(Editorial) Opinion Shapers: When your world falls apart, there are ways to heal

Mansfield residents responded with a strong voice this week when Adultmart unveiled its 80-foot sign Monday.

With no warning, neighbors and nearby business owners learned about the store that would sell lingerie, adult toys and pornographic videos and magazines at the site once occupied by Big Boy and Joe’s Restaurant.

Some customers who patronize businesses in the area already have said they will shop elsewhere.

How could this have happened?

Why didn’t somebody ask a few more questions?

Why did the city approve a sign without even knowing what it was going to say?

These are all good questions that damage the faith we put in our city leaders.

They also are questions with answers that may or may not have made any difference as to whether the store opened.

When the sign went up, residents immediately began pointing fingers at the City of Mansfield, but in actuality it seems Adultmart jumped through all the appropriate hoops.

So the outrage really comes from the lack of any warning that such a business would be opening. This is something that Adultmart owners planned very strategically.

When Dave Remy, the city’s law director, began investigating the situation, he didn’t find many red flags — which perhaps was a red flag in itself.

“The file was absolutely blank as to what was going to go in there, except as a mercantile establishment,” Remy said this week.

But, again, even if the file were full of information, it may not have mattered.

In the world of retail business, the old mantra “location, location, location” holds a lot of weight. Retail business comes and goes based primarily on how much profit can be made in any particular location.

City leaders, however, have lots of tools at their discretion that can help determine how a business operates — the size of signs, the shape and orientation of buildings, parking lot locations, even the colors used on the exterior.

In the case of Adultmart, the city has admitted to having the wool pulled over its eyes and is now scrambling to see if any “deception — for lack of a better word” occurred when the store obtained permits.

Whether or not the city can do anything procedurally to shutter this eyesore at the southern entrance to our city is yet to be determined.

But there is plenty the general public can do.

Remember retail businesses live and die by the amount of money that comes through the door and into cash registers. If Adultmart is unprofitable it will not last.

The strongest voice of all is the voice we use when we speak with our wallets.