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[SOA_Wes]

According to Arab-Today.com the City Council was briefed on a concept to build a 150 seat Applebees in Arab.

Has anyone ever heard of an Applebees in an dry community?

[LSY55]

Actually Applebees opened in Athens a good while before Athens went wet. So, maybe we'll get one. Would sure be nice!

[SOA_Wes]

Smart move on their part.  I caught the tail end of a discussion of 92.7 this morning about the group wanting special benefits in order to build the Applebees.  Anyone have any info on that?

[forwardlooking]

The subsidy for Applebee's is a combination of a low interest loan and, if they don't meet their profit goal, Arab will give Applebee's 1/2 of the city sales tax collected (2 of 4% that the city gets - the state gets the other 4% of our 8% sales tax).

When Athens went wet, how long did it take Applebee's to get a liquor license?

[forwardlooking]

The reason I asked about the liquor license is that Applebee's said they make 11% of their profit from alcohol, so if they had that they probably wouldn't need our tax money.

[SOA_Wes]

Ahh good point... I'll see if I can find an answer.

[charlie]

According to Arab-Today.com the City Council was briefed on a concept to build a 150 seat Applebees in Arab.

Has anyone ever heard of an Applebees in an dry community?

[posey]

Charlie, yes, see above post...Athens.

[forwardlooking]

At the City Council meeting they said they had three in dry towns.  Athens is one, but I don't know the other two.  They also said that this was the first kind of deal like this, so the others apparently did not give up sales tax to get them in.  Sales tax supports our schools as well as our city.

[SOA_Wes]

Well after reading what is being potentially offered up I can honestly say that I have ZERO support for this proposal.  It is simply unfair to others who work hard and have to put their savings and houses on the line to open a business while some multi-million dollar company gets all the breaks.

No thank you sir.  Take your Applebees somewhere else. 

[Common Sense]

Applebee's would be great, we all agree.  But not at the expense of existing restaurants who have invested their own money in our community.  There are only so many dining dollars out there so Applebee's would of course take a slice out of the pie - and inevitably an existing restaurant is going to go out of business. 

Mayor Frank Lee Cox and councilman Mike Allen have been quoted as saying that this as a win-win situation for Arab - I wonder which of our existing restaurants they would like to see go out of business - because that is the question we need to be asking.

Support your local restaurants.  They have always supported our community.  The city needs to treat them like gold.  Welcome Applebee's to Arab on their own dime, not ours.

[posey]

yeah, the deal applebee's wanna make is ridiculous...bad deal....try again. I would LOVE to see an applebees come in but its not worth what theyre wanting.

[LSY55]

Well when my husband gets home from work today, I can tell him, "I told you so!" Sat. Feb. 23, we were talking about Applebees coming to Arab - and I told him "It will never happen!"
This morning's breaking news on Arab-Today says "Applebees Proposal Pulled From Agenda. A proposed deal ....... appears to be a dead issue, at least for the foreseeable future." The Arab Tribune also has a "breaking news" story about it on their website.
Personally, I think too many people in Arab are scared of progress. I didn't agree with the deal the city was considering, however, I don't think it would have affected the restaurants in town as much as people were thinking it would, especially if these restaurants offer good food. I think their regular customers would have, of course, checked out Applebees when they first opened and probably eaten there from time to time, but I think they would have also eaten at the ones already here.
Applebees would have offered those of us who go to Huntsville the majority time when we go "out" to eat, more of an incentive to stay in town, spending our money here rather than somewhere else.
If a new business coming to Arab is not a bank or a car lot, forget it!

[SOA_Wes]

This kinds makes me mad a bit...

From Arab-Today.com

Cox said he was frustrated and disheartened by the reaction to the proposal and the lost opportunity.   "Arab is a hard sale and when we finally get an offer it gets shot down before it gets off the ground.

I think that is simply unfair to offer these type of plans to large companies.  It is simply unfair to those business owners that worked hard and have their financial life on the line to be basically be pushed aside to bring in some chain that will likely shut them down and more than likely wouldn't survive in Arab if the town doesn't go wet.



 

[sro]

What I'm upset about is the mayor and "others" at city hall have been working on this since "late last summer". I can truthfully say that I know at least ONE of the council members had never heard of this deal, or anything about Applebees until Febuary 15th. If the full council had been advised of this earlier we might of had a different ending to this matter.  Why would you not let city leaders know about what is going to affect the city??