I live in a small town in east central Illinois with a population of roughly 3,700. We are the "county seat" and we are losing our Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep Dealership. I hear that they plan to close their doors at the end of this week. Apparently, a lot of the townspeople buy their cars in other towns. Yeah, you can blame the dealership's upper management and ultimately the ownership. The guy who owns the place donates hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to the community. It's interesting to see how he is thanked. Probably the saddest thing to see is that the dealership employees are going to have to find other ways to feed their families. Being a car salesman, myself for the past dozen + years, I can tell you that the public looks on us as scum and could not care less.
Yes, in my little town, people will drive by our little defunct Chrysler - Dodge - Jeep Store, in their Mitsubishis (bought in Terre Haute from a certain handsome & holy, ex-jock)to dine at the local fast food place.
Here's what's really happening - when a business in your town dies, a little bit of your town dies, too.
