Why Shopko closed

When word broke on Monday morning that Shopko’s plans to restructure itself through bankruptcy had failed and Newcastle’s store would be closing, many residents wondered, “what will we do now?”
The question we should be asking is, “what can we do to prevent the closing of another store in our community?” While we would be the first to suggest that Shopko’s closure is due in part to poor decision-making and some degree of mismanagement at the corporate level, there can be no denying that the retail chain was doomed by the rise in online shopping.
A high number of our residents already flock to larger cities like Billings, Rapid, Gillette or Casper to spend their money, and their lack of loyalty to local businesses has always presented challenges to the hard working merchants of this town. Shopko’s closure demonstrates that the addition of online shopping to the mix appears to have finally tipped the balance against small communities nationwide, and in Newcastle we need to examine our own spending habits before we lose the little bit of retail presence we have left.
The best place to start is with local governments. They have more spending power than any of us do as private citizens, and they should be even more committed to supporting the local businesses that make up their tax base.
Unfortunately, some of the people who are responsible for spending local government dollars demonstrate an appalling level of economic loyalty to this community or the businesses that collect the tax dollars they’re spending.
In the March 7, 2019 edition of the News Letter Journal, we published the federal fund expenditures for Weston County School District #1 for the month of February (page 14). In that month, there was nearly $97,000 spent from the accounts that are primarily responsible for special education and the Double Aaces after-school program, and about $51,000 of that was for salaries of district staff members. The remaining $46,000 of federal education funds spent in February went for supplies, trips and various other expenses, and none of it was spent in Weston County.
Not...one...penny.
And as we watch Shopko prepare to close its doors for good and leave a vacant shell at the gateway of our community, it is important to note that the special education and Double Aaces programs spent $34,000 on credit cards last month, with a whopping $8,000 of that going to online purchases of clothing and graphic design and nearly $4,500 (in one month!) being spent at Amazon. In fairness, it is important to point out that if you look at other school district accounts in February, it doesn’t appear that the spending habits are as offensive to local businesses and the credit card abuse is nowhere near as bad. We are fortunate that this attitude doesn’t govern all of the $15 million in spending power the district has, but if leaders don’t exert some control over the bad actors, the cancer is sure to spread.
The desire to shop elsewhere isn’t limited to the school district either, as Weston County and the City of Newcastle have both demonstrated an increased eagerness to do business with out-of-town merchants.
At the county commission meeting on March 5, Weston County Clerk Becky Hadlock challenged Administrative Assistant Brooke Weigel’s decision to publish a bid notice in Newcastle’s newspaper (page 15) instead of just putting it in the Upton and Casper newspapers. Apparently it is county policy to give Casper businesses an advantage over those in Newcastle when it comes to purchasing materials and services for the county. Last summer, the Newcastle city council accepted a bid from an out-of-town car dealership for two new police vehicles after first publishing the bid notice in Casper and Upton — but not Newcastle — and saved a whopping $500 by getting a lower bid than the local dealer offered. The cost of placing the notice in the Star-Tribune was more than $500, however, so the taxpayers actually spent more money than they should have and the community lost the sale.
If you want to see why Shopko closed, look no further than the spending being done by local governments. If you don’t want any more stores to close, tell your public officials to spend locally — and then follow their example.