By Cary Briel / Briel Computer & Network
Saturday, October 13, 2007 5:02 PM EDT
My wife Christine and I were driving through Camillus last night, and noticed that the new Target store had opened its doors at the old Wal-Mart site. That slot opened up because Wal-Mart moved further west on W. Genesee Street in Camillus (to W. Genesee and Kasson Road). So, we decided to take a moment and “walk it.” A few observations; The store is a mirror image of other Target stores (layout exactly the same as Fayetteville store). Christine mentioned that it was so similar, it was spooky. The exact replication reminded me of the Borg collective from the Star Trek series. Also noted was an integrated Starbucks coffee shop. Wow, Starbucks coffee on the West side! Amazing! I love Starbucks coffee! I’m ecstatic, right? No! This place looked like “Starbucks gone Wal-Mart” (cheapo construction, seating, etc). But that’s not what really bothered me.
How many Starbucks stores does this make in Syracuse? Didn’t one recently go in at Carousel Center, which resulted in the demise in the retail side of Nancy’s Coffee? One might argue that Nancy’s wasn’t local either, but at least they were regional, based in Connecticut, operating in NY, MA, and NJ. Big chains such as Target, Wal-Mart, Starbucks, etc keep quietly slipping in, and the harm isn’t realized.
How does this relate to Skaneateles? Skaneateles so far has attempted to limit this type of activity. While obviously not perfect, unlike other towns there seems to be an attempt to maintain the small village character in Skinny, and to not allow local business to be steamroller’ed by big business. Check out this article at newrules.org, which describes “1994 Shopping Center Development Criteria Amendment of the Town of Skaneateles,” an amendment to Skaneateles Zoning law that prohibits stores in excess of 45,000 square feet, or requiring more than 15 acres, from locating in Skaneateles. This was in response to a proposal back then to build a 150,000 square foot shopping center locally.
One last note about the trip to Target; though many carts were being pushed around for show (or maybe just something to lean on), most were empty or near-empty. And, as mentioned, we were just looking. And this on a Friday night. Probably more a statement on the current state of the economy than anything, but worth noting nonetheless.
