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People Get What They Want; They Get What They Deserve |
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Written by Gary Moffat
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“I’m going to give it one more week.”
That’s what Brand Little of Little Fish Company told me at the Farmers Market in the Courthouse parking lot last Saturday morning as he sat slouched back in a lawn chair behind a display of fresh fish buried in crushed ice.
“Breaking even is one thing,” he said, “but I can’t afford to lose money coming here.”
It wasn’t all that long ago that people were lined up six deep in front of Little’s refrigerated truck to purchase sushi-grade ahi, line-caught salmon, San Francisco Bay sturgeon, petrale, white sea bass ... even tubes and tentacles if you ordered in advance. Each week, Little sends out an e-mail on Wednesday letting his regular customers know what he will have available. Place your order before Thursday at midnight and he will have it ready for you, otherwise you take your chances on what he has in stock.
Little, who was recently profiled in a SacBee feature and was filmed for an upcoming PBS documentary, owns his own boat that he operates from Bodega Bay, so he catches some of what he sells. He also sources product from other fishermen and resells it at Farmers Markets all around the Sacramento area. For those of us who appreciate high-quality, absolutely fresh fish that is caught using sustainable methods and delivered virtually to our front door, we’re willing to pay a premium.
Barring a miraculous turnaround, however, we’re going to lose Little Fish Company at the Auburn Farmers Market, and that’s a damned shame. In an insidious game of attrition, bit by bit, Auburn is losing the amenities that make it special, falling victim to the harshness of the economy and the lifestyle choices of the growing number of people who will line up like lemmings for the promise of a discount in a featureless, personality-less box store.
That’s what happened Friday when the new BevMo! opened in the Rock Creek shopping center on Bell Road. Some 200 people queued up for free $25 gift cards at the Auburn area’s newest box store, a discount liquor and wine retailer based in Concord. Guess it is simple enough to guarantee an SRO (“standing room only”) grand opening if you give away $5,000. (In the “spirit” of full disclosure, for those of you who don’t already know, I own a wine shop, wine bar and fine dining restaurant in Old Town).
In a front-page story in last Friday’s Auburn Journal (where BevMo! is running full-page advertisements), Placer County Supervisor Jim Holmes gushed about a “whole new dynamic” in North Auburn. “BevMo, Sleep Train, Home Depot, Best Buy and other top quality retail stores are moving into the area,” Holmes told the Journal. “It’s really exciting to see the road improvements and I think we’ll see more stores when other businesses see the attractiveness of the improvements.”
Yes, now we are blessed with seven lanes of asphalt at Luther Road and Highway 49, a barrier so wide you’d be taking your life in your hands to try and cross it on foot. And the sound barrier walls constructed from concrete blocks are stunning, aren’t they? An artistic complement to the backs of the new box stores that front on our newest freeway.
Yes, all of this new development will attract more “quality businesses,” such as Quizno’s and Panda Express that Supervisor Holmes said are both confirmed in the new shopping center at Luther Road. Oh joy, another franchise sub shop and another fast-food takeout joint. And now we have two mattress stores within a mile of each other. This kind of competition will make everyone stronger! Thank you, Supervisor Holmes, for helping sustain the uniqueness of our community; once we get a Costco, Rocklin and Roseville will have nothing on us!
Supervisor Holmes may present himself as an affable, good-natured, ready-with-a-quip, good old boy, but it has taken just one term for him to learn his lessons. And the bottom line is, money talks ... bullshit walks.
But where is the money coming from for all of the improvements on Highway 49? That’s easy—the taxpayers of Placer County are paying to literally pave the way for the box store explosion in North Auburn. Nearly $4 million in block grants were earmarked for road improvements, landscaping and more. Just put it on the tab, along with the Santucci Justice Center, helicopters and God knows what else.
As the County and City of Auburn trip all over each other wooing box stores, this place as we know it is draining away. Soon Auburn will be fully and irrevocably sucked into the development vortex that is climbing the hill. And bit by bit, Little Fish Company by Little Fish Company, the fabric of this community will devolve into just another homogenous, unintelligible glob.
I know this is a lost battle, and I’m accepting the reality of it reluctantly. At the end of the day, though, the people get what they want; they get what they deserve.
So, if you love fresh fish, you’ve got one more chance to make a purchase from Brand Little at the Farmers Market on Saturday. You can e-mail him at
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to place an advance order and to request his newsletter.
Gary Moffat is a journalist and owner of Carpe Vino in Old Town Auburn. He can be reached at
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