It appears clear now in talking to some folks I know are pretty informed that Selby’s will begin the close down process this coming week. I’ve known the Selby family for many years and they have been major institutions in our community. Not only has their store been a central part of our business community, Roy and his father before him were very community spirited. The times Selby’s helped out the booster club or PTSA with food and other necessities at cost is beyond recall. They were always willing to pitch in. As a local, family owned business, it is even sadder to say goodbye. I will miss my normal Saturday jaunts into Selby’s.
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January 23, 2012 at 4:05 am
Well if this is true, then this is indeed a sad time for our town.
January 23, 2012 at 11:49 am
I find it interesting that the Poolesville Facebook group, at last glance, had 43 commentators lamenting the closing of Selbys. Some asking “what could we have done”? Hello? You could have shopped there!
January 24, 2012 at 5:32 pm
The demise of Selby’s is truly unfortunate for the community. Some might blame it on the economy, some might blame it on the larger competition down the road in Darnestown, some might even blame a poor business model, and some might say a combination of all of those factors.
I actually largely blame its genesis on something else altogether. This is my take, for what it may or may not be worth.
Through the 1970’s and 80’s, the heart of the commercial center of Poolesville was in that area from the post office north to the Episcopal Church on either side of 107. Two gas stations, Selby’s Market in what is now Healthworks Fitness Center, a laundromat; and in what was known as the Poolesville Professional Center, the bank, a locally-owned and operate pharmacy [which we no longer have], a nice pizza parlor, a florist [which we no longer have], a dry cleaners, and medical and other professional offices on the second floor.
When I served on the Board of the Poolesville Area Chamber of Commerce for many years, and later served as President for a few years, what struck me was the abundant amount of commercially zoned property for such a small town, originally zoned that way in 1959 when the Town adopted its first zoning ordinance. What was the story there? Well, as it was explained to me, the Commissioners at that time wanted to make sure that all owners of property adjacent to Route 107 might share the wealth in terms of having, and being able to sell, commercially-zoned property.
That might sort of kind of had made sense in 1959, but not three decades later. And it hardly amounted to a logical land use plan for the Town in terms of protecting and promoting the health, safety and welfare of its citizens; instead it seemed crafted to line certain peoples’ pockets, and/or perhaps to artificially increase the tax base for the Town.
I strongly suggested the Commissioners down-zone much of the vacant commercially-zoned property at that time, but they would have no part of it. And that is one of the reasons I stepped back from the Chamber at the time. You can lead a horse to water . . . .
In a period of about 10 years in the late 1980’s through the 1990’s, the Poolesville Planning Commission, and ultimately the Commissioners, approved not less than three (3) new shopping centers in Town, the Magruder property, the property where the Library is located, and the strip shopping center where Selby’s is located.
The Town Planning Commission actually approved another one that I suspect most are not aware of– a convenience store, gas station and car wash on what is now Whalen Commons, but that’s another story.
Frankly, it really didn’t take an economist or market strategist to see where that would land us. The first most dramatic effect of those actions is that it essentially killed what prior to that time was the vibrant commercial center of town. The Professional Center lost its tenants, including the bank, and to this day has never recovered. The gas station is an empty shell surrounded by a chain link fence.
Perhaps most important to the present discussion, however, is that Selby’s moved from their paid-for adequate location to the new strip shopping center down the road and started paying rent, cam fees, etc. Why? I’ll state I’ve never actually talked to Roy, whom I consider a friend, specifically about this, but I suspect because he reluctantly felt he had no choice in order to continue to secure his family’s grocery store place in Poolesville. But for that strip shopping center, approved by the Town, looking for an anchor grocery store, I sort of suspect, but don’t know for a fact, that Roy would have been just as happy to have stayed in his old location.
And, of course, the other natural consequence, in addition to the formerly thriving Professional Center being relegated to sort of an empty shell, is that NONE OF THOSE THREE SHOPPING CENTERS HAVE EVER ACHIEVED FULL OCCUPANCY in going on 20 years. Why? Because the market simply will not support it. This ain’t rocket science, folks.
