Hackettstown economy?
My wife is from Hackettstown, and I've been visiting my in-laws on and off for the past 20 years. When I first visited back in the mid 90s, it was a cute town. It wasn't rich, but it seemed to have had a reasonable economy, robust enough to support antique shops and restaurants. My guess is that the economy was based around light manufacturing (Mars, etc.) and as a bedroom community for commuters to more expensive parts of NJ.
Over the past few years, I've noticed Main St. seems to have declined. Over near Hess, I saw some check cashing/gold/dollar stores, and many vacant store fronts.
What happened? Was it the collapse of the housing bubble in 2008? The loss of blue collar jobs? (or both?)
It seems like a nice place that has hit a rough patch, and I'm saddened to see it.
bezeq bezeq - I personally believe the 'rough patch' is long gone - as far as restaurants, we now have an abundance of unique and wonderful choices -
http://www.hackettstownbid.com/restaurants/
Let's not forget the two (yes two) micro-brews coming to town.
Part of the issue was big box and chain stores opening nearby and the exploding internet commerce out-pricing the small shops. But people are starting to realize the lack of service is not what it's cracked up to be so you will see some re-invented shops opening up in town. That a Real Estate office choices to open up in a prime location is very encouraging.
Folks on this site know I have a rosy viewpoint, but I really believe we are on the upswing and the Dollar Store is a welcome addition, it being what Woolworths was to prior generations.
So, keep on the lookout for some new things coming to town :)
trekster3- Good real restaurants are a reality and draw people from far away (30+ miles). I see this continuing and all the town has to to is to keep the parking available for them. What is missing:
1) Indian Restaurant (what college town doesn't have one)
2) Mexican "Fusion" Restaurant (due to many more ethnic Restaurants one that caters to the masses)
3) Italian Restaurant (since Cara Mia left there is nothing at the upper quality end)
4) Brew Pub (These are always big draws but need quite a bit of space)
The Dollar Store will come and as long as they keep it neat in the front so be it. With the internet age it is not economical to ship (1) item at $1 value; this is where the Dollar Store shines.
iJay bezeq - The first thing is that you have the location of Hess wrong, you must have meant some other station. But to the original question the entire country's economy hasn't been great since 2008. More than that, Main St's everywhere have declined based on larger stores. That has been happening since the 70's. It's nothing new and nothing not happening everywhere. Main St is no longer the place where most shopping is, so not the best indicator of how well a town is doing. Finding huge closed malls or vacant shopping centers instead of new ones opening is more of what happens now.
To some extent Hackettstown is doing better than other places, our empty store rate is much better than other areas. New places do come into ones that go. We'd all like there to be more but we can't live in 1954 either and have a bunch of antique shops that lost popularity 20 years ago. Gold shops are popular because the price is way up and people need the money. Half of those are a more modern version of older jewelers who do the same thing.
Some stores have a tough time adapting to the times, some don't. There isn't a single reason for Main St, and there isn't a single reason for what's going on in the economy. It's a mixed bag of a number of factors.
GC He's not wrong about hess- old music store cafe, re-style (moved), interior design store right across the street all gone.
Bizz He said the gold stores were over there. The Cafe is the only one that went out of business. The store and boutique both just moved. Those places were in regular houses trying to use them as retail, not really the retail store front section.
I assume he means "by Hess" as in "on Main Street"....
Rather than "by Lowes" or "by the college".... general locations, not GPS level accuracy here.
Mark Mc. Why would you assume that? First he specifically mentions Main Street, then directly afterward qualifies it with "over near Hess"... personally, I would assume that he is narrowing it down to a specific area of Main Street, rather than the general area of town that he already identified.
ianimal 
hapiest girlI'd have to see where the signs start, but on Google Maps, the "Main Street" portion of Route 46 runs from Overlook Drive to Mountain Ave, a total length of 1.1 miles.
From Hess to the corner of Grand Ave/High Street (the stretch with the closed shops and gold stores) is about 0.4 miles, so the stores are on the "Hess" side. Maybe he also thought Mountain Ave is still a part of Main Street (he doesn't live here, after all).
Perhaps he was driving from that direction, passed the Hess (it's one of the more obvious and recognizable business names) and then started seeing the stores that he referenced in his original post. I hardly think a few hundred feet makes much of a difference to the intent of his question.
