Is Windsor a city in decline, as indicated by having a grocery outlet? Is Sebastopol "better" because it has chain stores like Safeway, Lucky, Rotten Robbies, Starbucks, CVS, but no Grocery Outlet? What an odd concept :) The way I look at it is that Grocery Outlets are local franchises, that offer great shopping, good prices and help prevent food waste. Folks who travel to shop at Grocery Outlet in Windsor, Rohnert Park or Santa Rosa, might travel less far to shop at a Grocery Outlet in Sebastopol, this helping your City of Sebastopol tax base and perhaps reducing greenhouse gas emissions a little. It would be different if you didn't already have Safeway and Lucky and CVS and hotel etc chain businesses in town ... I say get real and support your broader community as well as your little City. Really sad when Sebastopol elites are supporting commercial vacancies and urban blight instead of bringing in local franchise competition to your chain Grocery stores and helping prevent food waste.
Replying to myself :) Lastly, I think it would be a kind and supportive thing for City of Sebastopol elites to allow Grocery Outlet into long-vacant commercial space within city limits at this time when SNAP benefits are being challenged, decreased and threatened. It would be helpful for lower income people, an additional step towards increasing food security in west Sonoma County.
Unless a Sebastopol store sources all its product from Sebastopol, only hires city residents, and is 100% city resident owned, some part of their non-tax revenue leaves the city. If such a store exists, it's probably artisan based and contributing modest taxes to the city. There just aren't enough of these kinds of businesses to fully support the diverse needs of our city.
The other end of the scale is a fully corporate owned chain store, selling globally sourced products, extracting a lot of its revenue to outside the city, the county, and often the state.
Everything else is a matter of degree between those options.
It's likely that a majority of Sebastopol city businesses aren't owned and managed by Sebastopol city residents. They come from all over West County and beyond. Ownership $ already leaves the city limits and is spread to a larger area. At what geographical point is that ownership too far for comfort?
Profit sharing has to do with what is left over, after paying expenses such inventory and wages. Really, what we are concerned about in this local debate is whether wages and ownership monies stay and get recycled into our local economy. Employee and Management income are expenses. They get paid to locals prior to there even being a profit.
Profit sharing (like the GO model) is a useful way to have outside-of-the-area-products sold in a way that keeps some of that profit in the local community. The alternative is that all profits leave the area in a fully corporate owned model, or we add an additional layer of local ownership which will be reflected in more expensive products. I can't speak to the specifics of the GO arrangement, but profit sharing is often accompanied by shared services, where local management benefits from bulk purchased centralized systems and administration.
Sebastopol has real needs that can only be addressed by a flourishing and diverse business community. On the surface, GO looks to fill an empty storefront, add to the tax base, hire local workers, and insure significant local ownership and control. From an economic view, it has a lot going for it. Does it fit our collective imagination of our local town character? That's a fair question. That's what this debate is really about.
Good to see a company seeing enough opportunity to set up shop in Sebastopol. In my view I won't think a smaller populated area would be that desirable. The recommendation for 1 bike parking spot for 5 cars spots, for a grocery store doesn't sound like the right ratio.
I don't know enough about local building codes, so what I'm saying may not be possible. What Sebastopol needs most is more housing. I see that location as a huge opportunity to attract more people to live in Sebastopol. That's more people visiting shops, restaurants, and services all over town almost daily. Sebastopol probably has more grocery stores per capita than most towns in the U.S. Where it falls far short is in housing.
We’re in Basque Country in south western France. To address extraction of Euros in small local areas, merchants and customers have created a local currency, the cleverly named Eusko.
Is Windsor a city in decline, as indicated by having a grocery outlet? Is Sebastopol "better" because it has chain stores like Safeway, Lucky, Rotten Robbies, Starbucks, CVS, but no Grocery Outlet? What an odd concept :) The way I look at it is that Grocery Outlets are local franchises, that offer great shopping, good prices and help prevent food waste. Folks who travel to shop at Grocery Outlet in Windsor, Rohnert Park or Santa Rosa, might travel less far to shop at a Grocery Outlet in Sebastopol, this helping your City of Sebastopol tax base and perhaps reducing greenhouse gas emissions a little. It would be different if you didn't already have Safeway and Lucky and CVS and hotel etc chain businesses in town ... I say get real and support your broader community as well as your little City. Really sad when Sebastopol elites are supporting commercial vacancies and urban blight instead of bringing in local franchise competition to your chain Grocery stores and helping prevent food waste.
Replying to myself :) Lastly, I think it would be a kind and supportive thing for City of Sebastopol elites to allow Grocery Outlet into long-vacant commercial space within city limits at this time when SNAP benefits are being challenged, decreased and threatened. It would be helpful for lower income people, an additional step towards increasing food security in west Sonoma County.
Unless a Sebastopol store sources all its product from Sebastopol, only hires city residents, and is 100% city resident owned, some part of their non-tax revenue leaves the city. If such a store exists, it's probably artisan based and contributing modest taxes to the city. There just aren't enough of these kinds of businesses to fully support the diverse needs of our city.
The other end of the scale is a fully corporate owned chain store, selling globally sourced products, extracting a lot of its revenue to outside the city, the county, and often the state.
Everything else is a matter of degree between those options.
It's likely that a majority of Sebastopol city businesses aren't owned and managed by Sebastopol city residents. They come from all over West County and beyond. Ownership $ already leaves the city limits and is spread to a larger area. At what geographical point is that ownership too far for comfort?
Profit sharing has to do with what is left over, after paying expenses such inventory and wages. Really, what we are concerned about in this local debate is whether wages and ownership monies stay and get recycled into our local economy. Employee and Management income are expenses. They get paid to locals prior to there even being a profit.
Profit sharing (like the GO model) is a useful way to have outside-of-the-area-products sold in a way that keeps some of that profit in the local community. The alternative is that all profits leave the area in a fully corporate owned model, or we add an additional layer of local ownership which will be reflected in more expensive products. I can't speak to the specifics of the GO arrangement, but profit sharing is often accompanied by shared services, where local management benefits from bulk purchased centralized systems and administration.
Sebastopol has real needs that can only be addressed by a flourishing and diverse business community. On the surface, GO looks to fill an empty storefront, add to the tax base, hire local workers, and insure significant local ownership and control. From an economic view, it has a lot going for it. Does it fit our collective imagination of our local town character? That's a fair question. That's what this debate is really about.
Good to see a company seeing enough opportunity to set up shop in Sebastopol. In my view I won't think a smaller populated area would be that desirable. The recommendation for 1 bike parking spot for 5 cars spots, for a grocery store doesn't sound like the right ratio.
I don't know enough about local building codes, so what I'm saying may not be possible. What Sebastopol needs most is more housing. I see that location as a huge opportunity to attract more people to live in Sebastopol. That's more people visiting shops, restaurants, and services all over town almost daily. Sebastopol probably has more grocery stores per capita than most towns in the U.S. Where it falls far short is in housing.
Extracting money from a local economy.
We’re in Basque Country in south western France. To address extraction of Euros in small local areas, merchants and customers have created a local currency, the cleverly named Eusko.
I know, gosh, we couldn’t do that in Sebastopol…
Just sayin….. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eusko
https://www.euskalmoneta.org/ Use Translate to read