Roemen Listens to Goeman, Installs Green Box Movies

When Sunshine Foods shut down Mr. Movies to make way for expanding its liquor selection, local insurance agent and eager reader Rod Goeman suggested the grocery store could at least install a Redbox DVD rental machine to make up for the lost entertainment choices.

I walk into Sunshine yesterday for milk, and what do I find?
A big green DVD rental box! Instead of going with Illinois-based Redbox like Hy-Vee in Sioux Falls (and 22,000 other locations nationwide), Roemen went with Brandon-based Prairie Video, which has over 120 machines in seven states, including the Sunshines in Tea, Lennox, and Sioux Falls.

DVDs for $1 per day. No late fee; you just pay another buck for each day you keep it. Forget that video under the couch for a month, and you've just paid $30 for one movie.

So on the good side, Roemen has restored a little of the movie selection his booze crowded out. He's also doing business with a South Dakota company On the bad side, movies from a tin box can't replace the selection of a full movie store. And we've replaced an independent entrepreneur and six jobs with a green box. One step up, two steps back.

Large Majority Say Sunshine Liquor Expansion Not Good for Madison

Hey, we broke 100 on the latest Madville Times poll! Thanks, everyone!

I asked, "Will Sunshine's new liquor store be good for Madison?" You said...

Yes	37 (37%)
No	64 (63%)

Votes so far: 101

Does this poll mean Dan Roemen's new adult business is bound to fail? Not at all. You don't need to sell your product to everyone. 53% of Midwesterners are regular drinkers (see this PDF, p. 41). Only 6% of Americans are problem drinkers. But just 6% can buy a lot of booze.

The poll does mean that I'm not the only who recognizes that building yet another prominent alcohol outlet, in Madison's only grocery store, isn't exactly the Unexpected™ that we want folks to discover in Madison. More booze may be a perfectly profitable business decision for Sunshine. But it is also bad for Madison's image, bad for our kids, and bad for our economy.

Per Kristen's suggestion, I'll pass these comments on to Mr. Roemen. I may send him some other grocery recommendations... written on the back of my Hy-Vee receipts.

Madison Sunshine Expands Booze Sales... to Minors?

Sometimes irony is elusive. Sometimes fate dumps it in your lap.

On Tuesday, Madison grocer Dan Roemen told KJAM that he plans to use the old Mr. Movies store to expand his liquor selection. Tonight, MDL reports Roemen's Sunshine Foods failed its alcohol compliance check last Friday. Says the Leader, "Staff at Sunshine Foods completed a sale to a minor, allowing the underage purchase of alcohol."

Also worth noting: MDL lists 17 other businesses that sell alcohol in Madison. Assuming Roemen doesn't lose his alcohol license for his store's violation this month (dream on), that's 18 places to buy alcohol in a town of 6500 people.

Oh, did I mention...

Neighborhoods that are characterized by extremely high outlet densities may experience a variety of problems resulting from the presence of the outlets themselves, only partially related to levels of consumption. There is evidence that high alcohol outlet density contributes to increased crime and violence, youth violence, homicide, and other public nuisance and illegal activities [Marin Institute, 2006].

...and...

The level of drinking, drinking participation, and participation in binge drinking are all significantly higher among all college students when a greater number of outlets licensed to sell alcoholic beverages exist near campus. This is particularly true for underage drinking. [Chaloupka, F. & Wechsler, H. “Binge drinking in college: the impact of price, availability and alcohol control policies.” Contemporary Economic Policy, vol xiv, October 1996.]

...and...

Over-concentration of alcohol outlets is part of neighborhood economic and social disintegration. The area's economic base loses its diversity and becomes less attractive to both residents and potential retail customers. The proliferation of alcohol outlets is thus both a symptom of economic decline and a factor that worsens the decline. [Maxwell, A. & Immergluck, D. “Liquorlining: liquor store concentration and community development in lower-income Cook County (IL) neighborhoods.” Chicago IL: Woodstock Institute, 1997.]

...and for the family values crowd (i.e., all of us)...

By using spatial models, PIRE researchers have examined the availability of alcohol, (most often measured as alcohol outlet density per geographic region such as census tract), as a factor related to drinking and driving, binge drinking, child abuse and neglect, accidental injuries, and violent assaults. Some findings from this research include that higher on-premise alcohol outlet density (such as bars) are associated with greater drinking and driving, child neglect, and assaults whereas, higher off-premise (such as liquor stores) alcohol outlet density are associated with higher child physical abuse, and injuries from accidents, while both types are associated with more problem drinking such as binge drinking [Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, "Alcohol: Crime and Violence," 2006].

