One of Powell’s Main Street anchors, The Merc, is set to close up shop, and we’re disheartened by this news.

It is sobering to see any local business close, but The Merc isn’t a normal business — as a co-op, it is literally owned by the community, with 429 shareholders who rallied together to create a department store in Powell’s downtown.

“The customers that come in supported us incredibly well and we had a 14-year run of being open, and we are pretty proud of that,” said John Wetzel, president of The Merc board.

About half of new businesses last five years and one-third last 10 years or more, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics. With that in mind, it seems that The Merc had a pretty good run.

Still, we’re sad to see it go.

On Thursday, The Merc’s shareholders will vote on whether to approve the store’s board of trustees’ recommendation to call it quits.

The building will go up for sale after the store closes and the inventory is cleared out.

Wetzel said he hopes a different business will fill The Merc’s spot downtown to keep the area economically healthy. We share that hope and encourage any aspiring entrepreneur to make their dream of owning their own business a reality.

After all, what better place to do it than right here?

With WYOld West Brewing Company opening its doors, things are looking up for the downtown area. 

A community without Main Street businesses, one where downtown is a row of empty shops and boarded up windows, is not an inviting sight — nor is it encouraging to next-door neighbors.

Similar to how Borders bookstores fell to the rise of e-books and ordering online, Wetzel credited online competition for the store’s struggles over the last few years.

As a local business, we know what it’s like to be up against online competition — it’s a tough battle, but serving the community is a satisfying role to play.

“Our competition in the last five years has been online shopping, period,” Wetzel said. “You can buy X amount of inventory, but compete against millions and billions of dollars of inventory online. That is what is killing retail across the country.”

It’s sad, but true; if a store doesn’t have the size you need it’s all too convenient to hop online and have it delivered.

But all this convenience comes at a cost.

For every $10 million in sales made in North America, Amazon employs 19 people. Meanwhile independent retailers create 47 jobs for every $10 million in sales, according to the Institute for Local Self-Reliance.

Basically, buying locally creates more than twice as many jobs than buying online.

Then there’s the issue of tax revenue. Online retailers don’t always charge sales tax and they certainly aren’t paying local property taxes.

We’ve all seen the slogan “Shop Local” and similar variations. Doing so keeps local money circulating from one business to another.

Each dollar spent at independent businesses returns three times more money to the local economy than one spent at a chain store and almost 50 times more than buying from an online mega-retailer, according to the American Independent Business Alliance.

But it’s about more than just money.

Having a vibrant and thriving downtown is a bold statement in a world of big box stores and online shopping.