Chain Stores: Love ‘em or hate ‘em?
I saw this item over at Metroblogging Detroit about the pros and cons of chain stores. Commenter Max makes a good point:
to me “corporate” = brand name recognition which, in turn, will always mean busier with out of towners. the locals always know of that little mom & pop that has the best “whatever” in their area but i’m no different, when i’m out of town i will always default to the recognized name.
Shortly after reading this, I saw a comment pop up over here hating on Justin’s love for Granite City.
Seems to me that a city needs a certain amount of chain stores and restaurants to have street cred as big cities go, but of course it’s the local places that make a city unique, so you need a mixture of both. I’d cry big salty crocodile tears if Target disappeared. And besides my enjoyment of Target as a consumer, there’s Target Corp’s involvement and investment in the Twin Cities.
So what say you? What chain do you love? What chain do you hate? Are they a boon? A familiar beacon in unfamiliar lands? A necessary evil? The bane of your existence?
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I’d say somewhere along the lines of “neccesary evil” and “improvement to communities.” Sometimes a big chain comes in and raises the bar for quality in a given area (sometimes drops it, though). I wouldn’t say Wal-Mart is one that improves anything, though.
I’d say somewhere along the lines of “neccesary evil” and “improvement to communities.” Sometimes a big chain comes in and raises the bar for quality in a given area (sometimes drops it, though). I wouldn’t say Wal-Mart is one that improves anything, though.
Chain stores can be great (Costco!) or evil (Walmart) … but they do significantly hurt local business. (For instance, why is there a Savers by Highway 55 on E. Lake Street? Were they trying to kill off all the huge improvement to that area brought by the ethnic ma and pa businesses down there? It makes absolutely no sense.)
Some big box chains also suck up state money because they force workers to state health care. If Walmart does businesses in MN, it should have decent health care … or it should be taxed to compensate for money we all pay in taxes to subsidize their workers on state health care.
The slam on Granite City and chains was annoying. Chain restaurants are hated on because they usually have gross, bland food — it’s the easy way to mass market food. But some chains do some things right, like Granite City. On the other hand, local places are great for the local economy, but that doesn’t mean they’re necessarily good.