Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
Times are changing, and Cathi Ott and the employees of Fox Vog Apparel are suffering from the effects.
As soon as the existing stock has been sold, the women's clothing store at the corner of Buffalo and Market streets will close its doors for good.
"It was a real hard decision, because I am still able to make ends meet," Ott said. "But it's getting harder to get people to still shop downtown.
"There's things that could be done. But it has to be a group of people who are working together," she added. "Bob Beam (of Beam and Beam Clothiers) has done a wonderful job, but not everybody can put the amount of money into it he has," she said.
Ott pointed to other downtown businesses that have closed, such as Champs Sporting Goods, as an indication that the changing shopping trends are making it difficult for small retail merchants in the downtown area to remain viable.
"It's a mall generation now. People go there thinking they can get better prices," Ott said. "Warsaw is lucky to get (women's fashions store) Elder-Beerman, but the downtown merchants could be saved. But there's nobody willing to unite and work to save the downtown."
She added other factors that played into her decision to close Fox Vog centered around the lack of convenient parking and the planned reconstruction of Buffalo Street this summer.
"The closing of Buffalo Street was the last straw," she said. "It's hard enough for people to get here and find a convenient place to park. The closing of Buffalo Street will only add to that.
"I thought it was better to bow out gracefully than to go under. It's time to move on - the downtown is dying," Ott said.
There are things being done to revitalize downtown Warsaw, according to Warsaw Community Development Corp. Director Trish Brown.
"We're doing a business recruitment plan and a marketing study survey is being conducted by Warsaw Community High School marketing students," she said. "Retail customers are asked what they like about shopping downtown, and what they don't; what they'd like to see and what they wouldn't."
WCDC also hosted the Indiana Mainstreet Conference last summer, Brown added, with the program designed to help downtown merchants develop successful business strategies to compete with the shopping malls and commercial strip centers.
Mayor Ernie Wiggins said the city essentially relies on the WCDC and the Warsaw/Kosciusko County Chamber of Commerce to attract and retain downtown businesses. He said the city has tried to make street parking spaces available for downtown shoppers by leasing more city parking lot spaces to the downtown merchants.
"We've tried to accommodate people by renting the city lot spaces to help free up some spaces on the streets by not having the merchants and employees parking there," Wiggins said. "The city council has also been very cooperative in giving downtown businesses tax abatements to encourage them to develop and expand in the downtown area."
He added the city pays the WCDC $12,000 per year to market the downtown area.
