Residents, Business Owners Divided on Dollar General Issue

Facing the UPS Store and a Dunkin Donuts in a complex off South Avenue is a large vacancy that once housed Drug Fair. Even though "SPACE FOR RENT" signs in empty storefronts are more common than Christmas lights on suburban houses this time of year, it was recently announced that the Tennessee-based mega chain, Dollar General will soon occupy the existing empty space.
   
Some residents and downtown shoppers take Dollar General's debut at 6 South Avenue as a retail downgrade. Others see the store's move to Cranford as an opportunity, and hopefully, a sign of coming prosperity.
   
"With my income right now, it sounds good to me," joked Sharon Boxwell, who works at Java's Brewin' coffee shop on South Avenue. 

While Dollar General might seem like a dollar store at first, not everything in the store costs a buck. Still the store's reputation for peddling cheap goods has some residents and store owners up in arms.

"I was hoping to get a Trader Joe's," said Java's Brewin' owner Dolores Del Vecchio.  "I don't think this will help us out any, but it's better than an empty space."
  
Charlie Baniewicz, owner of Back To Nature Healthfoods, summed up the issue:

"A lot of people think that it's cheap, and it's cheesy. But if you need something cheap, everyone's the first one to go there. They just became public," he said, referring to Dollar General's August decision to become a publicly traded company.  "We're no different than any other town.  This [chain store] is the wave of the future.  A lot of people don't like Wal-Mart either, but it is here to stay.  It will bring more customer traffic, and it's better than empty space.  This is a free economy."
   
Shopping malls and downtown districts often use "anchor" stores, larger, established retail endeavors, to help to attract consumers and other businesses in their vicinity. 

Though calling Dollar General an anchor store might be a bit of a stretch, when making money becomes difficult in a local economy, it could help to have a nationally-backed store succeed to convince others of Cranford's retail viability.
   
"It's close enough to the middle of downtown that if someone is coming from another town, you can get foot traffic," another business owner said.  "As long as they keep it to Cranford standards, you can make a dollar store nice.  I actually looked them up online, and it doesn't look 'fly-by-night.'  At this point in time, there's a lot of empty space.  Any store is better than no store." 

Still some believe that a Dollar General is not the right store to drive traffic to downtown Cranford.

"My intial reaction to the Dollar General is 'Why?'...  between the Blockbuster space, and the Drug Fair space, you could easily put a nice grocery store which this town so badly needs," said Adam Fitzer, resident and South Avenue business owner. "Cranford needs an anchor to bring people here.  A Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, or even a small Wegmans or Fairway would bring people to Cranford, not to mention service the local population that have to go elsewhere (Garwood) to foodshop. I have no idea what a Dollar General will bring, but my initial gut reaction to a discount store is not good.

"The real answer comes in how many people shop there," said Baniewicz. "If it doesn't work out, they'll go as quickly as they came."

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