What is more American than fast food? It is quite possibly one of our most successful exports. Durango’s Dairy Queen, which closed in June after 39 years on North Main Avenue, started in 1938 as a 10-cent experiment with a new dairy product by a father and son team from Green River, Illinois. Since its founding in 1940, the company has grown into a $4.1 billion-a-year business with more than 6,600 restaurants in the U.S., Canada and 18 other countries.
Though no longer a mom and pop shop, Dairy Queen had humble beginnings, and many of us grew up with or at least recognized it across the country as the place to go for soft-serve ice cream. Birthday parties, sports teams, teens and families all frequented the local DQ. Tim Walsworth, Durango’s Business Improvement District director, reminisced that when he grew up, it was known as the “Texas stop sign. They were everywhere and kids worked their parents pretty hard to stop.”
So, it is not much of a surprise that when we learned earlier this week that the old Dairy Queen will be succeeded by a Starbucks, the fifth in town, that news was met with a lot of feelings. Mostly nostalgia, followed by a sense of (another) loss of a part of old Durango, concerns about change and the gentrification Starbucks represents, a franchise rather than a locally owned independent business moving in, and in one Facebook comment, relief that “at least it’s not another pot shop!”
The old axiom “the only thing constant is change” comes to mind and Durango is poised for a lot of it. Starbucks as a company is no dummy. They are a multi-billion dollar success story with 20,000 cafes in 63 countries, currently planning for 37,000 by 2021.
They do their homework. If Starbucks is adding another location, we know continued growth, and the change that comes with it, is not far off. That is what makes people uncertain and uncomfortable. Is it growth and change they will like or need in goods and services, and who and which part of our community will it benefit? Who is steering the growth and development ship?
In the case of Starbucks expanding, the free market is. City staff and elected officials can only do so much to guide the growth. They can facilitate processes like they are doing now in which citizens participate to outline desired plans and priorities. But that requires citizen time or adequate outreach to those who may not have it and otherwise remain unrepresented – like many who expressed their concerns on the Herald’s Facebook page.
Ours is a funny species. We seek to preserve what is unique and authentic about where we live – which means we must invest in our people and places by supporting our locally-owned independent businesses, providing housing for our workforce and young families and preserving what is unique in our natural and cultural landscape. At the same time, we desire to grow and create new opportunities which inevitably leads to change.
How we respond to this change is up to every one of us in our daily actions. Whether we shop locally or online or volunteer or participate in planning activities, all of it matters and makes a difference in the future of our community.
