Small upstate New York town owns state's first community-owned department store

When the Ames department store in rural Saranac Lake in upstate New York closed it's doors in 2002 and Wal-Mart threatened to overtake the small town of about 5,000 residents and it's locally-owned businesses, the community took matters into it's own hands. As The New York Times' Amy Cortese reports, residents decided to raise capital to open their own department store. One-hundred dollar shares in the store were marketed to local people as a way to "take control of our future and help our community," Melinda Little, Saranac Lake resident, told Cortese. (NYT photo: Customers peer into the windows of the Saranac Lake Community Store on opening day)

After five years, organizers reached their $500,000 goal and opened the Saranac lake Community Store on Oct. 29 of this year. It's located in a former restaurant space on Main Street across from the Hotel Saranac and has 4,000 square feet. Though the space was not fully renovated when the doors opened, Cortese reports shoppers seemed pleased with the mix of clothes, bedding and craft supplies for sale, and filled the store by 9:30a.m. on opening day.

Saranac Lake isn't the only rural town to create a community-owned department or grocery store. In western states where remote towns find it hard to attract business and retain population, community stores are not unfamiliar. However, these types of stores are less common on the East Coast. Organizers told Cortese the Saranac store is the first of its kind in New York state. Cortese reports communities from Maine to Vermont are taking notice, andthat "community ownership is resonating with people now because of frustration with Wall Street, corporate America and a system seemingly rigged against the little guy." (Read more)