Fatal shooting in Edmond raises a question: Is there 'retail stigma' after tragedy?
Published by Richard Mize in The Oklahoman on July 9, 2023.
EDMOND — Is crime and tragedy bad for business? An individual business caught up in literal crossfire? Or a business just shaken by one-way gunfire? Like the Wingstop at Edmond's busiest intersection, E 33rd Street and Broadway Avenue? An employee there was shot and killed on June 28. Police arrested a man the next day. Just a week later, a half-dozen people were in and out picking up called-in and online orders. Crime, apparently, is not bad for business, not even bloodshed. The restaurant just opened in February. It was my first time in the place, after I put off stopping in for a few days because of the shooting, so I don't know whether or not business was slower than usual. Probably not. It got me to wondering whether there is such a thing as "retail stigma," like the stigma that can attach to houses after a tragedy takes place. A lot has been written about that. A retail property guy I asked didn't know of any research on commercial property stigma. The National Association of Realtors offers several articles on stigmatized properties, but it looks like they're all about houses, not commercial property. Just last month, the National Retail Federation issued a statement about violence and store safety, but it doesn't address stigma or how customers or clients might be expected to behave after a tragedy strikes: “Acts of violence — real or threatened — by those who seek to bring attention to themselves and their cause have no place in retail stores. The number one priority for retailers is ensuring the safety and security of both customers and workers. "Retailers provide their teams with trainings to prevent or de-escalate situations that may result in confrontation. Also, they are close partners with law enforcement who help support them when situations may escalate. Threats, violence and protest will not deter a retailer’s commitment to protecting the health and safety of the customers they serve and the people they employ.” Great.
What about the next week? Small town? Big city? Suburb? Perceptions of crime stigma on real estate could depend on, what else? Location
It turns out that an OKC-area researcher has looked at real estate stigma — David Chapman, a professor at the University of Central Oklahoma who also serves on the Oklahoma Real Estate Commission. He and I have spoken most recently about neighborhood oil well pump jacks' effect on property values. But his studies of stigma attaching to property because of crime and violence — and alleged hauntings and other "negative externalities," to put it in economics speak — are also limited to home prices, residential property values, not commercial. Chapman is, however, in an educated and experienced position, as a real estate broker and developer himself, to weigh in on this. He said people's reaction after a violent crime at a favorite store or hangout probably depends on the size of the community: A small-town place could be ruined. Apparently not in Edmond, with a population pushing 100,000 population. And that could help explain my own reaction. Maybe I'm seeing it through my own upbringing, even after decades of city reporting and living in the suburbs. I see it through my own lenses. Chapman said he wonders, with news so fractured now, whether very many Wingstop customers, or would-be customers, even know about the shooting. At another level of perception, the opposite could be occurring. "As sad and strange as it is to say, my opinion is the public is getting a bit desensitized to tragedy and violence," Chapman said. "Fortunately, it is still very rare in Edmond, Oklahoma. Unfortunately, it is not that rare nationally and frequently seen on the evening news.
Sirloin Stockade murders in 1978 apparently did the steakhouse in
The Edmond Wingstop killing reminded me of other crimes in other places that weren't homes. First, the Oklahoma City bombing in April 1995 is in a class by itself. I do remember, not longer after moving here in 1999, being downtown and seeing a parked Ryder truck, and freaking out. So the Edmond Post Office shooting in August 1986, which left 14 people dead, came to mind first, not surprisingly. Those poor postal employees who survived were back at work the next day. Not long before that was the grisly Geronimo bank robbery that left four murdered in December 1984. I remembered state Labor Commissioner Mark Costello's stabbing death and the family tragedy that unfolded in August 2015 at the Braum's at 11224 N May Ave in OKC. And, of course, if you're from anywhere in Oklahoma or this part of the country, and you're old enough, and your mind starts wandering to scenes of bloodshed in popular public places, it will eventually land at 1620 SW 74 in Oklahoma City. That was the Sirloin Stockade, where six employees were herded into the walk-in cooler and murdered in July 1978. The Sirloin Stockade is the only commercial establishment I personally know of that seemed to take such a hard hit from such a tragedy that it didn't survive. The building itself stood for 11 years until it was demolished, after several businesses tried to make it without much success. Whether the stigma of having been a murder scene did it in, and then the businesses that followed in the same building, is speculation. Six dead might have kept me away from the place.
Pace of life? Pace of business? Something keeps people coming back after tragedies
Buying or renting and living in a home where someone was killed, or some other tragedy struck? That kind of stigma is not uncommon. I can see why it might take a discount to keep such a house marketable. But whether it's the pace of life or the pace of business, most places of business don't seem to catch any stigma. And that gives me another kind of pause: Is something wrong with us? Or is that just what it takes for us to get by? I'm a big softy these days, but I did make it to the Edmond Wingstop. I walked through the same doorway the shooter barged through, I looked into the open kitchen he shot into, and where his victim fell, and chatted with friendly counter staff, one of whom did allow in casual conversation: "It hit close to home." It probably sounds weird, but it did for me, too.