Some members of the Wilde Lake Village Board appear to be having difficulty coming to grips the demographic changes in Columbia and the resultant new retail realities. According to this story by Larry Carson in The Sun yesterday, “board members have already created a laundry list of stores they'd like in the renewed center - a list remarkably similar to what existed at the center a decade or more ago.”
“The board suggested a coffee shop, hardware store, movie theater, cheese shop and deli among other ideas. A pub, perhaps like the former JK's Pub that once existed in the center, was also mentioned.”
A cheese shop!
I actually worked in the Cheese Shop that was an original tenant in the village center. Even back in those days the store made more money selling sandwiches to construction workers than it did by selling cheese to village residents. The home construction activity eventually moved on from Wilde Lake and Harpers Choice to other villages, business dropped off dramatically and the store eventually closed.
The hardware store and the pub didn’t make it either.
I think the board would better served by learning from the centers history than seeking to repeat it.
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