Coming Soon…

The rumors are true. Shopko is coming to Bonners Ferry! You know what that means. No? I’m not sure anyone knows exactly what that means. But I can tell you a few things about it. First, Shopko is a retailer, similar to Wal-Mart, Target, Kmart and Kohl’s. The company has been in business for over 50 years. It began in Green Bay, Wisconsin, right around the time when the USA upped the ante from duck and cover drills to family bomb shelters.

I can’t say I remember it personally. It was 1962, coincidentally the same year Sam Walton opened his first Wal-Mart store in Rogers, Arkansas. Shopko sweated through the threat of bombardment to become a $3 billion retailer, opening 361 stores in 24 states. Those numbers continue to grow.

As fast as Shopko stores are going up, plans for the Bonners Ferry store have taken time to solidify. David Simms, mayor of Bonners Ferry, recently stated that, “the project has been three years in the making.”

Mayor Simms was the Boundary Economic Development Council Director when he made that statement. He’s resigned from the position since becoming mayor to avoid any conflict of interest.

According to its website, Shopko has four retail formats: Shopko stores, Shopko Express Rx stores, Shopko Pharmacy locations, and Shopko Hometown stores. The company is experiencing tremendous growth in the latter format, which has been “developed over the past five years to augment Shopko’s larger store model and focus on serving the needs of smaller rural communities.” This is the format planned for the Bonners Ferry store.

An unsubstantiated figure suggests Shopko Hometown operates in communities of 3,000 to 8,000 people, after the fashion of Pamida, a retailer Shopko acquired and rebranded in the late 90s. This warrants another comparison to the contemporaneous Wal-mart. Targeting small communities was part of the strategy employed by Sam Walton in placing his stores. Whatever drives decisions for new locations, it seems Bonners Ferry meets the criteria of a small community with needs Shopko believes it could fill.

So, how are these stores tuned to the needs of small communities like Bonners Ferry? According to Shopko, its Hometown format provides the following:

• a broad and dynamic offering of strong national brands and high-value private label brands of apparel, home furnishings, toys, consumer electronics, seasonal items, grocery department and lawn and garden products – all in an attractive, well laid out, easy-to-shop store format that ranges from 15,000 to 35,000 square feet.

• excellent customer service, as well as a continued commitment to support local communities, ensuring that Shopko Hometown will be well received by these communities.

That is a nice piece of corporate jargon. It tells us what Shopko wants to provide, or at least what the brains behind the brand want customers to believe it wants to provide.

Do they live up to the hype? The retailer is, according to a press release from June of 2015, already filling needs in other communities. Shopko CEO Peter McMahon stated, “We’ve received overwhelmingly positive feedback from our customers in our current hometown communities who tell us they appreciate the improved shopping experience and access to a broader, differentiated selection of merchandise, including products and brands previously not available in their community.”

The store itself is nothing we haven’t seen before, a one-stop shop, sized to the needs and level of commerce the local community will bear. Shopko still needs an investment from local people. It must make good on its promise to provide “attractive, well laid out, easy-to-shop store format” with “excellent customer service, as well as a continued commitment to support local communities.” The last part of that promise is especially key.

Shopko will support the community by offering employment opportunities. That is positive for those seeking employment and, in a way, it means patronizing Shopko will help provide directly for people in our community. It also means excellent customer service becomes the responsibility of local folks as they work for Shopko and serve other local folks.

Shopko extends community support beyond job opportunities. The company appears to recognize the importance of a broader community around its Hometown stores. In 2004, Shopko started the Shopko Foundation, which is a 501(c)(3) corporation operated exclusively for charitable purposes. The foundation has awarded more than one million dollars in grants since that time. Earlier this year, CEO Peter McMahon stated, “Shopko views each community where we serve our customers as our ‘hometown’….We appreciate the opportunity to serve these communities and strive to strengthen them through the Shopko Foundation’s support of charitable groups and activities that are important to the people who live and work there. We are passionate about promoting healthy lifestyles and educational opportunities for our neighbors in all the communities where we serve and strive.” That is good news for Bonners Ferry (see www.shopko.com/foundation for more information).

At this time, I cannot say whether the Shopko is part of a larger development effort. The Boundary County Economic Development Council (BCEDC) has assisted The Ensign Development Group, LLC in locating and procuring the property needed for the Shopko Hometown store. The BCEDC “seeks to assist businesses in every aspect of development, including expansion, new developments and relocation efforts in the county.” The Ensign Development Group “specializes in working with national tenants in identifying and developing locations to assist their corporate growth initiatives.” One interesting thing about the Ensign Development group, they claim to have “a unique creative ability to develop for our corporate partners in towns where other developers have failed.” That specialty is encouraging.

Unfortunately, I could not confirm much information beyond websites and Mayor David Simms, who was very helpful in sharing what he was able. I’ll say this, a retail store like Shopko will provide jobs, it will compete with some local businesses – competition is not necessarily a bad thing – and it will cost the community money for infrastructure.

The hope is that it will draw business into Bonners Ferry. People who shop need to eat, they need to purchase gas, they stop for coffee, etc. Mayor Simms says, “We’re hoping with the addition of Shopko it will reduce the leakage of shoppers that head south for their goods…”. If so, Shopko will also keep more money circulating in the community.

Construction will begin early next year. Although nothing has been put in writing, the Urban Renewal Agency expects to work with the developer on the public infrastructure required for development. The site is located on South Hill in Bonners Ferry, within the Bonners Ferry Urban Renewal District, next to the Kootenai Valley Motel.

What do you think about Shopko? Send me your ideas about the project as it relates to our community in the comments section of the online version of this article.

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