarized

Terry Davis — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 09:24:16 -0500

Flowerladytoo has summarized it pretty close. My recollection is that Cash Wise/Coborn's officials apparently determined their sales had declined enough in those two months from what they had at their former location as a Cash Wise. I never did get a number from them, but heard it was well into a double-digit decline.

As a grocery shopper, too, I think two issues may have contributed to that — 1. the Cub Store was about 55,000 square feet vs. 73,000 for Cash Wise. Things just seemed tight. And 2. The Cub store appeared to use a floor plan typical of a suburban store with the frozen foods and refrigerated foods in the middle of the store, rather than at the end of your shopping cycle. In the suburbs, people tend to shop more often and buy less per trip. Out here, you have shoppers coming from 20-25 miles away only once or twice a month and buying a larger quantity. Shoppers like that were finding, I heard, that their frozen foods, such as ice cream, were melting at the cash register because of the floor plan.

It appears Cash Wise's decision to buy the Cub Food franchise here as part of a five or six-store deal with Super Valu was made in the realization that a town of 14,000 probably can't support four grocery stores. Right now we have three, as does Litchfield, a town less than half Hutchinson's size. Somebody up there has to be living on a pretty tight profit margin.

As for "yet allow small business killers like walmart and the others into our town," the city really has no say over what businesses chose to locate here. Do you really want the city to have power over who can open a store here or not? The general public ultimately decides who survives and who doesn't with their purchases. Don't like the big box stores? Don't shop there.

I, too, try to shop in the home-grown stores as much as possible, but know there are certain things they don't stock. There have even been times when I've gone to the local store for accessories, parts, or batteries for an item I've bought there, only to be told they can't get them. I ended up getting those accessories at the big box store. That shouldn't happen. One advantage small stores should have is customer service. They won't last long if they surrender that advantage.

(Terry Davis is a Hutchinson Leader staff writer. E-mail him at davis@hutchinsonleader.com.)

Explain how Hutch Cub foods

flowerladytoo — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:16:33 -0500

Explain how Hutch Cub foods was gone within a year but we'll be able to support BB?

Ummm Cub Foods was supposed to be a replacement for Cash Wise. Most shoppers didn't like the change. Cub Foods got into a dispute with the owner of Cash Wise, who had closed the original store and opened the Cub Foods franchise store in a leased building, leaving the Cash Wise store vacant. The owner then pulled out of the deal with Cub Foods, closed Cub less than two months after it opened, and reopened Cash Wise. Cash Wise is still going strong. I can't remember all the details, but that's the gist of it. Maybe some of the leader staff can elaborate on the details of what happened there.