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In Praise of Chain Stores
The Atlantic Online ^
| December 2006
| Virginia Postrel
Posted on 12/09/2006 3:35:25 PM PST by SamAdams76
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To: VirginiaConstitutionalist; Rb ver. 2.0; MotleyGirl70; Cagey; Mr. Brightside
KRAMER: Yeah, of course you do. And do you know why? Because you're a bunch of yuppies. It's your go-go corporate takeover lifestyles that are driving out these Mom and Pop stores and destroying the fabric of this neighborhood.
GEORGE: Well, what's so great about a Mom and Pop store? Let me tell you something. If my Mom and Pop ran a store, I wouldn't shop there.
To: Dog Gone
22
posted on
12/09/2006 8:58:07 PM PST
by
relee
(How ironic that the fatal flaw of communism would turn out to be that there is no money in it - AWB)
To: SamAdams76
Chain stores deliver economies of the scale and choice that local mom and pop stores can't match. Since mom and pop stores can't compete with the chains on price and choice they can maintain an edge on quality goods and personalized customer service.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
23
posted on
12/09/2006 9:01:15 PM PST
by
goldstategop
(In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives On In My Heart Forever)
To: SamAdams76
The point to national chains is that people in small towns and nedium sized cities get the same services and amenities once available only to people living in big cities. The point lost on activists who oppose chains in urban downtowns is not that chains change the character of the places they'd take root in but rather that people have to drive further to buy the things they want and need. I can't think of anything more self-defeating, as Virginia Postrel's passage at the end of her column so vividly reveals:
"To [Robert Gibbs'] frustration, he finds that many cities actually turn away national chains, preferring a moribund downtown that seems authentically local. But, he says, the same local activists who oppose chains want specialty retail that sells exactly what the chains sellthe same price, the same fit, the same qualities, the same sizes, the same brands, even. You can show people pictures of a Pottery Barn with nothing but the name changed, he says, and theyll love the store. So downtown stores stay empty, or sell low-value tourist items like candles and kites, while the chains open on the edge of town. In the name of urbanism, officials and activists in cities like Ann Arbor and Fort Collins, Colorado, are driving business to the suburbs. If people like shopping at the Banana Republic or the Gap, if thats your marketor Payless Shoeswhy not? says an exasperated Gibbs. Why not sell the goods and services people want?
Why indeed not? If people like doing business with a particular company, they should be free to have that choice. The character of our communities is not determined by what's outside the sign of a business; its shaped by the local culture, climate and living preferences. For frequent travellers, all of America looks the same. That's a snap judgment from people passing through a place. For the local folks though, its always the place they call home.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
24
posted on
12/09/2006 9:17:55 PM PST
by
goldstategop
(In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives On In My Heart Forever)
To: Dog Gone
You are too funny!
I was in South Korea '76-'82. Dried squid, dog, Chicken heads, fermented cabbage, red bean paste and such were the local fare. I would have killed for a nearby McDonald's! Imagine me as a young child biting into what looked like a tasty donut to find it filled with bean curd(tofu). That sort of thing happened way too many times. I grew to like the salted seaweed and such but still came back to the US as a skinny underfed kid.
25
posted on
12/10/2006 2:20:21 AM PST
by
ME-262
(The Democrat party is slowly being reduced by abortion AIDS and imprisonment...and soon deportation!)
To: CORedneck
I cannot get it at home in Colorado.Yeh. Sitting in the middle of Wisconsin with a strong hankering for a stuffed sopapilla smothered in green chile sauce from the Elkhorn Cafe, Pagosa Springs...
26
posted on
12/10/2006 6:14:14 AM PST
by
elli1
To: ErnBatavia
**** I found a MacDonald's ... The Big Mac tasted entirely unlike anything I'd ever had stateside. It really sucked ****
Yeah, Wallaby does take some getting used to.
27
posted on
12/10/2006 6:15:26 AM PST
by
Condor51
(Tagline Under Construction - Kindly Wear Your Hardhat)
To: Condor51
"Who put the 'roo in the stew?"
28
posted on
12/10/2006 7:27:25 AM PST
by
ErnBatavia
(recent nightmare: Googled up "Helen Thomas nude"....)
To: VirginiaConstitutionalist
Not to mention that many Mom & Pop stores pleased their customers, had a lot of babies and became chains themselves. It's not like Sam Walton started out with $500 billion and 1,000 stores. Didn't he start with Franklin Five and Dime stores?
29
posted on
12/10/2006 8:02:14 AM PST
by
Moonman62
(The issue of whether cheap labor makes America great should have been settled by the Civil War.)
To: Dog Gone
If you travel as long and as much as I have, you really appreciate getting a meal without getting sick too.
I used to eat steak for breakfast, lunch and dinner, because I could look at it and cut it open and if it didn't pass inspection, move on to another eating place. Even if the steak looked okay, it could still be tougher than an old boot.
Many days my meals were crackers, rat cheese, sardines and Vienna sausages.
Walmart is my general store on the road. Remember the horror stories about automotive parts and repairs on the road. I have paid through the nose for belts and tires.
30
posted on
12/10/2006 12:28:48 PM PST
by
razorback-bert
(I met Bill Clinton once but he didn't really talk , he was hitting on my wife)
To: razorback-bert
It's fun to try new places, but there's a sense of security in knowing that a chain store (or restaurant) is in the same town if it doesn't work out.
31
posted on
12/10/2006 1:19:24 PM PST
by
Dog Gone
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