LOL... I've argued about some stupid things in my day but this might just take the cake. One last point and then you can "win" this one (-;
If the guy has been coming here every year (or so) for 20 years, I would think he's figured out the difference between Mountain Ave and Main Street by now. But it's a stretch to say that Grand Ave is "near Hess" no matter what your frame of reference is. Almost half a mile is quite a bit further than a "few hundred feet".
We moved out to Hackettstown in the late 60s and I lived in town and Schooley's Mt. until college and parents moved in 1984. It's a cycle. Seems to me as a kid in the early to mid 70s downtown was pretty core. Jigger Shop, music store, an emporium at Main and Moore (my 88-year-old mother still uses a ceramic pie plate I got her there as a little kid), pizza place, bakery, drug stores, Newberrys, salons, record store, barbers. But it took at hit by 75 when the h'town mall opened. h'town mall was like a Wal Mart. Clothing at Grants, Rockaway Sales, yada yada. Mountain Avenue back then really hurt Main Street because suddenly you had McDs, Dunkin Doughnuts, Friendly's or whatever it was, the bike and ski place. But immigrants started to come in, new pizza place, Chinese restaurant. Happened again around 1980 when the Shop Rite - Jamesway plaza opened. Suddenly everything was out on 57, Hoffman's Bakery, another Mama's, the bank, the stores. And then Main Street came back again in the 90s as I recall. We stopped through a year ago on a trip to Maine to show the kids and wife were Daddy grew up. (Columbian Bakery rocks). It's happening again. Same cycle - immigrant families move to town, open stores and start to generate traffic. That part is done, now you have the brew pubs and more business moving in. Hey, want to know what follows a brew house? Places to eat and a cigar store. And Starbucks.
Stephan "One last point and then you can "win" this one (-;"
Not trying to win anything.. .you guys are attacking someone who visits the town "on and off" for being a couple blocks off between a gas station and a gold/check cashing place.
We ALL knew what he meant when he said "near Hess", but some act like it's a crime to not have the exact Latitude/Longitude of the vacant stores he was talking about.
I agree Mark Mc. I knew exactly what he was talking about as down the block(s) from Hess is a check-cashing storefront along with many non-English speaking stores scattered around town. I am all for diversity, but if you open a business in town, you should at least speak English to talk with your potential customers.
mom of one "Attacking"? That's a bit overstated, no? GC just pointed it out in passing. Should someone accuse you of attacking GC for pointing it out? I hardly think anything in this thread has reached that level. We're talking about geography, not guns or vegetarianism (-;
But all that aside, I think GC and Stephan both made great points to his actual question and the cyclical nature of economics and commerce.
GC pointed it out... I posted to give him the benefit of the doubt (without directing it to GC in particular)... then you diagrammed his sentence to prove that he was "wrong".
Hey ianimal.
There would be alot more foot traffic if there was a Veggie Heaven on Main St........
:-)
"There would be alot more foot traffic if there was a Veggie Heaven on Main St.."
Perhaps, but you might have to walk past Hackettstown Guns & Ammo to get there.
No, I merely reiterated what he specifically wrote only to point out that *your assumptions* into what he meant *might* have been wrong. I freely admit that I don't know what he actually meant any more than you do. Fair enough?
goofa "Ditto, mark."
I'd have no problem with both businesses in town (can you say the same?)
I do find it a bit amusing that a vegetarian restaurant has items like "chicken nuggets" and "BBQ beef sticks" on the menu. For people that don't like meat, they certainly enjoy the flavor.
omg Mark and ianimal, get a room. it's obvious you two are in love with one another.
goofa - yes, --- and I think a Loving Hut will bring lots of students to Main Street.
I too agree MarkMc. I knew what he meant.
OP-I dont see how a dollar store and a cash for gold store brings down an area. Plenty of LValley people, with fancy cars, visit those places too.
botheredbyuu2 i for one am tired of eating in really fancy restaurants like McD's and shopping in upscale stores like target.
just so very tired of all of it . . . . . .
BrotherDog i think main street looks nice albeit some stores are closed. overall i think our town is holding its own and was kinda surprised at the original posters comment as there are many towns that look horrible. maybe a ride through paterson would make his visit to hackettstown more cheery.
mistergoogle All, thanks for the insights you have provided.
To summarize the replies, posters said
- decline is b/c of big box stores and/or online shopping
- decline is cyclical. new growth related to influx of immigrant population and could return
- restaurants are a potential source of growth.
trekster3 had an interesting point comparing the Dollar store to Woolworths. I hadn't thought this class of store existed in Hackettstown before, but maybe they are similar.