Now, some might say that this should all be market-driven and that one should trust developers & business people to know what they are doing. After all, they wouldn’t waste their money, right? One would like to think so. Unfortunately, the answer is no. Ask me or ask John Speelman at the Hardware store. We have seen dozens of business come and fail over the decades. So, the answer is no– in terms of the economic viability of a community, it should not be entirely up to free enterprise to be market-driven by people/developers that think, but do not know, what they are doing.
This is one area where the Town government, through prudent land use regulation, could have actually made a very big difference. The fact of the matter is that the demise of Selby’s and the reason we have empty store fronts in Town is that the Commissioners and the Town Planning Commission [not the present members, but ones that came before them] had neither the vision or fortitude to (1) first bring the Town’s zoning plan into the modern era; and (2) the ability to perhaps say no to any commercial developers. Of course, if the former had been addressed, then the latter probably wouldn’t have been a problem.
Just my opinion
January 24, 2012 at 5:34 pm
Wishing them all the best. We will miss the friendly faces and personal touch that Selby’s provided– a very sad day.
January 24, 2012 at 7:17 pm
As a P.S., it is my understanding that Selby’s was the subject of discussion at the Commissioners’ meeting last night, during which they related that there really was nothing that they could do. And that is absolutely correct. What could have been done should have been done 20 years ago. Too late now. Hindsight generally tends to be 20/20.
January 24, 2012 at 9:48 pm
William, there is too much commercially zoned property which is one reason the Town Commissioners, when I was there, voted to purchase some of it for Dillingham Park. That said, having too much commercially zoned property is only a problem in one respect – it may drive down the costs of property encouraging businesses to overbuy. That may have happened but the stores that exist today – except for the CVS which has not been around for all Selby’s existence – do not compete for Selby’s clientele. So in that sense, the other stores do not cut into Selby’s business.
The problem was likely mostly due to the fact that Selby’s moved from a property they owned outright to a rental property and rents for commercial property in town are high. At the time, Selby’s feared that Food Lion was coming out here but they went to Darnestown and failed there. Today, it simply takes a much larger base – we’ve been told 20,000 to 30,000 customers – to sustain a full service grocery store. That was not true 15 years ago when Selby’s was doing pretty well. It is now.
It is true of course that businesses do fail from time to time and make bad judgements. But that is why we have a free economy. It is how progress is made. Failures lead to learning hopefully and success or new businesses that are more of a fit for the community. I don’t think removing commercially zoned property would have helped Selby’s survive.
January 25, 2012 at 11:30 am
Link: We basically are in agreement. I did not mean to suggest that other stores in Town competed with Selby’s. And even if they did, competition is a good thing.
You stated the “problem was likely mostly due to the fact they moved from a property they owned outright to a rental property . . .Selby’s feared that Food Lion was coming out here . . .”
And that was the exact point I was attempting to make; that is, Selby’s was forced into an unneeded and unwanted situation. leaving a location that was paid for, and then paying exhorbitant rent and engaging in an exponential expansion of space and product to try and fit the mold of a “full service grocery store”, a ssubstnatial departure from its prior successful business model.
What I was suggesting is that had the Commissioners had the vision, foresight and fortitude to down-zone the over-abundance of commercially zoned property in Town 25 or 30 years ago, prior to the commercial building frenzy of the 1990′s, this situation might have been avoided. And by “this situation” , I refer not only to the unfortunate demise of the institution that was Selby’s Market, but also the evisceration of the prior commercial center of Town, the relegation of the Professional Center to a shell, and the fact that we now have three strip shopping centers in Town, none of which has ever achieved full occupancy. In my opinion, there is only one thing uglier than a strip shopping center, and that is a strip shopping center with vacant storefronts.
Now, your observation that we have a “free economy” is where I must part company. A nice catch-phrase in principle, but not entirely correct. If we trully enjoyed a “free economy” then Roy could have made a bundle, I suspect, if he took at least half of his store and converted it to a bar & casino. For that matter, if we had a trully “free economy”, then I’d like to open an amusement park on my farm. But we both know both of those ideas would be illegal.
