Daily Blog: Shawano, WI

Much has been made car dealerships being closed. But less attention has been paid to the impact this could have on mid-sized cities:

http://www.wbay.com/Global/story.asp?S=10371871

Shawano, Wisconsin has just under 10,000 residents. And folks worried that the local Chrysler dealership run by Jeff Roloff might lose its franchise rights:

"'If you take the car dealers out of a town this size, that's a huge amount of the commerce and the tax base and revenue and the jobs we provide,' Roloff said."

Roloff survived. Others weren't so lucky. Some 800 dealers nationwide lost their franchise rights, many of them in small cities. In Shawano, people are happy to know that their local dealership will remain in business. In a city this size, people depend on a dealership to create jobs. But more important, people depend on the dealerhip to take care of them and treat them as friends, not just customers:

"'I bought my first brand-new vehicle here in '69,' John Meyer told us. 'I think Rick and Jeff could probably name all their customers. I don't think you can do that in a bigger city.'"