Retailing in the North Country

In my role as President of the Saranac Lake Community Store interim board of directors, I was down in Albany yesterday, being interviewed by the host of WAMC's Roundtable program, Joe Donahue. We had some time afterwards to chat a bit, and Joe talked about where he lives, which is about 25 miles away from Saratoga. His town has roughly the same number of residents as Saranac Lake: 5,000 or so. What was interesting, as we compared the two communities, is that in his town some 60% of the shops downtown have closed in recent months. While Saranac Lake has a few empty store fronts, we haven't experienced huge closures in recent months. Yes, there have been a few, but no where near 60%. I'm wondering if this isn't yet another indication that because the economy in the North Country has always been tough, everyone is used to scrambling and may see the current downturn simply as just another "blimp" on our economic horizon.