“St. Louis” Companies That Don’t Have St. Louis City Locations
Today I learned that online investment broker Scottrade is based in St. Louis — well in suburban Des Peres. Their office is near the formerly blighted Westfield Shopping Town known as West County Mall. Scottrade has five St. Louis region branch locations; three in St. Louis County, one in St. Charles County and one in Metro East. But not in St. Louis proper. Hopefully if they decide to add a sixth branch it will be in the city.
Another St. Louis area based company lacking representation in the city is grocery store chain Dierberg’s. This is not such a bad thing since they build massive boring strip centers like competitor Schnuck’s. We’ll see urban stores from national chains like Whole Foods, Wild Oats and Trader Joe’s before our big local chains wake up to changing attitudes.
Straub’s, with four area locations, has been around since 1901. Their West End location does a great job serving the needs of many customers. Downtown City Grocers does for downtown what Straub’s does for the West End although on a slightly smaller scale.
Local banks seem to be doing well but a number of them don’t have St. Louis City locations. As more and more residents flock to downtown and other neighborhoods it will be interesting to watch as new businesses open to serve their needs. Will it be the national chains or local businesses that fill the need. Unfortunately I think anti-city bias in the region will mean it will be local businesses and chains that will be the slowest to react to the increased demand in the city.
– Steve
This post reflects something that’s been in my head since Metropolis days. I would love to see a comprehensive list of local chains and mini-chains that don’t have a City location. I bet it’d be a remarkably interesting list. I should be stoned for suggesting it (as I heard these words a thousand times), but it always struck me as a possible Metropolis project to have an organized appeal to that list. You certainly hit some major players with this group. Best, TC.
The biggest push right now should be for those who are flocking to the downtown area as well as the city in general to patronize those who have already invested in the areas. It may cost you a little more to shop at City Grocers or other local establishments, but you are investing in your neighborhood. There is much more to real estate values than purchase prices, there has to be economic development alongside to sustain the growth and prop up the values. All these people “investing” in downtown think they are done once they close on their unit. NOT SO. It is going to take personal investment of your monetary support of the local businesses as well as active involvement in city & neighborhood associations and politics to make sure this all sticks and attracts more development.
I go to City Grocers every day but if you are not fortunate enough to be down here you can still support at least one reatailer via the web at http://iloveuma.com/
Ever been there Mike? ;->
Ironically, although Dierberg Markets does not have a store in the City of St. Louis (if you want to be really, really picky, part of the easternmost entrance drive for the Mackenzie Pointe Plaza off Chippewa is in the City of St. Louis) … First Bank, a Dierberg-family owned operation, does have two full-service branches and several ATMs within the City limits.
Their City locations are at 7256 Gravois (just east of Hampton/Germania) and 8917 Riverview Drive (at N. Broadway). Sure, that’s the edge of the City, but it still counts! Also they have an ATM in the lower level of the Chase Park Plaza, near St. Louis Workout, and three different ATMs at the St. Louis Zoo.
And, even more impressive, they have a branch in downtown East St. Louis, at 350 River Park Drive! It’s only steps away from the 5th & Missouri MetroLink station, so I use it quite often. The employees (and customers) there are much friendlier than at the Clayton branch, 135 N. Meramec, which I also use sometimes.
Although it’s unfortunate they closed after only a few short years their tiny branch on Gravois just east of Grand, I hope eventually they will realize the core part of the city is a good market for them. I have an account with them, and I live in 63118, after all. Maybe they’ll eventually get bought out by a bigger bank, but since they’re family-owned and very much tied locally with the grocery operation, that may not be likely. They are aggressively buying up smaller banks across California, Illinois, Texas, etc. When we flew to Dallas last year, there was a First Bank near the airport where we could deposit my wife’s paycheck!
And, no, I don’t work for First Bank, and I don’t think they’re perfect, but they are a pretty good quality, locally-owned bank.
The Mackensie Dierberg’s depends upon St. Louis Hills area purchasing power, yet robs the City of these potential tax dollars. However, just like the Richmond Heights’ Schnuck’s patronized by Dogtown/CWE folks, these businesses could not survive without those city residents willing to drive past City alternatives to buy groceries in other taxing jurisdictions.
