Thursday, May 22, 2025

Recently, there has been a rumor that Olive Garden would replace the vacant Walgreens building in Greensburg on State Road 3 and Freeland Road, across from Chili’s. While this addition to our culinary scene would be welcomed by many, at this time, this rumor is not true. This wildly popular suggestion has caused me to think about how and why our City of Greensburg’s work on entirely unrelated topics may result in endless salad and breadsticks.

Let's start with the general idea of what businesses, especially national chains, look for as a starting point for where to locate- while there are many factors, there are a few big factors that are at play: population, number of households, and income.

Population and number of households may sound the same, but they are very different. The population metric is broken down further by age, education level, consumption habits, etc. We then must look at what is called our trade area, which is the area based on consumer data- this comes from how far people will travel to visit an establishment. There is a diminishing return; someone will drive 30 minutes to store A but only go five minutes to visit store B. When companies look at population, they look at the population within three miles, 10 miles, and maybe 20 miles or further, depending on the industry’s trade area.  Large-scale companies and national chains are looking at the numbers and the trade area in their business sector.

The number of households refers to the number of structures or rooftops that people live under. Think of it this way: you might only need one TV for your household, but you need groceries for five people. The rooftop count matters for many retailers as we buy things for our households, not for the individuals living in them. Household and population go hand in hand.

Finally,  income levels matter a lot! It is no surprise that the higher the income is in a community, region, and trade area, the better their chances of attracting a national brand in any category becomes. When the community focuses on educational advancement and career diversification, the better our income options become.

I get asked a version of, “Why don’t we go and get/build a _____?” often when I am out at events or out and about in the community. It is not quite that simple; governments do not open Olive Garden franchises. We want private industry to see Greensburg as a business-friendly, profitable place to open one. The City of Greensburg helps facilitate that through community investments, tax policy, code enforcement, and countless other avenues. 

We work on regional partnerships to grow our trade area. The better our region, the better it is for Greensburg.

We work on and invest in infrastructure improvements to help grow our rooftops and improve quality of life, leading to an eagerness for people to call Greensburg home. This results in more people and rooftops. More rooftops help the metrics for consideration to locate in our community, like Olive Garden. 

These improvements are large and small, for example: our Public Safety Community Cookouts that connect neighbors to first responders and create a fantastic sense of community. These small things make a community feel more like home and allows our residents to meet our police officers and firefighters in a non-emergency situation. 

A large-scale improvement example is our significant infrastructure project happening downtown right now. We have parlayed hundreds of thousands of grant dollars with an affordable local amount to improve infrastructure downtown, including stormwater. Not only is it functional, but it also adds value to our residents and visitors. We see people enjoying the downtown square, having a bite to eat or finding the perfect addition to their home in one of our shops.  We sometimes take downtown for granted; when people visit, they love our community. The downtown square is one of our best recruitment tools, which helps grow the population and rooftops.

When we invest in education and community employment opportunities that grow with time, we add to our household incomes. This includes childcare options, community service organizations, and housing options that welcome those with remote jobs or jobs based elsewhere- wee add that income locally. This is why we focus on diversifying our employment base, housing base, amenity base, and all other aspects of our community. 

We know people who want to live somewhere will look for work if they do not already have it. It is not like in years past when the employer dictated the living situation.

The City’s role is not to buy an Olive Garden franchise, but to do things that draw the franchise in our community. The work we do to improve parks, add trails, make streets safer and more walkable, and support businesses through the Greensburg Decatur County Economic Development Corporation or the Greensburg Decatur County Chamber of Commerce all lead to a better place to sell endless salad and breadsticks. We work every day on water and sewer systems, respond to calls for police and fire service, plow snow and pick up trash, all in stride to make our community safer, healthier, and a better place for growth.

If we are to achieve the success that people desire, we must continue to make investments in seemingly unrelated areas that will drive national, regional, and local desire to invest in our communities. That is what our team does every day. 

If you don’t like Olive Graden, that is okay, because this applies to many, if not all, of our conversations about restaurants, grocery stores, and large-scale amenities. It is paramount that we continue to invest in our community so that we can finally order that much sought after  Never-Ending Soup or Salad and Breadsticks.

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