Brown Sludge

A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood

November 15th, 2005

Come, take a walk with me down the main drag in your neighborhood. There are some things I think you should know about the places you drive by on the way to work every morning. Perhaps you even shop at some of them from time to time.

You see that Big Chain Coffee Shop that sits on the corner there? Well… there used to be a locally owned independent coffee shop just across the street, but… it’s gone now. Chances are your parents used to stop at that old coffee shop on their way to work, maybe even your parents’ parents. A few months ago that Big Chain Coffee shop there sent an “advance team” out to scope out your neighborhood. Their job was to determine where the “neighborhood” independent coffee shop was – so that they could ‘target’ it. After they had identified the neighborhood independent, they found out if he leased the building he’d been in for all those years, and who his landlord was. Then they offered the landlord perhaps as much as $30,000 as a “bonus” for evicting that Mom-and-Pop coffee shop. Whether or not the landlord took the “bonus” – or the Mom-and-Pop owned the building they did business out of – it didn’t matter. That big chain store was going up directly across the street anyway – there was no stopping that.

Maybe… just maybe that small, locally owned and independent coffee shop managed to keep it’s business up after the Big Chain Coffee Shop went in across the street. People are funny, and old habits are hard to change. Perhaps business fell off a bit, but managed to stay profitable – as the local people who had grown up buying their coffee from someone who lived and contributed to their neighborhood stayed loyal to the independent. For a while.

Look over there, and over there. 2 more of the exact same Big Chain Coffee Shops. That makes 3 within sight of each other. No wonder the local Mom-and-Pop buckled. Hard not to under that sort of pressure. It might surprise you to know that this kind of business tactic has a name. It’s called “Cluster Bombing”. The Big Chain Coffee Shop knew exactly what it was doing. It had one goal, and one goal only, to force you to stop buying your coffee from your local independent – who – as I said before probably lived and worked and paid taxes in your community – and to buy from them – where virtually every cent of the money you spend is shipped off to a Big Chain Coffee Shop Headquarters in some other state.

Nice, huh?

Look down the block a little bit. You see that Big Chain Video Store? Remember when it was a small local video store, owned by someone who lived and contributed to your community? Someone who cared about your community? Now it’s owned by a Big Chain Video Conglomerate that could care less about your community. Not a dime you spend in there will actually make it back into your community. Like the Big Chain Coffee Shop all but a few pennies in salary will be sent back to some anonymous headquarters in some other state.

Remember when it was an independent? They actually used to carry movies in their movie store. The Big Chain Video Store doesn’t believe in actually carrying too many movies. I know… I know… that sounds ridiculous, but… just poke your head in there. Take a look. Find a classic. Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Three Days Of The Condor. Cool Hand Look. They aren’t in there. Ask one of the pimple faced slack-jaws that they pay minimum wage about them. He doesn’t know. He doesn’t know about movies period. You see the classics apparently just don’t have a very high “turnover”. Apparently they only carry a small core of movies that they know they can turn over quickly now. It’s supposed to be a movie place, but not a single living soul in the building knows much about movies.

But I bet the wise old guy who used to run your neighborhood video rental did. He understood that just because you couldn’t turn a movie over 31 times in a month didn’t mean it wasn’t worthy of a spot on his shelves. You might want to take a minute to Google that Big Chain Video Store too. You might find out that the company that owns that big beast donates a lot of money to causes you probably don’t approve of. But… there it sits – I’m betting it’s the only place in your neighborhood you can rent videos from now that they’ve driven out the local independent.

A little farther now. See that Big Box Hardware Store? Impressive as hell isn’t it? But if you stop and think a minute – about how many small Mom-and-Pop hardware stores lost their businesses to it, it starts to become a little less impressive. Think about every little hardware store, paint store, fixture store, plumbing supply place, and independent handyman that lost their livelihood because of that place. Everyone of those people lived, and worked, and had kids, and went to school and paid taxes in your community. They were your neighbors, and your friends. Wonder what they’re doing now that they don’t have jobs anymore?

And man… just Google that place. Take a look at some of the shenanigans it’s been up to. Take a look at some of the organizations they’ve given money too. Type in the name of that Big Box Hardware Store and then add a “+” and the words “La Raza” and “MECHA”. Then look up those words and see what that place has been up to. Now their up to it in your neighborhood. Scary, huh? Even scarier when you realize that soon you might have to shop there, because they’ll have run everyone else out of business. Hey… at least you’ll know what your money is buying eh?

Over there… across the way… is the Big Chain Bookstore. Used to be a sweet little independent bookshop near here. But she’s gone now. Folded up a few weeks after the Big Chain Bookstore opened up nearby. You know they don’t carry many classic books in there either? They say they “don’t sell well”. Kinda funny isn’t it. A bookstore… that doesn’t carry books? Makes you wonder. Wonder whatever happened to the little old gal that used to run the independent one? She sure knew a thing or two about books.

Dear Lord. Lookit this behemoth here on this corner over here. It’s huge. It’s a Big Box SuperCenter. I bet it covers a city block! It’s got everything. It has single-handedly driven most of the small independent business within miles of it out of business. Hundreds. Perhaps even thousands of people who used to live and do business in your community… just… gone. I once heard a man that owned a local pharmacy that was forced out of business say that they were selling toothpaste there at the Big box SuperCenter at a retail price that was cheaper than he could buy it from his wholesaler. Nice. Hard to compete with that. He’s long gone now. He was one of the first to shutter his shop when this place opened.

I see it’s expanded in the last few months. Now it’s carrying groceries. I’ve read some of it’s corporate literature on-line. It’s not happy that it hasn’t been able to put your local independent grocery store out of business yet. Apparently local independent grocery stores are still able to compete. They’re trying to fix that. Soon you’ll have to buy even your groceries there… because… they’re dedicated to doing to your local grocer what they did to your local pharmacist. And hardware store. And office supply place. And sporting goods store. But hey… they’ve got great prices don’t they?

No… they don’t buy most of their produce or dairy from your local farmers and suppliers. They buy most of it from out of state or over-seas suppliers or factory farms. What will your local farmer do when the local grocery stores are gone? Well… I don’t know. I suspect they’ll join all the other people who used to live and work and thrive and contribute to your community in the unemployment line.

What? What’s the matter? You seem upset. You look angry.

You shouldn’t of course. It’s your own fault.

Hey now… don’t raise your voice at me. And I will not take that back. Because it is your fault.

You’re right – they are greedy corporations that are destroying your community – but it was your greed that brought them here. Yes I said your greed.

It was your greed to save 29 cents on that tube of toothepaste, or 13 cents on that roll of paper towels, or 69 cents on that box of nails that gave them the opportunity to invade your neighborhood. You never realized that perhaps paying a few cents extra to a local independent bookstore, or coffeeshop, or hardware store, or pharmacist might have had value. All you cared about was paying as little as you possibly could – at whatever cost.

It never occurred to you that saving a few pennies here and there would end up costing so many so much, did it? Kind of horrifying to realize that you’ve been contributing to the destruction of your own community isn’t it?

I dunno if there’s anything you can do about it anymore. An awful lot of damage has already been done. So many of the small, local, independent businessmen have been destroyed. Most of them could never come back. And those Big Box Chain Stores aren’t about to just go away now that they’ve taken over your neighborhood.

Yeah… there are a few communities who are working hard to pass laws severely restricting the Big Box Chain Stores, and a few that are even passing laws to protect local independent members of the business community from harm by the Big Box Chains, but… it takes hard work, and tenacity, and motivated and involved community members, and to be honest… I just don’t see…

Hey… where are you going?

Entry Filed under: Brown Sludge Explained