News that Walmart is coming to town has drawn mixed reactions. Some are happy, some are mad, some are sad and others are indifferent.
Unlike the fiasco south of here in Guelph, the zoning is in place already for Walmart to come. The site is north of Dixon’s Home Hardware and across from the new Catholic Church. Instead of zoning arguments, site plan reviews and fine tuning are the order of the day. Chances are slim that a form of opposition will mount since there is little to argue about.
We are reminded on this occasion of the day a councillor announced at county council that Fergus was finally on the map. Tim Hortons had come to town. It made for a good chuckle, but he was in lock step with his fellow Fergusites. Tim’s plus a McDonalds was like a coup. Add in a new Zehrs, Zellers, larger Canadian Tire and ultimately a big Shoppers Drug Mart, and we seemingly had it all.
Without showing our age too much, it was not that long ago there was nothing to speak of south of Belsyde Avenue. Drew Elgie’s Garage sat proudly on the corner for years as the most southerly business on that little stretch of Highway 6. The footprint of Fergus has changed immensely.
Orangeville, Cambridge, Listowel (to an extent), Kitchener, Waterloo and latterly Guelph have attracted and retained numerous North American retailers of consequence. It has made for more than one lunch debate with different business people about why we are on the fringe of commerce.
That appears to be changing and surely arguments will abound as to the healthiness of this community as it matures and introduces a big box marketplace.
Rather than heading to shopping climes a half hour in either direction, this new facility might very well calm the restless and encourage staying in town to shop. With costs going up every which way, staying in town makes sense.
We know our personal shopping habits on the local front won’t change very much. Those merchants who provide good service and good products will see us as often as before, since small town shopping is as much about relationships as anything.
