Dreams won't fill void left by Hacketts

Love Nugget had one word when she read that Potsdam's economic development specialist thinks there is a good chance a major retailer will step in to fill the void left by the closing of Hacketts.

Nordstrom.

Nordstrom is a major retailer where you can listen to someone playing a grand piano while you browse for brassieres that lift while separating you from a couple hundred dollars. I don't think it would be a good fit in a shopping plaza that has a store where you can save a nickel on your groceries by bringing your own bags and a Cheers-like bar where a lighted sign keeps track of every time a local Norm knocks back a Jaegerbomb.

But my woman is a dreamer on a grand scale. She still holds out hope that I will one day quit sneezing into my hand and then wiping the microscopic bugs on my pant legs. I told you she was a dreamer.

In her defense, though, her dreams – aside from those related to my personal hygiene - are not that much different from James A. Murphy's. Murphy is the economic development guru who gets paid real money for predicting the Hacketts building won't stay empty for long. http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/article/20090918/NEWS05/309189940 His dreams are not nearly as specific as Nugget's. A major retailer? K-Mart? Target? Bed and Bath? Pet Smart? Home Depot? Nordstorm? Who knows?

If Murphy does, he is not telling. He doesn't have to. He is paid only to dream. His argument is that Potsdam's economy is solid, so it's a no-brainer that some major retailer will want to set up shop here and exploit that fact. Best Buy? Costco? Kohl's? Macy's? Who knows?

I am leaning toward none of the above. A lot of these stores are failing in big markets in this economy. I can't see a reason they would want to try their luck in the north country. Potsdam's market isn't big and the economy is about as solid as St. Lawrence River ice in early November.

Some time ago – when the national economy was booming – I remember complaining to a local lifer how little the value of my home was increasing from year-to-year. “You should count your blessings, son. We get sort of giddy up here when the value of our home doesn't decrease from one year to the next,” he said.

That lesson in north country economics has stuck with me. When the national economy is good, ours is bad. When the national economy is bad, ours is bad. Economic developers may be the only people sporting rose-colored glasses around here. Them and my Love Nugget.

The Nugget has only been around here for about four years – most of which living in the Adirondacks, where major retailers are considered nightmares and not part of the economic dream. But she spent 30 years before that in Los Angeles, where shopping is a vocation and I am pretty certain that dreaming is required by city code. So when she sees the empty Hacketts building, she really does have visions of grand pianos and bras that cost as much as my first car.

Murphy's vision may not be as grand, but it is about as realistic. Would Hacketts be packing up its $25 candles and trying to sell them in Ogdensburg if the market was strong in Potsdam? Well, maybe that's not a fair question. Hacketts has its own problems that aren't related to location, location, location. That Hacketts lasted so long in Potsdam is probably more surprising than its recent failure. But I still can't think of a major retailer that would fare better in a town that is short on people, short on jobs and short on money. A town that already has a Walmart and almost has a Lowe's where our limited money can be spent.

It would be great if I end up being wrong. I am just not very confident that will be the case. Major retailers don't get to be major retailers by dreaming. They make decisions for locating stores based on demographics and things like facts. They leave the dreaming to economic development types and middle-aged women who live in the north country and have a jones for shopping.