It is one of those points of pride for our Island. We have always kept big franchises out. There was the famous standoff in the 1980s when a group of Islanders stood strong against a proposal to put a McDonald’s on Vineyard Haven Harbor. Then there was Dunkin’ Donuts’ unsuccessful attempt to infiltrate Tisbury Marketplace in 2005. These battles have truly been the stuff of folklore.
So it is no surprise that there was strong resistance to the off-Island business of Iggy’s Bread serving up buttery croissants in the salty fishing port of Menemsha.
But the level of vitriol that boiled over at a recent meeting was over the top, by any measure.
Indeed, the outburst and a string of F-bombs at the meeting and just after, from the owner of the Grey Barn speaking out against the new pastry and bread store opening in Chilmark, has reverberated across the Island. It filled up our comment section — just the latest nasty row from the Island’s second smallest town, which has become fertile ground for news reporters.
The outburst grew out of frustration that the town’s leaders were letting an off-Island company — Iggy’s — set up shop at a vacant storefront, while Chilmark farmers aren’t getting the appreciation they deserve. Couldn’t the vacant Menemsha building go to a local instead and help the local economy, and not create competition for locals?
For the record, we aren’t prudish about rough language, but we are distressed by a distinct lack of civility that seems to be unfolding, particularly up-Island. We are referring here to the Chilmark Community Tennis debacle earlier this year, which was also an embarrassment for an Island that has prided itself on working together respectfully. In a restoration of our signature civility that is very much worth noting, the owner of the Grey Barn wrote a heartfelt letter of apology to the town.
Beyond the state of our culture of civility, there is an interesting point raised in trying to keep out franchisees: Where do we draw the line? If we allow a bakery on our Island that has a location in Boston, sells bread around the state, and ships products from off-Island, what’s next? Will Legal Seafoods be allowed to move into Menemsha? A Red Lobster franchise on Main Street in Vineyard Haven?
Essentially the question boils down to, Should we keep the Vineyard franchise-free, and to what extent should we go to keep it franchise-free? And how?
It is worth noting that it may indeed be against the U.S. Constitution to straight-out ban franchises, under the Equal Protection Clause. But any New Englander knows how effectively local towns can set up their own roadblocks and potholes to prevent big corporations from imposing their presence. There are historic commissions with their sets of rules that stand like a seawall protecting the Island. There are bylaws and local zoning regulations that can set such limitations as the color of a sign (think no yellow or red).
When local zoning fails, the Martha’s Vineyard Commission has its own rules, including a clause that requires businesses with 10 or more locations to get the commission’s approval to open up on the Vineyard. Flagging the Martha’s Vineyard Commission is not a death knell, but it certainly can slow a project down, and present enough hurdles to scare away even the biggest chains. Witness: McDonalds and Dunkin’.
But important to note, the Island isn’t at all franchise-free. Obviously more free than Derby Street in Hingham, but there are currently countless franchises: Stop & Shop, the banks, Lululemon, the Shell and Mobil gas stations; not to mention our own pride and joy, the international, world-class brands of Vineyard Vines and the Black Dog, which now have multiple stores in airports and shopping malls. And to state the obvious, Iggy’s already has a storefront in Edgartown, where there are long lines on weekend mornings for warm croissants and fresh, artisanal breads.
A good question we might ask is, What do we not like in a franchise? Is it that money doesn’t stay local, but lands in the hands of a CEO off-Island? There are also the visual implications, and the impact on the Vineyard’s charm: To think of the golden arches looming over Vineyard Haven Harbor is profane enough to make any respectable Islander shudder.
An even better question is, How do we work with franchises that could respectfully make a go here? It can work. Case in point is everyone’s favorite: Dairy Queen. The franchise, which was grandfathered decades ago on the Island, has passed from one longtime local to the next, with donations made to local charities and programming, the children of Islanders serving ice cream to help pay for college. Who doesn’t like DQ? Also Lululemon, while maybe not the most idyllic, has pledged to stay open year-round and to hire an Island workforce, and they have found ways to give back to the community.