Regarding the location of the gold store in relation to Hess, you'll have to excuse my memory. The exact location wasn't germane to my point (i.e., gold store evidence of decline), and hopefully it didn't detract too much from the discussion.
hmm...I didn't understand the comment about Paterson. I was comparing Hackettstown to earlier versions of itself, not to other towns/cities.
My thoughts:
- Hackettstown and the surrounding area doesn't have the disposable income to support Trader Joe's. Their HQ likes to pick places like Millburn that have high median incomes ($165k vs. H'town's $62k).
- This is the same reason H'town doesn't have a Starbucks, although their preferred income range probably isn't as high.
Anyway, everyone looks optimistic. Best of luck to you.
We have a Starbucks in Target and in Mansfield, both supported by Hackettstown Folks. Not sure a third one is needed. I'm a loyal ShopRite customer but have cut down my shopping there and do a reasonable amount of shopping at Trader Joes. I am not high income. I doubt that most that shop at Trader Joes shop there exclusively. I find the perception of TJ's is that it's expensive, the same for Wegmans, I don't find either perception to be true. Whole Foods, that's another story. Just my thoughts on the subject.
Bessie The "hackettstown economy" is really just the locally visible manifestation of the NJ/NY/US economy.
NJ is not recovering awfully well super storm wall street. It is a slow recovery.
Hackettstown, per se, is just another small town in larger NY metro area, but with a few special challenges. We are not part of that real NJ suburbia: that ends at the Morris county line. We are "fly over country" for wealthy Staten Islanders going to their estates in the Poconos :)
More to the point: we are the last little bastion of nature, and thus water supply, for metro northern NJ. (Sorry Ringwood, you too.)
Our water resources are essential to the rest of north NJ, but we are rewarded with slaps in the face (sorry, thought I could stay dispassionate). State regulations aimed at god-knows-what are driving down our property values and pushing anyone who can to move over the river to PA. Other than that things are great.
Given that that, it's a cheap place to live. Thus Main Street Htown as it is: new businesses opened by immigrants The one good thing to come of this crap.
I'm sorry but I was born and raised in town and still live here and Main Street has gone to hell because the crowd that lives on or hangs out on constantly trash it, constant drug flow up there, knife fights, drunken brawls... Before the train station was built here Main Street was a cute little area...now it's just a pissing hole for all the illegals.
Firstworldproblems 
Rebecka I have lived in the Hackettstown area for 30 years. It has looked worse, and I think it looks better than it ever has. Is the economy great? No. But better than the past few years.
I think bezeq is remembering it through younger, rose/time colored glasses.
As for Trader Joe's, after years of hoping to go to one, I finally did. So, so, so overrated.
maja Maja...I have a set list of things I buy there. I actually like their frozen foods the best.
On a final note, I find what is giving this area a bad name is the drug problem and thefts that come along with it.
Just curious if anyone else noticed the billboard on rt.46 east with the quirky looking big guy promoting our quirky little town(Main Street)? Makes me crack a smile every mornin'
H-town Mama 
LoBo 
terry page H-town Mama - I had missed that but MikeG here pointed that out to me. The guy is from Home Brew U and hoisting one of his creations. A bit nutty but I like that. ;-)
Haha, they aren't even on Main St. 2 are not even in Htown. LOL. You are funny terry.
BBYU what are you talking about?? Terry was pointing out that having large box stores NEARBY hurts Main St. businesses. people are more likely to go to those larger stores NEARBY then they are to go to a local shop on Main st that sells the same stuff.
darwin not sure how these big box stores "ruined" main street.... where can i go buy cereal, cosmetics, underwear, etc. on main street? no where - so I go to walmart. also, there are things to buy at home town hardware, but not nearly as much as you can get at lowes and home depot. lumber, lighting fixtures, tile, a lawn mower, weed wacker, etc., the list goes on and on and i can use my lowes and home depot credit cards on purchases.... these stores are an asset to our area and i don't believe they are hurting main street. i'm not going to go to second hand stores to buy clothes either and there are plenty of these on main street. and i sure as hell am not going into the sunrise store to buy overpriced cereal. the biggest draw to main street as i see it are the restaurants. i don't think the reason behind a lagging main street can be blamed on the big box stores.
hess has a free air pump, but you have to bring your own air gauge, as they keep replacing the hose with whatever they have laying around the station at the time. but the pump generally works most of the time.
the quickcheck out at route 519 and 46 has free air also, check them out.
i miss the free air at all the gas stations, hard to find these days but still around if you look,
just go to the check cashing gold place, turn left and go about .4 tenths of a mile to get to the main street hess, you can't miss it if you keep your eyes open. it may be a full half mile if you drive like i do, but still the same place, it's just about 5 miles west of the light in budd lake, then come down through the longest valley, slide down the mountain and run into the target for some upscale shopping then hit the free air pump at the hess at main st. and mountain ave.
you can't miss it, it's just up the road and down the hill from the sky box at morrison field, around the corner from the demolished rita's ice shop.
how's that for a hessy-fit ?
