Thursday, March 12, 2015

Matthews Market March 2015

In a small town along Virginia's eastern shore, approval for the THIRD Dollar General in 14 miles passes. A long-time community icon - one of the few remaining independent grocery stores - stands to be the one most affected. Indie grocers are fading and yet they are the ones that for so long have supplied residents with quality foods. How can the owners compete with the slick chains and seemingly endless offerings of a dollar store chain...can they survive and will they last?
Visit their facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/matthewsmarket1991



From the store owners: "The community of Mappsville has no need to embrace a corporate choke hold. Independent businesses are the cornerstone of our economy and should not be outnumbered by the desire for yet another chain store. To encourage the approval for a third location of Dollar General would compromise the integrity of our area and jeopardize the options available to the public."

This story hit me hard after watching a friend close their third generation grocery store several years ago. It was a crushing loss and I mourned with them. As a small business owner myself and someone who is lucky enough to enjoy an indie grocery store nearby, I KNOW that the opening of a third chain store within such a small area will eat away at their business.

Article in the local paper http://www.delmarvanow.com/story/news/local/virginia/2015/04/16/dollar-general-rezoning/25882321/


UPDATES:


2/9/15: "There is a zoning meeting on Wed Feb 11th. This is to change the property located on the corner of Rt 13 & Davis Drive in Mappsville from residential to general business to allow for a Dollar General. There is ALREADY a Dollar General six miles north and one eight miles south of Matthews Market. This would hurt our business because they sell everything we do except for meats. At the very least we would have to let some of the employees go & if we could not compete with Dollar General we could possible shut the doors.Meeting at 7:30 Accomack County Administration Building Rm 104, 23296 Courthouse Ave, Accomac, VA"


2/11/15: "Ok we held them off for one meeting! Seen some love tonight for our community. Now we need to rally the troops together. Another meeting Tues Feb 24th.We need all the support we can get to stop Dollar General from coming to Mappsville. Not only would it hurt our business but the excess to the highway from the store would be a SERIOUS issue!"


2/14/15: "Come on now Matthews Market peeps, we need those signatures to help stop the Dollar General from coming to Mappsville. We are pretty sure it doesn't matter what state you live in (because we have a lot of customers who are out of state), so please sign our petition. Let's help the "Little Man" survive this one!! PS: Sign & Share"


2/18/15: "Between our online petition & the petition we have in the store we have 207 signatures. We would like a lot more. Please sign to stop the rezoning from Residential to General Business to allow a Dollar General in Mappsville. We don't need a Dollar General in every town! Plus there is enough traffic issues in Mappsville without adding more problems. Please SIGN & SHARE. Does not matter if you are a resident of Va. or not."






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