Posted on 12/09/2006 3:35:25 PM PST by SamAdams76
Every well-traveled cosmopolite knows that America is mind-numbingly monotonousthe most boring country to tour, because everywhere looks like everywhere else, as the columnist Thomas Friedman once told Charlie Rose. Boston has the same stores as Denver, which has the same stores as Charlotte or Seattle or Chicago. We live in a Stepford world, says Rachel Dresbeck, the author of Insiders Guide to Portland, Oregon. Even Bostons historic Faneuil Hall, she complains, is dominated by the Gap, Anthropologie, Starbucks, and all the other usual suspects. Why go anywhere? Every place looks the same. This complaint is more than the old worry, dating back to the 1920s, that the big guys are putting Mom and Pop out of business. Todays critics focus less on what isnt thereMom and Popthan on what is. Faneuil Hall actually has plenty of locally owned businesses, from the Geoclassics store selling minerals and jewelry, to Pizzeria Regina (since 1926). But you do find the same chains everywhere.
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
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.
LoL!
"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
"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
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...
Yeah, Wallaby does take some getting used to.
"Who put the 'roo in the stew?"
Didn't he start with Franklin Five and Dime stores?
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.
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.
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