Closings and layoffs at big companies grab the headlines, but jobs are also being lost at small businesses throughout Wisconsin. Village president Lu Ann White is co-owner of the Village Market in Milltown, which is closing by the end of next week, even though the owners didn't want to. "But you know, the community support is kind of a thing of the past," White said. "We just didn't have enough people come shop there.
White said changing consumer preferences combined with the recession to do in the Village Market. "Time is really valuable now to people, and they like to do the one stop thing." said White. Whereas in the past, people would come to town to go to the bank and the hardware and grocery stores, now "they're going to go somewhere else where they can do all those things"
Thirteen people will lose their jobs when the market closes, a significant hit for the Polk County community of about a thousand residents. "We just didn't have any more money to put into it," said White of the decision to close the doors at the market later this week. "We just ran out of choices."