Has ImageJacob Doran/West Shore News

The Lakeside Mercantile is nearly vacant, along with plenty of other commercial spaces in Lakeside.

Lakeside grapples with finding sustainable businesses

By JACOB DORAN

Bigfork Eagle

When it comes to vacant commercial space, Lakeside certainly has no shortages.

With commercial space available in the Village Commons, the new Lakeside Landing, Turtle Bay and all but one corner of the Lakeside Mercantile, one question that many have raised is why many local businesses have struggled to survive in a growing community such as Lakeside.

Over the years, numerous businesses have moved into the community to tap new markets, provide needed services and satisfy existing demands, but only a handful have survived.

According to many local business owners, the critical component in the survival of small town businesses is adequate local support, something that is often lacking in seasonal communities where much of the population leaves for the winter and full-time residents do much of their shopping in neighboring communities such as Kalispell and Bigfork.

“Businesses can’t just rely on visitors and people driving along Highway 93,” Lakeside-Somers Chamber president Dee Kirk-Boon said. “You have to have community support in order to make it.

“People tend to want to do all of their shopping in Kalispell because of the convenience. Since a lot of people are going to Kalispell any way or work in town, they’re more apt to do their shopping in Kalispell and use those services instead of using local services.”

Flathead Bank President Muffie Thomson agreed.

“It’s a habit that we’ve all gotten into,” Thomson said. “A lot of people work in town, and they figure they can kill two birds with one stone.”

Kirk-Boon said she believed that prices were also a factor. For those who work in Kalispell, Bigfork or even Polson, as well as for those who have a lot of shopping to do, the thought of paying lower prices in town may entice them to do all of their shopping at larger stores that can afford to keep their prices lower. It is often difficult for small town businesses to compete with the sale prices that larger stores advertise.

Even so, residents of rural communities tend to ask for more local services but fail to support them when businesses move in to meet those demands.

Kirk-Boon and Thomson both referred to the fact that Lakeside has always needed a local pharmacy where residents could fill prescriptions without having to make a trip into Kalispell. However, when Ed Kennedy started up a pharmacy in Lakeside, he lacked sufficient support from area residents to continue operating the pharmacy within the community.

Another such business was Towne Printer, which offered a photo center as well as copy and fax services. While many locals were grateful to have such a business in Lakeside and utilized it as a hub for business and personal needs, as well as social interaction, it too lacked sufficient patronage to make the location economically viable.

When Jim Ross moved to Lakeside, he wanted to start up a business that would both support him and offer services that would benefit the Lakeside community. Consequently, he approached the Lakeside-Somers Chamber of Commerce about what kind of businesses were most needed and would stand the best chance of success.

Acting upon the suggestions given by other business people in the Lakeside and Somers area, he opened Lakeside Sports and Gifts in the Lakeside Mercantile building. There, Ross sold and rented Tandem bicycles, pedal boats, fishing polls and reels, sporting goods, a variety of water toys, Made in Montana gifts and novelty items, Lakeside memorabilia and a broader base of items that would appeal to both adults and children year-round. Ross even special ordered items by request, which he didn’t carry in the shop.

While the shop catered to a variety of needs and provided services requested by both visitors and locals, Ross also struggled to keep the shop going during the slow winter months and eventually decided to pursue more lucrative enterprises.

“I really thought that Jim had great prices on things, and I used his services quite a bit,” Kirk-Boon said. “His prices were not any higher than going to Kalispell, but again it wasn’t community supported. I would have thought it would have been, because that was something that people say we need in Lakeside.

“There have been so many good ideas that come to town and then close down after six months to a year. They seem to get going with a bang and then kind go out with a whimper at the end, because it just doesn’t get supported by the community.”

While acknowledging that there is an abundance of empty commercial space for rent in Lakeside, Thomson said she believed the fact that developers have overbuilt to be a symptom rather than a cause. She expressed confidence that those spaces would fill in with sustainable businesses as more full-time residents move into the area.

In the meantime, she suggested that prospective business owners looking at starting a new business in Lakeside be well capitalized, thick skinned and diverse enough to to make it during the off-season. She also believed that existing businesses that have built a reputation in other areas and already have a proven formula stand a greater chance of success if they choose to branch out into the Lakeside area.

As for local support, Lakeside Landing and Lakeside Business Center owner Bill Eisenlohr said that what is most needed among residents is a change of attitude and a change of habits.

“It’s really a change of mind,” Eisenlohr said. “The people in Lakeside need to think about supporting Lakeside. The grocery store is a good example. It may be cheaper to shop at Rosaurs or another store in town, but we need to support the local economy. I think that as time goes on and more of these condos get occupied full-time, the demand will grow and things will begin to fill in, but people have to get in the habit of thinking about supporting our local economy.”

“These are the same business that are always supporting folks in the community,” Kirk-Boon said. “If you want them there to support the needs of the community, they need to be supported too. Every time there’s a fundraiser, hands go out and people think that our local businesses ought to support them, but a lot of those people only go into a business if want a handout. You need to realize that those businesses are your community and they make this community better.”