Pittsboro needs anchor stores to draw enough traffic to support small businesses

Date: Mon, 3 Oct 2011 09:48:19 -0400
From: Jeff
Subject: This is sad news… they were the best stationary coffee shop in town

> Date: Fri, 30 Sep 2011 14:19:08 -0400
> From: daryl walker
> Subject: coffee shop goes belly up
> Just learned yesterday that the Red Star Coffee Shop had to close due to insufficient support from the Pittsboro commuity.
> They had hands down the best coffee in town, including high quality decaf which no other Chatham County coffee provider has.
> As a coffee addict, I am extremely disappointed.. Lesson: Support our local businesses that we like or they will disappear!

This is sad news… they were the best stationary coffee shop in town (I say stationary because I also really love Shot of Spro.)    The problem is that I don’t get out to see either of them very often.

Unfortunately, for a 12 mile drive into town, there has to be something more compelling than just coffee.  Even for a 12 mile trip, I usually need some other reason for heading into town, such as hitting the feed store for some stuff, Southern States for farm thing, Lowes for hardware, Food Lion for Groceries, or perhaps just on my way out of town to go to Durham or Raleigh to do some shopping.

I thing the more important lesson here is that the local community CAN NOT support great little shops like this on their own.  So for all of you chicken littles who scream that the sky will fall as soon as we get “Them unholy big box stores” remember this.  There’s nothing in Pittsoboro really to draw in the traffic that these little shops need to really be sustainable.  We need either shopping and industry that brings people INTO the county, not just another chicken plant or lumber mill or jewelry shop or art gallery.  We need things like Best Buy, Target, large names that bring people in.

That’s just my 2 cents, becuase it’s really sad that Red Star is gone.  I really enjoyed their coffee and just sitting in the shop getting some work done (which gets me out of the house for a bit where I NORMALLY work).  I’ll miss the diversion.

Jeff