With A Clear Choice For Residents, Webster Wants To Compete
WEBSTER, S.D. (AP) — On the hour-and-a-half drive between Aberdeen and Watertown on Interstate 29, Webster is the town in between.
A simple trip west on four-lane U.S. Highway 12 versus a quick jump on the interstate.
Ruby Tuesday for dinner in Aberdeen versus. Applebee’s in Watertown.
That enviable location gives the 1,800 Webster residents plenty of choice in where they might go to spend their money. However, the city’s leaders see Aberdeen and Watertown not as “steps up,” but as competition, the Aberdeen American News ( ) reported.
Once a community where business development stretched down the three blocks of Main Street, businesses now prefer a spot along U.S. Highway 12, with new business additions planned.
There are still businesses that draw customers downtown, though: Fiksdal Furniture and Gifts is a popular stop, Mayor Mike Grosek said. There’s also a new coffee shop, Perfect Pickins, which doubles as a shop with a variety of gift items.
Grosek has been mayor for 31 years and has operated Webster’s grocery store for 38 years.
“Up until four years ago, there was always another grocery store in town,” he said from his upstairs office at Mike’s Food Center. Grosek’s store shares its parking lot with a nearby strip mall.
As a business owner, he recognizes that Aberdeen and Watertown are his competition.
“We try to stay as competitive as possible,” he said.
Chamber director Marcia Lefman said Webster creates it own uniqueness with a selection of local businesses that can’t be found in the larger communities. But, she said, each new business in Aberdeen also provides a customer draw.
“Aberdeen has done a good job bringing business to town,” Lefman said, noting recent additions such as Ruby Tuesday and Hobby Lobby.
She also pointed to Aberdeen’s two hospitals — Avera St. Luke’s and Sanford Aberdeen Medical Center — as a benefit. Webster has a 25-bed critical access hospital run by Sanford that provides emergency services and some surgeries.
“If you can’t get a procedure done in Webster, or need more work done, you can get that done in Aberdeen,” she said. “It means a lot when you can drive an hour away to get more done.”
Lefman said the next step for hospital procedures is usually a visit to Sioux Falls, which is a daylong ordeal.
Keeping it local
Peggy Krichmeier said she shops in both Aberdeen and Watertown to get what she needs.
Tanya Snaza said she prefers Aberdeen because she likes the four-lane highway to the Hub City. U.S. Highway 12 provides a direct route from Webster to Aberdeen, and Snaza said she can get to Aberdeen in 40 minutes. It takes an extra 20 minutes to get to Watertown.
Joanita Johnson said shopping in other communities is commonplace.
“People are much more mobile and don’t think twice,” Johnson said. “When gas was really high, it slowed a little.”
While it’s quicker to visit Aberdeen, Johnson said, her husband prefers Watertown, but said he may just be more familiar with the community.
Johnson’s daughter Briana said she visits Aberdeen to shop, but also for entertainment like the circus, a movie or wrestling tournaments.
“Sometimes it’s just nice to get out of town,” she said.
Grosek said people will always shop out of town, but it’s the local businesses that help with fundraisers and get to know their customers.
“Normally, you know the people coming in the door,” he said. “That’s key.”
The Webster businesses offer places for customers in a quiet town where life seems just a little slower and there’s no need to drive far.
Melissa Waldner, executive director for the Webster Area Development Corp., said the addition or subtraction of a local business in Webster affects not only the local community, but other nearby communities as well.
Waldner and Grosek both expressed excitement about ShopKo’s plans to open a retail outlet in the former Alco building on the eastern edge of town. When Alco’s closing announcement came, Waldner said, she remembers thinking how much of a void it was going to leave for Webster as well as the nearby communities of Waubay and Roslyn.
Webster developers said they see the community as a regional hub for the smaller communities nearby, just like Aberdeen acts as a regional hub drawing people in from a wider area.
“Without Alco, it gave people another reason to go out of town,” Grosek said.
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Information from: Aberdeen American News,
