BUSINESS: PART TWO

One trend, which perhaps started prior to 1960, continues today. The number of non-resident business owners is increasing. In 1960 there were 16 stores, such as the Safeway and Hinky Dinky groceries, that employed local managers but were directed from corporate headquarters. Today in Auburn there are 25 businesses in that category.

The history of grocery stores illustrates the nature of small town business over this period. The trend has been to fewer, but larger, stores catering to a much larger trade territory, resulting in the loss of interest and loyalty by locals. The corporate giants (read Safeway) had stores located in the county seat, but expected only about a countywide trade territory. Neighborhood grocery stores, such as Reed’s and Oakman’s on J street and Midway on Courthouse Avenue in Auburn, provided a living for a couple, the traditional “Mom and Pop” operation. But then the corporations decided that bigger stores would draw from a larger territory and they built new stores accordingly. Although this strategy was the corporate plan, its execution often depended on local happenstance.

A fire destroyed the Hinky Dinky store on J Street. They moved to a new location at 13th and K Streets in 1966. Their new location was not much larger than their old place. The new strategy became evident when, in 1975, Safeway became the anchor store at a new planned development, called Crestview, located on the highway at the south edge of town. The new Safeway store was, for southeast Nebraska, a show place. However, by 1982 Safeway’s corporate management decided their Midwest operations were not profitable and shut them all down, including the store in Auburn. Jack and Jill (a quasi-corporate organization that provides product to a local owner, in a franchise-style operation) filled the Safeway building, but left in 1986. Taking advantage, Hinky Dinky took the opportunity to expand and went to Crestview. They went through several corporate changes, including a so called employee ownership buy-out, and are now called Sun Mart.

After Hinky Dinky moved from the 13th Street location, a store called Super Foods took over the location. This lasted until 1990 when it became J & D Market and was owned by two couples. After a time one of the couples bought the other out and the store is now called Glenn’s Corner Market. That leaves Auburn with only one “super market”. In the meantime the Mom and Pop stores have all closed. But the need for quick “in and out” service, for a loaf of bread or milk did not go away. That need has given rise to the “convenience” stores that now inhabit that niche.

The banking business has had an interesting growth in Auburn during the past 40 odd years. In 1960 Auburn State Bank and Carson National Bank were the only two general banking institutions. The Federal Land Bank was in operation but only for farm loans. These two banks were primarily owned by one family and had interlocking directors, which didn’t seem to bother anybody. They even took ads together announcing their closing hours for holidays.

But in 1968 they began advertising separately. It is not known whether banking regulations took a part in the decision or, as later generations of the families took over, it was the appearance that mattered. It might have been the filing for a charter by a new bank, the Nemaha County Bank, in 1968 that made it prudent for the two to appear competitive. In any event, the new charter was denied by the state.

Another sign of the times came in 1967 when counter checks were abandoned. Up to then stores kept pads of blank checks from area banks on their counters. Customers used them instead of personalized checks. The use of machine-read account numbers and computers dictated the change. Thereafter, stores had to find another source for scratch pads also.

More substantial change came in 1971 when Carson Bank opened a new facility which included an outdoor drive up service window, at Crestview. The same year Auburn State opened a new facility in the lot where Hinky Dinky had burned out. Auburn State Bank added a free-standing drive up window in 1995.

In 1996 Union Bank became a full service operation. Up to then it was a bank for making farm loans. When Union came in, it was the first non-resident banking operation in the city’s history. During this period savings and loan institutions also flourished. The first to locate in Auburn was Falls City Federal Savings and Loan. It was purchased by First Federal-Lincoln and then became Tier One. Several other S&Ls came in but not all survived the economic downturn of the 1980s when inflation bankrupted not only farmers but some other businesses. After the air cleared, the two original family-owned banks plus Union Bank, Tier One and First National Bank of Johnson brought the total number of banks up from two in 1960 to five now.

First National Bank of Johnson (Johnson is a small farming community in the western part of Nemaha County) opened at the location of one of the S&Ls in 1997 and then later built a new facility, including a drive up teller. Tier One has changed from a savings and loan to a full service bank.

A nationally syndicated columnist, Rowland Nethaway, recently summed up the changes in small town business in his attempt to describe our current economy as a “service economy without service”. Here are some of the things he bemoaned.

· “Full-service filling stations now are novelties. Thousands upon thousands of jobs that supported families have been lost.”
· “Where it used to take teams of workers to bring in crops, now most of those jobs have been replaced by big, expensive machines that have automated agri-business on giant farms.”
· “Every city and mid-size town in America once had door-to-door delivery of milk, butter and other dairy products as well as bread, cakes and other bakery products. All those jobs are gone.”
· “Mom and Pop businesses that supported families and formed the backbone of communities across the nation have shut their doors because of the proliferation of mega-discount stores such as Wal-Mart.”

That nearly describes Auburn to a tee, except that we don’t have a Wal-Mart and it fails to recognize the continuing efforts of the community to adjust in the changing economy. As noted, farmers are changing their agri-business methods, but not just by more machinery. Better education and the better use of technology by farmers are also key factors.

Although it is true that certain businesses can no longer survive in the small town, other businesses are developing. One opportunity for local entrepreneurs is a push for additional housing to attract newcomers, taking advantage of the recent trend by city dwellers who want more of the rural “good life.” The pendulum swings and a hopeful attitude for residents of our small towns ride on these changes for a better tomorrow.