Sometimes customers come last.

Whether they use it or not, every consumer in the community would benefit from the fresh breeze of competition a mall would bring. We might see merchandise we now drive miles to find. We might find better deals in quality, price, service, not just at the mall but at local merchants who respond to the mall’s competition. A developer is willing to invest $35 million to give us a chance to find out.

But some merchants don’t want their customers to have that chance. They might find merchandise they prefer over what the merchant offers, causing loss of business. The merchant would find no comfort in the fact that his loss is his customer’s gain.

So they are trying to keep the mall from being built. They can’t lose business to, or be forced to compete with, a mall that isn’t there.

Last Wednesday they persuaded enough Winnebago County Board members to put their interests ahead of their customers and vote to block the mall proposal.

What’s that again about the customer comes first?

Stan Johnson