Developer commends city for its efforts
By Holly Neumann
The new Dollar General store, held its grand opening in Manawa on Monday, Oct. 29.
“We are very excited and pleased to be standing here in front a completed building that opened for business this morning,” said Todd Platt, developer and part owner of the Manawa Dollar General. “I want to thank Mayor John Smith, Dave Thiel, Waupaca County Economic Development Corporation and Jonathon Bartz, Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation and many, many others that were involved with the project as well.”
Platt described this project as by far the best example of a private/public partnership that has been encountered in any of the stores that have been developed.
“The city really needs to be commended for their efforts for what has happened here,” Platt said. “Because of John’s [Smith] efforts in promoting economic stability for this city that we are here today. I thank him for his persistence.”
He said the new store is a good example of taking a piece of property and re-developing it to where a tax base can be generated.
Dollar General, a fortune 200 company, has been around since 1939. They have more than 14,000 stores throughout 44 states.
“One of the benefits of the store is that we anticipate that it will drive a lot of traffic into the community,” Platt said. “Once they come here, hopefully they will do other shopping in the area. It is a good thing for the downtown.”
To residents who have concerns about how Dollar General will impact the local grocery store, Platt said, “It is not apples to apples.”
“Dollar General is a general store, where food is offered but a whole host of other products are as well,” he said. “We have opened more than 110 stores throughout Wisconsin and Minnesota. In all of our research that we have done, where there has been an existing grocery store in the community, we have yet to find one example where we have forced an existing store out of business.”
He feels that the Dollar General Store can be complimentary to the local grocery store.
“You can come here and pick up a few items where we are very competitively priced,” Platt said. “But because of limited sales, they will have to go to a grocery store and pick up all the other items they need.”
Smith welcomed Dollar General to the community.
“We needed something for the city,” he said. “It should bring even more people to Manawa and enhance everyone’s opportunities.”