As your newly elected councilman in Benson, I’m focused on keeping our town strong, stable home values, good schools, safe roads, and a tax base that supports our families. Right now, a massive wave of national store closures is rolling across America, and it will hit small towns like Benson just as hard as big cities, maybe harder.
By week six of 2026, over 2,000 stores had already closed. New openings are down 47%. Experts now project around 15,000 closures this year, more than during the worst of the pandemic. This time there’s no recovery coming. The empty spaces are staying empty.
Big names are falling fast: Saks, Francesca’s (400 stores), Eddie Bauer (175), 7-Eleven (645), Macy’s (150 more), plus hundreds from Pizza Hut, Wendy’s, and Starbucks. Moody’s just downgraded the entire retail sector and called the outlook “bleak.” Here’s why this matters in Benson. A single anchor store closing in Sierra Vista might not seem like a big national story compared to a Tucson, mall, but for us it can be devastating. We’re a small, tight-knit town. Every lost job, every drop in regional traffic, and every decline in commercial property values hits our families directly.
At the end of the day, even with Walmart, Safeway, ACE, and our Dollar stores still standing, Benson is not immune to this national retail collapse. The struggling Sierra Vista Mall is a visible warning, when regional anchors weaken and foot traffic fades, the effects reach us through lost jobs, reduced spending in our local businesses, and a shrinking commercial tax base that quietly pressures our schools, roads, and services. Lower commercial taxes = less money for Cochise County and the Town of Benson. We’ve seen this pattern before, but today it’s worse. New retail openings are down nearly 50%, so empty buildings stay empty for years. In a town our size, we feel every ripple immediately and deeply. Chasing big corporate giants like ADI sounded like a sweet deal to some, but it was a perfect example of the math never adding up. No meaningful sales tax revenue and only 90 jobs spread thin across three to five towns. When the corporate spreadsheet turns red, they close the doors and move on without a second thought. That’s exactly why we must remember this lesson.
What Should We Do?
We must support policies that strengthen our local tax base: attracting small businesses, encouraging mixed-use development where it fits, and maintaining strict fiscal discipline so we’re never overly dependent on any one big player.
The warning signs are public and available now. We still have time to prepare.
Benson has always been resilient. We’ve faced tough times before and come out stronger by working together and staying practical.
I’m committed to protecting our home values, schools, and services. I want to hear from you, what you’re seeing in town and what matters most to your family.
Let’s keep Benson strong, no matter what comes from outside our borders.