What is South Walton lacking?

Prior to 9/11, chain stores could not wait to build stores in the South Walton/Destin area. People from all over the world were moving here and clamoring for services.
In this stampeded, many mom and pop entities saw an opportunity to sell their businesses and move on to other things. Other folks saw this area as the gold mine they had been waiting for and opened shops for which they had saved all their lives.
Now many of those businesses are gone. Under capitalized, poorly managed or the victims of just plain bad luck, you can hear the doors being locked for good all over the area.
So this brings us back to the question, what is lacking in South Walton? Is there some business you would like to see open its door and for which you feel there would be a future?
If you have ever lived in a large metropolitan area and there is that one thing you have always missed, would it do well here?
The other side of this coin is, do you shop locally? Why or why not?
Walton County used to pride itself on being a community that provided much of what it needed for itself. Maybe a farmer traded crops for lumber, or a fisherman sold his fish to local markets. There probably wasn’t a lot of money in Walton County but much of what was made here, stayed here.
We’re not sure we can say that anymore. Some of Walton County’s largest employers send money to a corporate office located far from Walton County. They also employ foreign workers who spend as little as possible while working in order to send as much of their wages home possible.
We don’t fault either the foreign-owned company or the student workers; everybody has to be somewhere.
But how do we bring the money back home to Walton County? How do we encourage start-up businesses that will thrive?
There is no doubt these are hard economic times. It will be those who can create jobs and opportunity that will live on into the next era of boom.
Who in our business community can forge partnerships that both respect our fragile environment and create a path towards prosperity?
Is it someone you know? Is it you?