So, yes, supporting local businesses should be option No. 1, and keeping each individual community’s charm intact goes without saying. Would we have preferred that a MVRHS graduate launched a year-round business in Menemsha that paid tribute to the village’s fishing and farming traditions? No doubt. But the former Bite in Menemsha has been vacant for the better half of a decade.
So let’s not cast stones at the glass windows of the new croissant shop. Instead of bickering and losing our cool, let’s encourage Iggy’s to hire local and not gouge on prices, and encourage it to be open year-round. To loosely quote the Good Book: Let those among us who have never had a sinfully delicious Iggy croissant cast the first stone.
There was once a Subway on Circuit Ave in OB. I don’t remember anyone whining about that. And to my knowledge, someone correct me if I’m wrong, Iggy’s is not a “franchise”. It’s one owner with multiple shops, which is NOT what a franchise is.
Stop and Shop, Dairy Queen, Texaco, Mobil, Black Dog (clothing), True Value….
Martha’s Vineyard is far from franchise free. Cumberland Farms, Stop-n-Shop, every gas station on the island. Not to mention the more under the radar ones, such as AmeriaGas. Plus, everyone seems to forget that in the early 90’s, for a couple summers, there was a Dunkin’ Donuts in Oak Bluffs and Vineyard Haven. And I for one wish the Subway was still here. For nothing else other than being able to get a sandwich for under $15.
One of the only chain franchise eateries on the Island, Mr. Celeste has owned the Dairy Queen since 2017 and the company has Island roots going back to 1967.
All the others mentioned are a necessity so I don’t consider it franchised, and they too have “Island Roots”. MV is losing it’s “homegrownness”. establishments(real estate) now owned by outsiders(rent is ssoo HIGH) causing MVnatives unable to keep our Island quaint. If the towns could make it possible for an Island person to REASONABLY rent a building for whatever……… I bet is would work. but each town needs to benefit by each establishment ergo rent/taxes and maybe whatever else may fall into their pockets.
VOTE YES to FRANCHISE FREEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!
We all love sweet and charming.
We don’t want the world to change,
but change means a system is alive.
Nevertheless, some change is harmful,
like losing farmland. We are losing almost
2 million acres of farmland per year!
Let’s focus on REAL issues, not silly
baloney like which brand of store should
move in next door.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/us-lost-1-3-million-180438622.html
https://www.farmprogress.com/management/smart-solutions-to-farmland-loss
It seems to me that over the last ten years that I have been here, living and working here over the entire year, that businesses are more and more owned by people who don’t live here, charge astronomical prices and treat the economy here like an ATM. They populate their employee selection by hiring cheap labor, many of whom do not live here year-round either. Then, you get old-timers crowing about the “island economy.” Is it really an “island economy” any longer?
I would like to see the MV Times do some investigative reporting into what seems to me in 2024 to be a fictional sentiment. How many island businesses are there on the island any longer, owned by Islanders? How many have been snapped up by investors or purchased by those with economic interests that, in the end, bear no real contact with the actual island economy?
I should add that the landscape businesses and developers that add so much to the noise pollution and the ever-decreasing undeveloped land on which mega-mansions go, further pushing out Islanders who cannot afford mortgages (or cash) for houses well into the 7 figures, hire off-island and use employees who are commuter work forces, with the money earned going off-island to the Cape and Southeastern Mass.
We are not taking care of our own and while it has been this way for a long time, in recent years, the true nature of the values we have–or lack of values–has exploded in open sight. Well, I am not against Iggy’s at all, I think if you hire local and, as the MVT says, attempt to not gouge the customer (does anyone really think that that’s going to happen in Menemsha?), go for it. Grey Barn charges an arm and leg, too. The relatively low overhead on both businesses is primed to make hundreds of thousands, if not more. Share the balance sheets!
Whatever. Happy to read the editorial. It brings up many good points, as do the other comments. We have had chains here for decades, a few, and they are mostly not a blight on the so-called quaintness that drives the upper-middle and upper classes here to, at minimum, five figure weekly vacations…thanks to the MVT for their opinions.
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