Skip to Content, Navigation, or Footer.
The Post - Athens, OH
The Post

Athens businesses struggle with construction, chains, closures

Athens’ local businesses are displeased with the construction, chain businesses moving in and local businesses moving out.

Ed Zatta, the owner of TheDrugStore on East State Street and CEO of Vigor Compounding, said the city could implement a shop-local initiative to help businesses.

“I feel that there's a lot of talk about shop local, but not a lot of action about it,” Zatta said.“It's got to start. Originally, I was involved with the chamber with the ‘Keep Athens Local’ program. (It was) 10 years ago we started that.”

At the town hall meeting Jan. 22 hosted by Sara Quoia Bryant, the owner of Cool Digs Rock Shop, Zatta brought $1,000 worth of $2 bills and handed them out. The bills had stamped Zatta's store’s name, logo, address and phone number. A paperclip was also attaching Zatta’s business card to the bill.

In total, $800 worth of the bills were handed out at the meeting. Zatta said he chose to hand out $2 bills instead of coupons or gift cards because people would actually spend them. He said he wants the bills to be spent either at his shop or somewhere in the community to encourage residents to shop locally instead of at chains or online.

“We lose so many tax revenues from not shopping locally,” Zatta said. “If you go to the hometowns of some of these big chains we have, they do wonderful things in their hometowns, spending millions and millions of dollars, but they're taking the money from our area and spending it in their area, whereas our local businesses can spend the money here.”

Zatta said he thinks the timing for what construction projects are done could be better, and a lot more of the businesses in Uptown could be offshoots of the university.

Zatta also said to encourage people to shop locally, the city needs to change the parking situation in Uptown. Currently, Zatta said people park on the street or in the parking garage. He thinks the employees in the stores should be parking on the top of the parking garage so customers can park on the bottom.

Brandon Buckley, owner of Rise and Grind and A-Town Pies and Fries, said he thinks parking is an issue sometimes in Uptown too; however, he feels people misunderstand the similarities between parking at Walmart and in Uptown.

“A lot of it is convenience where the local shops are located, compared to corporate,” Buckley said. “A lot of people complain about parking uptown, but the thing is if you go to Walmart, you've parked in the very last row, and you have to walk the whole distance to the store, walk through the store, walk the whole distance back.”

There has been a lot of construction around Athens recently. Previously, parts of West Union and West State streets were shut down simultaneously, according to Zatta.

According to a previous report from The Post, there has been construction outside of the Lostro building, located at South Court and West Union Street, which has been blocking businesses located near it.

Buckley said he thinks the issues businesses and the community have had with the construction were necessary growing pains.

“The thing about construction is if you’re wanting to grow, you have to maintain your infrastructure and improve,” Buckley said. “If you have businesses coming in and they have to shut down part of the road, it’s better for the city to shut down the road instead of having buildings set empty. Yes, it hurts in the short term, but in the long term, it should help.”

Buckley said there could be more effort at communicating what roads are going to shut down and when, making the entrances of these businesses still accessible and making business signage more visible during the construction, according to Buckley. 

“We had no clue (the city) was going to be redoing these sidewalks causing us to have to not park up here or move,” Buckley said. “Just by giving us notice, we can accommodate.”

Buckley said Athens will always go through cycles of businesses opening and others closing, which is determined by the market.

Since East State Street has sprouted a chain of grocery stores, such as Walmart and Kroger, it has become a bigger commercial area than Court Street, according to Buckley.

“When I was a kid, when (Court Street) had Woolworths, you had all kinds of other stores up here, that was the place to shop,” Buckley said. “This was the main business hub. Now, East State Street has opened up where you don't have to come to Uptown anymore. You go down towards East State Street — that's where all your convenience shops are.”

Mayor Steve Patterson said with chain businesses moving into Athens, the economic pressures within Athens have changed. Various local businesses have gone out of business and many have opened up. Recently, 21 new businesses have opened in Athens.

“With the advent of Amazon and the fact that people can buy things online that show up on your front porch a day or two later, and things that you may not be able to find in Athens or that are really expensive,” Patterson said. 

There is a dynamic between local businesses and rising property taxes at the county level which also add pressure to businesses that are thinking about setting up shop or currently exist, Patterson noted. 

Patterson shared at the meeting that recently Memorial Health System opened, creating 160 new jobs in Athens, which would bring $130,000 to the community. 

At the meeting, Patterson suggested businesses implement a succession plan, which would let local businesses continue to move forward if no one wants to or is unable to continue a local business. He proposed the idea of creating a small business committee, which would include members and nonmembers of the Athens Chamber of Commerce to discuss things affecting businesses.

“There's a lot of programs out there that new businesses can apply for state and federal incentives,” Patterson said. “Every tax incentive that the Lostro Hotel applied for were state or federal credits through different programs. It was the business owner that went through the process. It wasn't the City of Athens that went through the process for them.”

Patterson said he thinks local businesses can work to get the name of their company out there and recognizable.

“It now becomes an issue of getting the word out, doing your advertising, getting people in your door, and so on,” Patterson said. “It's going to be challenging over time, but that's the way local economies work.”

Shaylee Tucker and her husband opened Big Run Kava Bar less than a year ago. She said she thinks a big reason local businesses are being affected is the change in patterns of the town.

“I think a lot of times like locals for Athens County maybe try to stay away from Uptown more or less when school's in town,” Tucker said. “But also I think the crazy nightlife isn't as crazy as it was anymore.”

Tucker said it can be hard to start a business, but it’s not hard to maintain at a city level once established. Moving from Florida to Athens, Tucker said the city could make the community more aware of how to properly run and open a business.

“I think especially from coming out of town or out of state, seeing how things are run in a different state can be very difficult and confusing,” Tucker said. “I didn't realize that we had to hire an architect, which kind of sounds crazy for just such a small business.” 

Tucker said from an outside perspective of not owning or working for a business, people don't see the struggles small business owners can face. 

“I think more awareness needs to be brought to a local standpoint, to go out and shop local,” Tucker said. “It’s such an important and true statement.”

@drewhjournalist

dh384223@ohio.edu

Powered by SNworks Solutions by The State News
All Content © 2016-2025 The Post, Athens OH