To hear some local voices, Oak Park’s retail community is just one minimum wage hike away from ruination. Is that really so? Think how many new businesses have come to Oak Park recently or are on their way, ranging from fine dining to Target. Scratch soon to be twice! Village reports show that the Retailers’ Occupation Tax, a good measure of retail strength, increased by 7.3% in 2016. I’d say the local retail climate is doing great!
Yes, Oak Park has lost a few businesses and is certain to lose more. Let’s talk candidly about that. Regarding dining establishments that closed, my sense is that they succumbed to superior competition. Oak Park has become a dining mecca. You’d better bring your A-game if you want to compete in this town.
I patronize many local restaurants, including several that are now closed. Not to call out anyone specifically, but none of the closures surprised me. They didn’t measure up.
My unscientific observation is that it’s even tougher sledding for non-dining retail. Between the online retailers and the high real estate costs in Oak Park, the deck is stacked against them.
I do wish every local retailer the best, and I’m a fervent buy-local guy. But we should not determine our path by fretting over the inevitable comings and goings of individual businesses. For every Klay Oven, there is a Novo.
Retail here overall is strong and growing, especially for restaurants. We mustn’t throw our lowest-paid workers under the bus to prop up those businesses that are having trouble competing. One full-time worker going from the existing minimum wage to the 2017 Cook County requirement will get an extra $300 a month. If that’s fatal to a retail business, being candid, that business was already in peril.
I do believe there are steps to take. I like certain places in Forest Park and Berwyn, but they opted out of the minimum wage hike, so I will be sticking to Oak Park for now. I urge the village to focus more on improving our commercial office space inventory; let’s get some larger professional firms to move in. (And I urge Mayor Abu-Taleb, whom I greatly respect, to recuse himself from any further deliberations on the minimum wage issue, as a restaurant owner himself.)
Oak Park’s consumer wallets are open. Many businesses are thriving, and business as a whole is growing. We can’t lose sight of the big picture.
Stephen Miller
Oak Park