Again a store closing in downtown Haines. And I can certainly understand the lament. It’s regrettable that it is so hard to sustain a business in Haines. People immediately cite the Internet and big box stores. But essentially that’s contemporary reality, water way under the bridge. Who doesn’t fill up on gas when in Juneau? What it will take to be successful and to thrive in Haines is to provide a service that we actually need. We don’t need another gift store, hardware store, coffee shop or grocery store. We might need a place for people to go on winter evenings that doesn’t involve alcohol, a tea house/theater. We could use a couple of conferences each year. We do need people to use their imaginations to make products and services with storefronts for Haines that also sell online. We really need to encourage downtown growth: Maybe a well-designed building, think library (not vinyl-sided cheapie) that could house a variety of local entrepreneurs downtown. Less a mall, more of a bazaar. Something we could be proud of. And maybe we need to wean ourselves off exclusive summer dependency more by inviting businesses or organizations into town that primarily use the off-season; a small college for instance would be a perfect fit to help keep businesses running in the winter. It’s only a failure of imagination that works against us.
Byrne Power