When the lights go out in Port Henry
Yesterday my son Nicholas and I drove into Port Henry to buy groceries and gas. Turning the corner, we saw something troubling: the local Aubuchons — where we go regularly for essentials — was closed, with brown paper plastered over the windows.
As we walked through town, people were buzzing: the store had been abruptly closed that morning. More jobs lost, fewer services available, another gap in another downtown retail street in the North Country.
Lohr McKinstry reported on the closure this morning in the Plattsburgh Press-Republican.
Port Henry Mayor Ernest Guerin said the closing is devastating to the community.
“It keeps business local, and it fills a good niche in our hamlet,” he said of Aubuchon.
As for the store’s employees, Guerin said their job loss deeply affects the community, where “everybody knows everybody.”
In cities and suburbs, businesses turn over all the time, coming and going as part of the natural business cycle. But in villages like Port Henry, this kind of loss deepens fears of an more painful and stubborn decline.
According to reports the store was closed due to “lack of business”. Apparently locals weren’t patronizing the store enough for them to pay the bills. Stores don’t exist to provide reassurance. They exist to sell things and make a profit.
I second the observation made by James. Sadly, we too often drive many many miles to find a “bargain” at a mall or big box store. Calculate in the time and gas when you compare prices between local and large retail stores. And, the impact of viable small businesses on our small towns is, well, priceless.
I was told the store was one of the 10 most profitable Aubuchon locations, but the actual amount of earnings was small – if that makes sense. Our little store was busy and did well, as well as a small town could. The company only wants to keep million dollar stores open and our small town just can’t do that.
People around here ran to Aubuchon for things weekly if not more often. It was convenient and now there is nothing to fill it’s place. Lumber is one thing, but potting soil, bird seed, ant traps, flags, Adirondack chairs… all things we’ll HAVE to go to Ticonderoga for now.
The impact to their 5 employees –who were always helpful and friendly is just devastating. It’s not right to be treated that way.
We tend to see things in terms of our “filters”, our beliefs and world view. Brian was looking at the closing as an indicator of economic decline in the North Country. Ellen sees it as a social comment on big box stores. The truth is, my comment was a simple matter of fact observation. Aubuchon closed their store in Potsdam years ago for the same reason. The money coming in the door wasn’t enough to cover the money going out in expenses with profit on top of that. Were people driving past to a big box store for lower prices or did they simply have better luck finding what they needed elsewhere? Stores need a certain volume on a continuous basis. Maybe people just didn’t need enough of what Aubuchon was selling to keep the store open. We don’t know. Times change, buying habits change. Just ask the guy who made buggy whips. Running a retail business has always been subject to change. Amazon is today’s Sears Roebuck. Is it sad? Is someone to blame? No. It just is.
This Aubuchon was only about 15-20 min. from the new Lowes in Ticonderoga. Nobody should be surprised it closed. I doubt our Aubuchon in Tupper Lake is a “million dollar store”, but until they open a Lowes or Home Depot nearby (which I can’t imagine happening anytime soon) I don’t see our Aubuchon going anywhere.
We have a new Aubuchon in Oberg, literally a 2-iron down route 37 from Lowes…I don’t imagine it could be a million dollar store. It’s where a Sears store folded.