Peñasco residents try to stop Dollar General
Area already has understaffed Family Dollar
A petition has been circulating among Peñasco residents to stop the possible development of a Dollar General in the area. Some residents and business owners have said they don’t see a need for a second dollar store in Peñasco, which already has an understaffed Family Dollar.
Resident Jean Nichols said the community only found out about the new store planning to come to town after management began asking around about acequia rights. Nichols said she doublechecked with the Taos County
Planning & Zoning department to verify that plans were indeed in the works to bring the national discount chain to Peñasco.
In a private Facebook group for Peñasco residents, there were arguments both for and against the Dollar General. Proponents argued that it would bring more jobs and convenience to the area, while others argued that the new store would further deplete the small community of its local mom-and-pop shops, like Pacheco Home & Auto and Garcia’s Store.
“We actually have a petition here for people to sign not to have the Dollar General,” said Louis McIntosh, manager of Pacheco Home & Auto, which carries groceries and provides auto service. “We have a Family Dollar here and that thing is barely open. And they have trouble getting employees. We just think Dollar General will be worse or just the same.”
Nichols also said she finds the store redundant. “We’re a limited community. So all the people that go to Family Dollar now, will probably switch over and go to Dollar General, but then one or the other of them will close. That’s what’s happened in a lot of places,” she said.
Nichols also wondered if there even was a need for the store, and said she isn’t a big fan of corporate America in general. “I’m for local businesses,” she said. “There’s only the limited number of consumers that we have up here, so it would just be the same customers switching to the other store. It’s silly.”
McIntosh said Pacheco’s store was also having trouble finding employees. “We can’t find anyone good. We have the same problem.” Idweally, he said, he would like to see development in Peñasco be more locally focused and bring other offerings beyond discount shops. “I would like to see a rec center or something like that,” he said.
Dollar stores have a long and fraught history in Taos County. Taos currently has three dollar stores, and each of them has been met with staunch opposition from a large contingent of the local community that sees them as a death knell for locally-owned small businesses. Several studies in recent years have shown that the arrival of discount chains in small rural communities often does force small business owners to close up shop because they can’t compete with the logistical sophistication and low costs national brands offer.
In 2011, developers sent an application to Taos County to build a Family Dollar in El Prado just across the street from the Overland Sheepskin complex. The project was heavily opposed by local residents. In 2020 that project was denied a special-use permit.
In 2017, another Family Dollar hoped to build in Ranchos de Taos, just a half-mile away from the Dollar General that already existed in the area. However, similar to the effort in El Prado, the store was strongly opposed and county commissioners also voted in that case to deny a permit.
The Peñasco Dollar General’s application will have to go before the Taos County Commission for a public hearing before the project can proceed.
‘I’m for local businesses. There’s only the limited number of consumers that we have up here, so it would just be the same customers switching to the other store. It’s silly.’
JEAN NICHOLS
Peñasco resident