John C Since the train station opened we have gone to hell? Pretty sure the train station opening in the 1850's. Yes it closed and reopened a few times but blaming trains in the internet age seems a big of a stretch. In my opinion the decline of main street is a general American story of the last 50 years. Above someone said they could not buy cereal on main street. That's because Shoprite opened a big store in the 1970's and within a few months the local grocers went belly up. As recently as the 2000's attempts to compete with them have failed (Best's tried but could not compete.) I'm amazed that Hometown hardware still stand with a Lowes and Home Depot within 5 miles.
I do think Main street is getting better, mostly from the resurgence of restaurants soon the brew pubs. Not a fan of Dollar stores, but they are systemic across middle America, and serve a need. (I have bought water and supplies at them in MI, NM, CO, MT and MN) because there just wasn't any other choice.)
Agust Agust, very good post. There's a lot of truth to your words. Not as dramatic as henny penny the sky is falling, but refreshing.
I think working class communities have not recovered as quickly as middle and upper class communities. Main street is reflective of that. We moved here about 8 years ago and Target coming to our area did not affect my shopping on Main Street. There was not much to shop down town and there is still not much there. I tried shopping for Christmas presents on Main street with my family and after about an hour we had walked all of Main street maybe went to five shops and left with very few presents. I love the hardware store and enjoy going there. There a few new boutiques that are cute but it's not enough to draw people to shop for an afternoon. It needs help. I am really hoping that man skirt and some of the new businesses coming will help bring people down town. The Columbian cafe is great, has really good empanadas. The big restaurants downtown are mediocre. The food is decent but not amazing. Enough to draw us to walk downtown to eat and have a drink but not drive 25 minutes for, like Clinton's Thai restaurant or Mexican restaurant.
JC If we want stores and restaurants on main then we need to entice business owners with incentives. Is the rent affordable?
ask cara meai if it was affordable. how can an exc. place leave and get replaced with what we have know? what is an entitlement program? to me it's still hard for a family to even go out to dinner.
fitter The ARA, short for the Affordable Rent Act.
I can probably write one up with a mere 3,000 pages.
Heidi Agust, Don't be too amazed with Hometown Hardware lasting all these years, It was Rockaway Sales for years first, then it went bankrupt after Home Depot came to town.
The Brew Pubs, (plural?) I know one is opening, but didn't one just close down. Lets hope the next fares better, it's a great building which has been vacant far to long.
Denis What ever happened to that great Antique Marketplace on Main Street? It was a huge store with vendors- I used to love that one!
Cara Mia was not an affordable place for a family, but I guess too many Italian restaurants around to pull people from Chester and Mendham. Affordable rent? The BID cost and high local taxes are past on to the renters. More green businesses need to be brought to the area along with responsible spending...
One of the biggest problems which never gets addressed, is parking! There needs to be a major plan for parking,people will drive right by a store and go to a big box store, because of parking! Now the town is charging more for parking tickets,does that make sense?So now we have the BID promoting business,in a town with no parking?Why not see how to create parking! We do have a town engineer,let's put something together,some of the cities use tier parking,people want to open businesses, but the first thing they say is , No Parking!
Property owners pay an additional tax which is just passed on of course to the renters.
Parking needs to be more shopper friendly. No coins needed in Chester, I know there would be a problem with people living on/near main perpetually parking there but don't they have a parking enforcement official that could work smarter and prevent long-term parking?
I don't get the constant complaints about parking. I never have a problem parking. Maybe you can't park in front of the store you're going to, but I don't feel like you have to walk farther than you would walmart, Home Depot, or many other places.
Gadfly Paying a public worker salary and benefits to remove chump change from meters makes sense like having toll collectors. Can the BID get a grant to modernize the system with ticket machines?
The walk is not the problem. To worry about paying for parking is usually reserved for premium towns...
