March 29th is observed nationally as Mom and Pop Business Owners Day. The event was created by Rick Segel to honor the business of his parents. Ruth’s started as a hat shop on March 29, 1939. When hats went out of fashion, Ruth’s became a very successful women’s specialty store, which closed after 58 years in 1997.

Rick Segel is the nationally known motivational speaker who gave the full day seminar How to’s for Small Business Success on October 23, 2007 at city hall. Segel pointed out how small businesses are vital to the economy of towns all over America but don’t always get the credit for contributing to the local economy that a big retail store or an industry gets.

Mom and Pop stores are very American with a hometown feel. The owners value their independence and spend countless hours developing and growing their businesses. The demand of workload coupled with lack of staff means long and late hours and missed personal and family events. Small businesses bring unique products and excellent service to customers. They excel in niche markets and creating new concepts and products. Only Prairie du Chien will you find a Pete’s Hamburger’s, Lori Knapp Companies or Smarty Pants.

Perhaps the most overlooked asset of small businesses is how much they contribute to their communities. According the estimate of a business group, a large box store leaves something less than 10% in the community; a medium sized national chain, about 20%. From the Mom and Pop business as much as 60% stays in the local community where they also live and buy the goods and services of other local businesses. Their children attend the local schools, and they are members of local churches and community organizations.

According to Prairie du Chien’s 39th mayor, Cheryl Mader, “These statistics underscore the importance of the efforts we’ve been making in Prairie du Chien to assist local businesses in growing and adapting to today’s customer. The success of our Mom and Pop’s will be reflected in our overall success as a community.”

Fifty owners along Blackhawk between Main and Illinois Street will face extra challenges when street improvements are made this summer. A close look indicates that some of these businesses have evolved through 3 or 4 generations of a family while others have survived because a series of owners took over the same business on the same site. This story is repeated throughout Prairie du Chien.

Mayor Mader emphasizes the importance of local owners. “Shopping locally is good for our whole community. The more successful our businesses are the more property taxes they pay, the more jobs they offer to the community and the more choices they offer to local shoppers. Shopping locally is a way each of us can help make Prairie du Chien a better place….”

The record of Prairie du Chien’s small businesses is remarkable and follows a pattern developed as early as the 1870s when multi generational family businesses held sway on Bluff Street, which became Blackhawk Avenue in 1930. The chart reveals the known details of these businesses. Both family ownership and the length of stay on the current site were used to decide the ranking of the businesses. For some there is considerable information, for others not so much, so think of these statistics as a first draft.

Downtown Prairie du Chien's Mom & Pop Business Chronology
by: M. Stemper