Yes, businesses should be allowed to fail, that’s how free enterprise works. However, the government at the local, state and federal level every day take steps to ensure it is not a free-for-all to the detriment of the health, safety and welfar of the citizens. And that is where prudent land planning can play a part at the local level. That was the point I was attempting to make.
January 25, 2012 at 2:39 pm
WHO owned the Magruder property, the property where the Library is located, and the strip shopping center where Selby’s is located BEFORE they were developed into commercial rentals?
WHO were the members of the planning commission during these developments?
WHY was a strip mall built in residential front yards on Beall Street?
January 29, 2012 at 1:38 pm
“The past is a foreign country, and they do things differently there.” No sense crying over spilt milk, or blaming unpaid public servants for making decisions that seemed reasonable at the time. When I was a volunteer on the Master Plan committee, 17-18 years ago, I recall thinking that 7,500 was an unrealistic target for town population, but I admit that I had an imperfect understanding of the dynamics (water & sewer, zoning) that drove us to accept that number, and I was willing to defer to the judgment of others who were better informed. Perhaps somebody should have fallen on their sword to make the point that this, along with the increased commercial zoning, was a mistake, but from long bureaucratic experience I know that falling on one’s sword is emphatically to be discouraged if we are to get anything done. I am optimistic to believe that in the long run the town’s population will probably stabilize at over 6,000 and that we will attract more businesses and gradually fill out most of our excess commercial real estate. But that will not help the Selby family, and what we can and should do now is express our regret over bad decisions long ago by helping them out in their hour of need.
January 30, 2012 at 10:53 am
I for one would love to hear the answers to Frank’s questions.
It’s all public record so let’s have it out there……
February 1, 2012 at 10:54 am
In response to Frank’s & Jeff’s comments, I frankly don’t know who were the original owners of those properties, but Jeff is correct; it is a matter of public record that one could discover with some research.
But here’s a fact some might find interesting: The library shopping center property I know was purchased by a limited partnership for purposes of development. In proceedings before the Town and a court appeal brought by nearby residents, the developer was represented by an attorney who was one of two partners in a Rockville law firm.
That lawyer also filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against those residents for exercising their constitutional rights. A somewhat novel idea at the time, but it iwas what is now known as a “SLAPP” suit; that is, a ‘Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation.’ When that lawsuit against those complaining residents was filed, the Commissioners were downright giddy. I know that for a fact, for I was representing the residents, and I had Commissioners actually laugh in my face at the Hardware store. Of course, that suit was dismissed by the Court with some harsh words for the developer’s lawyer, but not without substantial attendant expense to those residents.
By the way, the other partner in the law firm? The other partner in that firm was the then-Town Attorney.
And a few years later, when the Town Attorney passed away, his partner, the developer’s lawyer, was hired as the Town Attorney for several years.
Go figure.
February 1, 2012 at 5:37 pm
Sounds about right for small town politics.
Were i came from in NY was a small town. Local farmers were clamoring for years to let their land be developed. Finally they got sick of asking and a bunch of them ran for town council. When I go up there now it’s funny how those 3000sf houses look on 1/2 acre lots all popped up in cornfields like they grew there. Sort of reminds me of Blackrock estates or whatever it’s called on down on 28.
We lost our IGA too, in 1996. They tried for years to get someone else; finally the property owners sold out to someone who turned the place into an indoor skateboard rink.
February 1, 2012 at 7:35 pm
Jeff: Yeah, ain’t “progress” fuelled by idocy just grand?
I will go back to my original post– the probable, if not likely, ultimate demise of the cornerstone of our community that was Selby’s Market, for all intents & purposes, actually was cast decades ago by the actions of the Town Commisioners & Planning Commission.
To a certain extent, I am surprised that Roy managed to hang on a long as he did to provide a full service grocery store to a community that simply could not support it– from the first day that shopping center, with a large anchor grocery store, was approved by the Town.
Others may disagree, which is their right. Hell, been there and done that years ago, only to suffer the consequences of disdain & ridicule from many quarters, including Town officials.
But that’s my opinion, and I am sticking to it.