A Wilde Lake Farewell

Well, they gave it the old college try. David’s Natural Market, brought back from the brink a year or so ago, is really and truly shutting its doors. As much as their fan base wanted to see them survive, my guess is they didn’t shop there enough to help the business succeed. And, as obvious as it sounds, if David’s had been selling what the Wilde Lake area wanted and needed, they might have been able to make a go of it.

This is not meant as a criticism of the good folks at David’s but is rather an acknowledgment that the business model that many in town remember so fondly didn’t mesh with current consumer needs. Operating costs in the commercial sector have risen over time as well: food, rent, labor, heat and air conditioning…

Wanting to preserve David’s Natural Market was indeed a good-hearted mission. But do we sometimes want to preserve things without truly understanding whether they will function successfully in 2023?Maybe?

I read on Facebook (because: of course I did) that a replacement business for the David’s Natural Market spot has already been secured. It’s a part of a national chain called the Grocery Outlet, but it looks as though each store is locally owned and operated. There’s one in Catonsville which opened fairly recently if you want to check them out.

Are there any lessons to be learned here? Is it not a good idea to come to the rescue of a beloved local business? It certainly feels heartless even to type that sentence. Perhaps we need to weigh reality along with our warm fuzzies and nostalgia. Saying that “a place like xxx business ought to be able to survive” because we have such good memories about it is understandable. But when we do that, do we understand the present conditions well enough?

Businesses and the communities they serve don’t stand still. We can’t make them. I remember reading a newspaper article in the late 1970’s about what the grocery stores of the future would be like. My mother and I laughed a bit over the improbability of the predictions. Many of them have since come true.

David’s opened in 1986. Thirty seven years is a long run. We are lucky to have had them in our community all this time. I will miss their curried chicken salad and the big, chewy cookies and muffins that always caught my eye as I stood in line at the checkout.

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