Seems to me it's time for Madison to do something Unexpected™ and make a real stand for public safety and economic diversity: yank Sunshine Foods' liquor license. Keep the Mr. Movies space open to a difference, better kind of business.

Madison Loves Booze: Mr. Movies Closing Makes Way for Liquor Expansion

You read it here first: Sunshine Foods owner Dan Roemen will replace Mr. Movies with bigger booze sales. We're not bringing new products into Madison. We're not restoring or expanding entertainment options for families and young people. We're selling more booze... across the street from the biggest liquor store in town.

It's not even like we're getting a new independent liquor store, which might at least restore the six jobs we're losing from Mr. Movies and add one more independent entrepreneur to Madison's cadre of business leaders. Sunshine Foods is wholly absorbing the Mr. Movies business space and expanding the entire of aisle of hooch it already sells. At best this expansion will require Roemen to add... what, one or two employees?

And for what? All so Mr. Family Values Dan Roemen can make more money on a product to which too many Madison residents—and apparently the Madison economy—are addicted.

I'm judging debate this weekend in Brookings. Better bring the Hy-Vee bags.

Mr. Movies Closing; LAIC Goals Turning to "Backward Madison"

So a local businessman makes a financial decision that puts a perfectly good company out of business and six employees out of work at Christmastime. Do we call that teamwork?

The Madison Daily Leader reports that video/game-rental store Mr. Movies is going out of business. I had to read that headline carefully: Madison has two such stores, the newer corporate franchise Mr. Movies, next to JubiShine, and older locally owned Movie Guy, in the Schaefer Plaza of Commerce and Residential Development. Honestly, I thought Movie Guy would be the first to fold—since when does the little local outfit win against the deep-pocketed colonialism of franchises sucking the life and independence out of communities?

But this closing does not appear to be a function of normal market competition. Mr. Movies was chugging along just fine under the management of Brad Wede. The axe comes from landlord and grocery monopolist Dan Roemen, who owns the property and the adjoining Sunshine Foods. Mr. Movies' lease runs out at year end, and Roemen declined to renew it. MDL's Elisa Sand reports that "he plans to expand his business."

Oh really? JubiShine plans to expand its product selection? Are they planning to add products that we can't currently buy here in Madison? Maybe add some more baby products, or an organic section like Hy-Vee? Or are we just getting a bigger liquor section? Because heaven knows Madison doesn't already have enough places to buy booze.

Wede says he's trying to find a way to keep the business in Madison. "I hate to see Madison lose something else," he tells MDL's Sand. "We've taken so many hits." He's right, especially on both the culture and jobs front. If we're all supposed to be a team behind the Forward Madison goals (and as I review my old Forward Madison flier from the LAIC, there's Dan Roemen's name on the list of development council members), why would we make any business decision that reduces jobs, competition, consumer choice, and entertainment options? Will the expansion of an existing store really replace the six jobs lost by evicting another independent business?

I can think of a number great spaces where we could keep Mr. Movies downtown, including the current Miller Construction office on North Egan and the old Rosebud building across from MDL on South Egan. Those spaces both housed Madison's original video store, Adventureland Video, back in the good old days when we'd check out a movie and a big honking VCR with the Johnny Five top-loading cassette ejector. But Wede's already been looking around, and he says the spaces he's checked so far don't satisfy corporate franchise requirements. Nuts!

I wonder: is there any chance we can build a new building? Maybe we can get some LAIC development dollars to help build a sparkly new building to keep this employer in town. And as much as I like competition, maybe it's time for our entertainment competitors to work together and build a new entertainment complex for Madison. Carol Frager, owner of Movie Guy, also runs the West Twin movie theater. I love having the opportunity to see big screen movies in Madison, but that 30-year-old facility is deteriorating.

Maybe Frager and Wede could join forces to build a new movie complex in town, perhaps right in that inviting empty slot between Montgomery's Furntiure and Lewis. We could move the movie theater in from that old gravel lots to a nice paved urban, more easily accessible to pedestrians (there are no sidewalks out to the current theater; plus you have to risk your life dodging cars headed for drinks at Nicky's and the bowling alley). Put in two screens for new movies, add video and game rental next door, like the downtown theater does in Chamberlain... there's your business plan!

Losing any business in Madison, when retail is down and unemployment up to 7% heading into the holidays, is bad. Closing a healthy business due to one landlord's decision is even worse. Let's put some heads together, Madison, and figure out a way to keep six jobs and some competition in our local entertainment market.