Vermillion is a town with the needs of any other community, so I have to ask, where are our stores? In our university’s town, we seem to have a plethora of wasted business opportunities.
It wasn’t until just recently that we finally got a tattoo parlor, and it still seems odd to me that there are still no smoke shops. Popular business such as hookah lounges, doughnut shops, a tobacco smoke shop, sporting good stores, shops to purchase musical instruments and electronic stores, which tend to thrive in a college atmosphere, would help the economy of our little town explode.
It is difficult for many students who don’t have the prospect of heading home every other weekend to find a place to shop for many simple things this town doesn’t offer. It isn’t just a matter of not having a wide variety of stores in this town; there is hardly any competition for the stores that do exist here.
There is no Cold Stone Creamery to challenge Dairy Queen, no Taco Bell to compete with Taco Johns and no JC Penney to contend with Wal-Mart. Not only would this give the people of Vermillion more choices, and the potential for lower prices, but it would also help our small town grow.
It isn’t just stores that are lacking here, but places where your whole family can go for an outing are lacking. We need an up-to-date bowling alley, a rock climbing gym, an indoor swimming pool — one aside from the DakotaDome so the town no longer would need to depend on the university; or even something as big and as new as a zoo. It could be a place where people from all over would travel to Vermillion to see.
Some people may argue they like the small and quiet feel that they get from living here. Some might be nervous about the arrival of new businesses and their potential to sully the culture and the small town feel. Though putting in new stores would have the potential to increase the size of the town and busy up the streets. It would also be worth it to not be forced to drive all the way to Sioux Falls in order to get an ear piercing.
In the year of 2009 we still don’t have a music store, no store where college students have the option to purchase new vinyl records, or trade in CDs for cash, buy used DVDs or obtain discount music posters. I still can’t figure out why there isn’t a piercing shop in this college town. Young adults are always willing to get piercings in new places; it seems to me that a place like this would have a large clientele along with many other (wasted) business opportunities that have the potential to give the town a needed boost.
Attracting new businesses in Vermillion has so many benefits; it would offer new jobs to the people of Vermillion. With more businesses to sustain people and provide income, there would be more of a variety for career choices. The competition provided by having more stores could potentially lower prices, giving people more money to spend on new and different products.
More businesses in Vermillion would also create a variety of merchandise, not only for the students, but the whole town, and it could bring more people in from the surrounding towns from as far as Yankton to get a piece of what Vermillion has the potential to offer.
Reach columnist Annie Brown at Annie.Brown@usd.edu.
10 comments
Sadly, I must agree with Andy, and although it sounds pretentious, his assertions that the home sick kiddies that run home to have meals paid/cooked for them, laundry done, etc.. by their mums and dads are the individuals that kill the possibilities for amenities such as a record shop.
2. Nobody is here in the summer to support these businesses. There simply aren't enough internship opportunities in the summer (no businesses) in Vermillion, or other distractions to keep any kind of student population there.
3. The townspeople don't appear to consume anything, or even go outside for that matter. I know that there are other people in Vermillion besides students, I just never saw any of them. If you would get up "really early" on a Saturday (before 10 A.M.), you could see some of them, mostly wearing overalls and gingham.Personally, I think if students actually stuck around like at most normal colleges, a variety store that sold smokes, vinyl, and other basics could survive. But, this is a town that couldn't even support an On Cue. My suggestion is to go to another college in a different state if you desire a vibrant community, where the students don't get homesick for the farm after 4 days.
A business does not bring a market with it to Vermillion, it already needs to be here. It isn't.Libertarians stuff their money in mattresses for the upcoming war, religious folks dump their money into the most successful business in town-- the church, righties buy guns and alcohol and shop at AM, "liberals" head to Sioux City or shop on the internet and everyone else has some bs reason to keep their money. This region is a graveyard. If you want different things, save your money, get a useful degree and move to a coast. Not that that is an option for you... just reality.