Starbucks Closing

Galesburg received word Friday that Starbucks is closing less than a year in operation. I also heard on Thursday that not all is rosy with the newest shopping center farther East at the new Wal-Mart. That company designated several area organizations and/or charities as beneficiaries of $500.00 donated by the Wal-Mart. Word is that that is being reduced to $100.00 due to financial considerations.
This is an article from the Register-Mail regarding the Henderson Street business climate.


Shuttered and silent on Henderson Street
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By TOM LOEWY
The Register-Mail
Posted Jul 18, 2008 @ 10:52 PM

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GALESBURG — If the prospect of Starbucks’ imminent demise on Henderson Street bothered store baristas, the four employees working the post-lunch hour Friday tried not to show it.

“We can’t say anything at all,” one barista said. “We’ve been told to pass on the number of our home office. We really can’t say anything at all.”

Another soon-to-be-unemployed barista chimed in with a scrap of information.

“The Channel 6 news van came through the drive-through,” she said. “We couldn’t tell them anything, either.”

The four employees returned to making coffee drinks, so the muted atmosphere inside Starbucks was nowhere near as profound as the silence inside nearby buildings.

Henderson Street has become the home of vacant structures. The silence is spreading and no one talks about the environmental dangers posed by decaying buildings and untended parking lots.

It’s a lesson Abingdon learned the hard way, as an entire block of decayed buildings on Main Street has a date with the wrecking ball. The buildings sat empty, or partially occupied for years. Now the city is paying the bill for a lack of planning.

Just a stone’s throw from Starbucks is the empty stucco-covered store built to house Fazoli’s. When the Italian food eatery closed, corporate took down all the signs and boarded over the windows.

Like Starbucks, Fazoli’s asked its employees to stay silent. And most complied. The threat of a corporation’s ire is uncomfortable, even as the corporation leaves yet another site on a trail of abandoned buildings.

The building that used to house Eagle Country Market is still a stone’s throw from Starbucks — if you have a good arm and take a few warm-up tosses. The hulk is silent, too, forming a kind of Bermuda Triangle of business failure.

Eagle Country Market, Fazoli’s and Starbucks aren’t the only empty buildings in the vicinity. There’s an empty storefront in the strip mall between Carpetland U.S.A. and The Vinyl Graphics Store.

The silence at the north end of the Henderson Street doesn’t look like it’s going away any time soon. Not with empty stores in the mall and the behemoth that looks like a dead twin still conjoined to Hy-Vee. The place used to house Wal-Mart, which moved to a greener pasture out on the north end of Seminary Street.

Galesburg Mayor Gary Smith wasn’t silent when he learned of Starbucks plan to close its store in town.

“Don’t print what I just said,” Smith said after he uttered a very mild expletive.

“When they first announced the 600 closures, I’d hoped Galesburg would be OK because we had just opened a year ago,” Smith added. “You’d think they’d give that spot a little more time.”

The businessman who runs NAEIR said coffee is popular in Galesburg and it’s Starbucks’ loss because the company pulled up stakes.

“This is a very resilient town,” Smith said. “The other, locally owned, coffee shops are doing pretty well in Galesburg. So maybe Starbucks’ departure says a lot about the strength of the local economy.”

That statement will surely serve as fodder in the debate over the health of the local economy, but Smith did say the leftovers from failing and relocating businesses are worrisome.

“Empty buildings always look awful,” he said. “They are eyesores, but I don’t think it is necessarily an indication that our economy is doing any better or worse.”

The mayor said he felt bad about the announced closure, but an empty Starbucks offered a “nice building in a nice location” for a new tenant.

Of course, the immediate area around Starbucks isn’t the only spot on Henderson Street that features silence created by absence.

There are three empty sites in the Henderson Suites, not far from the vacant building that once was Burger King and last housed Get-N-Go. Directly across Henderson Street, the building that was the home of Collins Communications is available.

A little farther down the block, there is space for lease in the Plaza West and the Coney Island is empty. There’s an open store front next to Renzenberger Inc. in the nearby strip.

Some businesses, like Wal-Mart, skipped from older building on Henderson Street to newer digs. Security Finance Loans moved from the building next to Sully’s Cafe & Pub, while half of the old Goodwill building is occupied by TriLutions, which left an empty building a little farther south on the block. Verizon Wireless pulled out completely, leaving Henderson Street for the Seminary Square development near the new Wal-Mart.

The building between Gerleman-Peck Chiropratic and the new Knox Glass location is shuttered.

For those interested in a tally, that’s 16 empty buildings and storefronts on Henderson Street. The sheer volume qualifies as more than an eyesore.

“We will get in trouble if we talk about closings,” a Starbucks employee said. “Please, don’t ask us any more questions.”

The baristas are under orders to remain silent, but the proliferation of vacancies demands dialogue.

Tom Loewy is a reporter for The Register-Mail. Contact him with column ideas at tloewy@register-mail.com or 343-7181