On the topic of improving the downtown economy, I heard suggestions of restaurants and chain stores. While those are certainly a good suggestion, Hackettstown is unique compared to other NJ towns in that it manufactures a good that is sold and known worldwide, M&Ms. The town doesn't capitalize on this at all.
Take a look at Hershey, PA. That's a town that has taken a similar set of products and turned it into a tourist economy with a theme park, spas, hotels, and restaurants. Hackettstown could do the same. Whether y'all want to go in that direction is a different question; it could have its downsides.
If anything, there could be an M&M outlet store that sells edible rejects and/or customized labels and branded merchandise. Of course, any stores would need to work out any branding issues with Masterfoods.
I really don't get the issue with parking. There are lots all along Main St to park. And what do you want the town engineer to do? Where is the land to put more parking? What do you want a 5 story parking garage?
Locals can fine parking,people driving through can't,that is the difference! Traffic through down must be 15,000 cars a day,if 10% shopped on main street,what a difference that would make.Again,look at that nice store!,where do we park?Forget it,will stop another day,another day doesn't happen! Parking solutions anyone?
Parking isn't an issue. There's plenty of parking behind Main Street on both sides from Church to Grand Avenue. You're problem - just an opinion - is that property taxes are so high that the folks in the general area have a lot of disposable income going to local authorities when it could be used for higher descretionary spending. There are 100,000 people in Warren County, enough to support a thriving downtown H'town - even more if you count Schooley's Mountain - but at $6K to $9K a year in property taxes per household. If every household had an extra $250 a month for going to places in town - they probably would.
The Cash for Gold stores and Check Cashing stores on Main Street do nothing to attract shoppers or Nice shops. DON'T LIKE THEM? Go to the town council meetings and express yourself.
fussylady fussylady,your right,downtown has become a little less attractive with these types of shops.
Hmmm, parking again......see how many people just don't automatically notice it. And, for me, once you do ----- wouldn't use it anyway.
To me, the parking lots are unfriendly; the spots are too tight and the signage is less than perfect. Hardly ever park the big rig there. As I have said before, I would like to see the lots easier to park, less prone to door dings ------ and get some nice artwork to show me where the stores are and where those shortcut alleys are to get there. Like paint some "yellow brick roads" and friendly murals to point the fastest way to get from lot to loot.
Everyone posting on this thread should search your complaints on this forum! This has been discussed and answered til the cow came home....................
Christine 
"To me, the parking lots are unfriendly; the spots are too tight and the signage is less than perfect. Hardly ever park the big rig there. "
I agree, they are a bit too tight.
I was happy that the Chinese restaurant in Budd Lake has spots more appropriately sized for my truck.
"The Cash for Gold stores and Check Cashing stores on Main Street do nothing to attract shoppers or Nice shops. DON'T LIKE THEM? Go to the town council meetings and express yourself."
you'll find check cashing placing in high end towns like Short Hills, Madison, ect. They need a place for their maids/nannies to cash their checks too. Doesn't seem to hurt their Main Streets.
http://businessfinder.nj.com/7556667/Filandia-Money-Transfer-Madison-NJ
Also the town has already put a limit on these times of stores. no more allowed in town.
Yeah, but the cow couldn't fit in the stall and the FID (farmer's improvement dickering) just said "we're lookin at it."
My point was it appears that the same issues are noticed by random casual observers as a reason to avoid Main Street.
If you build it they will come. Meaning build a thriving want and need and there will be no issues.
Steve-0 One thing that really irritates me is that pay and rent aren't equal or even close! Rent in H-town isn't cheap by any means and it goes up each year and companies don't pay enough for you to live! It almost forces people to have to commute and eventually leave H-town altogether.
JB0103 curious, does anyone know avg rent/sq ft on main st? my wife and i were looking into opening an indian restaurant - thanks
Ajay Some of you regular old timers and new townies full of new insights, please provide me with a snapshot of the main st. Happenings of past 5 years.Got busy again and lost touch. Thank you from a son of a teacher in town who taught 3 generations in the school system.
Ajay, I hope you're still interested in opening an Indian restaurant on Main St. My girlfriend and I were just talking about how much we'd like to have one in town. Seeing a bunch of new restaurants opening up, from the new boardwalk place to a burger joint by C&L. Keep them coming and support small business!
Dancicus Fighticus Ajay, Talk to the Hackettstown Bid. Their office is on Main St., Hackettstown, contact telephone: (908) 850-5004 .
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