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Tuesday, September 15, 2009 11:07 PM CDT
OUR VIEW: Rasmussen long an important contributor
JG/T-C Editorial Board
editorial@jg-tc.com
We don’t know of any official tally of how many locally owned businesses have a more than 50-year history in our region.
Certainly there would be names on the list that all of us would recognize, and perhaps a few smaller firms that would have less notoriety.
But the list would be short, particularly when put in the context of how many businesses opened and closed in the same period.
With that as background, it’s disappointing that an automobile dealer like Bill Rasmussen with 52 years in Mattoon is closing. Other long time local auto dealers, including Grimes Dodge, Mooney Motors, Baldwin Buick-Pontiac and Comer Nissan-Mazda, sold in recent years, as the national trend toward consolidation hits home in our region.
Most all of us consumers buy automobiles periodically, either from a new or used car dealer. Those dealers get to share some of life’s milestones with their customers, from the smiles of teens driving off with their first set of wheels to the family that breaks down on the interstate and needs immediate help. Other times people trade just because they feel the time is right, or their transportation needs have changed.
The government stopped Sunday sales many years ago, but otherwise the car business is a demanding, every day job.
Dealers see customers when they’re happy, and they see them when they have a problem. For most of us, purchasing an automobile ranks near the most expensive of things we buy, and thus the experience with an automobile dealer stands out.
We understand why a corporation like General Motors thinks that having fewer dealers is part of the solution toward a more profitable future, although such an approach is detrimental to many Main Streets in communities where the local auto dealer is a big business.
In Coles County, we’re fortunate that we have offerings of many lines of new as well as pre-owned vehicles. That doesn’t make it fair that part of that contraction of the GM dealer networks involves ending a more than 50-year relationship with a dealer that was ready to continue in an area it long served.
Auto dealers contribute to the local economy in many ways. They generate sales tax revenue, some of which comes back to local government. They hire employees. They pay real estate taxes. They bring people from other communities into town to shop.
The auto business is an important component to the local economy.
We appreciate the contribution to that business by the Rasmussen family for 52 years.
— JG/T-C Editorial Board
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Texas T wrote on Sep 17, 2009 11:37 AM:
It is too bad. I liked Rasmussen. That first car I bought from them was the best car I ever had (until now:). Good luck to everyone losing their jobs. I will pray you find new ones soon. "