A more updated design for the Ingles Supermarket that I am proposing to be built in Cullowhee, North Carolina, using a similar design to those used on the new stores in Hull, Georgia and Mills River, North Carolina. The new Cullowhee Ingles Supermarket would have about 110,000 square feet and offer a much larger selection and better shopping experience than the area's current store, which was built in 1986. Additionally, there would be four outparcels for separate buildings facing NC 107, four entryways, and an Ingles Gas Express. This store would mainly serve Cullowhee, with another store in East Sylva, as Sylva would not be well served by the location of this store. The site is located at a busy intersection next to the Jackson County Recreation Center and Cullowhee Valley School.
I believe this Supermarket should be built because the Cullowhee Micropolitan Area (population 41,000) is one of a very small number of places in Western North Carolina that is seeing economic and population growth, while the rest of the area stagnates and declines. At the same time, it is ironic that the declining and stagnating areas (such as Hayesville in Clay County, NC or Murphy in Cherokee County, NC, where the population has dropped since the last census according to recent estimates) already have much nicer Ingles Supermarkets than Sylva and Cullowhee, which have one of the smallest, oldest and most squandered opportunity stores in the entire chain, and many of these nicer stores serve areas with half of the population or less of the Cullowhee-Sylva area, with lower median incomes and that are in similar proximity to the Asheville area.
The University, local Hospital, Community College and Tourism Industry make the area much more economically and demographically stable than surrounding communities, and it is woefully underserved by the current situation, which is downright despicable, and the local townspeople are increasingly agitated and disatisfied with the fact that they seem to have the oldest and ugliest grocery stores in the entire area despite the other assets their town provides over many others in the region.
The local Ingles is perhaps one of the busiest of its size in the whole chain, despite the fact that most business that would otherwise go to it instead ends up in Waynesville or Asheville because of the inferior state of the store. And while the Waynesville store is getting a major upgrade, it is already a far superior facility and will just siphon off more business from Sylva, which is where much of the growth in Western NC is taking place outside of the Asheville area.
Outside of the Sylva-Cullowhee area Franklin is another town that is woefully underserved by Ingles, but unlike Sylva it has three stores, one of a very small size and two of similar size to the single store in Sylva that are newer and look better. However, like Sylva, the stores are old and cramped, and lack many features found in newer stores, and having three instead of one increases overhead costs due to additional layers of management needed, I feel all three could be replaced by a new store at the site of the empty, abandoned Wal-Mart that sits adjacent to one store at Holly Springs Plaza, and then a Sav-Mor could go in the store by Kmart and the original, tiny one on Palmer Street redeveloped. However, unlike Sylva-Cullowhee, Macon County is in economic and demographic stagnation, with population estimates showing a decrease in population since the last census.
There is no good reason this store or a better one cannot be built in Cullowhee, and any arguments to the contrary are flat out wrong, and if you still have doubts about the viability then read back through my previous arguments as to why Sylva deserves better than the store they have now. The only thing that would happen if Ingles does nothing to improve their store is that another chain, such as Publix, will swoop into the area and build a much better store, forcing the local Ingles out of business and cutting severely into their profits.
This scenario is actually quite a probable outcome, as Publix has been eyeing the area for expansion for quite some time, and a growing, vibrant, bohemian, attractive college town such as the Sylva-Cullowhee area would be an ideal place to plop one of their new stores as they expand further into North Carolina.
Feel free to use this model as you see fit, on the condition that you contact me first so I know where it is being used (I'd love to see it wherever it ends up), and give me a mention or credit wherever it is used or published.
#SitePlan #NorthCarolina #Cullowhee #Supermarket
- Comments