But no one is exactly forcing these consumers to shop outside their city. And so, as long as there are cooperative accomplices, businesses like Dierberg’s have less incentive to invest in a City location.
The best way to combat our lack of stores is to overwelm our limited options. If the Hampton Target shows the highest electronic sales of any non-electronics store, you can bet the electronics chains will take notice and seek City locations. It’s the same reason why Lowe’s now seeks to be in the same City as the Southtown Home Depot. The chains abhor a vacuum, especially one benefitting the competition.
City residents need to take heed of Brian’s advice — shop, shop, shop at the businesses in the city. If these stores don’t have something you need, ask them to order it. City Grocers is very flexible and customer-oriented, and has made many changes in its stock in response to customers’ requests. However, critical mass has convinced the store to make these changes. Nothing will change at City Grocers if one person talks to the manager and twelve people just think “oh, well” and drive out to Trader Joe’s to get the item that they want.
We do about 95% of our shopping in the city — the rest is clothing shopping in funky vintage and thrift stores in Belleville and Alton. There’s really never been any need to shop outside of the city for us — the stores we patronize are helpful and we keep our needs fairly simple.
I might also point out that many city stores which lack the shelf space of county big boxes make up for it by being flexible. As you recently pointed out to me in conversation, the folks at A&M Cyclery are glad to order products you’ve seen on the Internet that they don’t stock, if you ask. And at City Grocers (yes I work there, no that’s not why I’m posting this), if you tell the manager you’re looking for a specific product, he really will get it for you. That kind of service is one advantage of shopping at smaller, city businesses.
Also of note, I read recently in the West End Word that a recent study concluded that for every dollar a shopper spends at a locally owned business, about 40 cents stay in the local economy. In comparison, for every dollar a shopper spends at a chain store, only about 20 cents stay in the local economy. Hmmm….
Meanwhile, on hizzoner’s website, there’s a poll timed right for this discussion:
http://www.mayorslay.com/polls
Combining Claire’s point about local economy and mine about local tax base, here might be a combined strategy:
1) first think of mom’n’pops within the city,
2) then local businesses without city locations,
3) then chains with a city location, and
4) finally and thereby virtually never, chains with a non-city location.
In practice, however, if the first mom’n’pop doesn’t carry it, I admit I usually jump then to a city chain, to save searching around town. But if just adding one mom’n’pop each shopping trip as your first stop, you’d be surprised at how many times it will be a satisfying stop. If not, you can explore other places the next time.
For example, my favorite for location, personalized customer service and short lines is Hanneke Hardware on the Hill, easily less stressful than Southtown Home Depot. I’ve been meaning to check out Keller Apothecary too, since I’ve moved away from Lindenwood Drug, and break the Walgreen’s habit.
Whoa! “My next car is a scooter,” says that minipoll. Steve, I think that the author of the Mayor’s Blog just nodded in your direction.
ANYWAY…. Brian, we use a schema just like that, except #2 and #3 are often flipped in order because Michael hates driving and I can’t drive, so proximity is key most of the time. We do make exceptions for shopping in other actual cities in the region. Granite City, Belleville, and Alton have some wonderful urban areas, and if we’d already have to drive out to the boonies (a.k.a. Brentwood Blvd.) to get something, we might as well drive just a little longer and go someplace that’s actually pleasant and worth supporting.
One more thing I meant to add earlier…. In choosing a bank, besides considering how many city locations they have, I think it’s also important to consider whether that bank would loan in your neighborhood. National City, which we use, is not local, but they actually give people decent home loans on the North Side (including Old North AND Hyde Park!). That’s another important way of supporting the city.
The Home Mortgage Disclosure Act requires banks to report their lending by census tract. In looking at the HMDA data for various banks, you can better decide which bank least redlines your community and its neighborhoods. But be sure to think of proportions or relative numbers. Bigger banks make more loans, so I’d think of relative size to truly compare all banks and their geographic portfolios. Maybe Joe Frank knows the best on-line resource for HMDA records, as the City does maintain its own copy.