What has happened

[Maggie_May]

Driving around my little town looking at all the old shops and store fronts closed thought to myself no more bakery’s no more little hardware shops no more little drug stores. NO all gone now we have Wal-Mart’s Home depot CSV. What small business is left what family owned stores? Driving more around noticed one factory still left running all others have gone mostly overseas. In my eyes I am wondering what have we done.
Just a stupid thought.

[Independent Democrat]

1. We should vote for Hillary in 2008.....

Because she will stand up to corporations and back small business. Right?????????

[movonne]

2. Wrong???????

[uppityperson]

4. I've noticed something, you really don't like Clinton, do you?

[Rene]

10. I wonder if Americans will EVER own /open many small businesses again.

Every gas store/convenience store/dry cleaners/laundry/nail shop/subway stores etc....all the cash stores across our state.....are 'owned' by foreign nationals......
Who's putting up all the funding to buy them?
They can barely speak English....but they can sure count money.
I often wonder if they're paying appropriate taxes to the towns/states.....who's monitoring those CASH operations for honest reporting of their incomes.

In our small town....there are a few folks trying to run Antique stores and boutiques in the decrepit center(where 22 of the old factory buildings are brownsfields).....they're not doing well at all.

How does any American have the where-with-all to open a small store any more?

We formed a 3rd political party to run our Town Council.....won with substantial margin....and are slowly replacing land use town board members who were obviously on a track to bring big box stores to our small town.
These land-use commissioners already assisted in the destruction of our little mall with 9 local business owners----put them all out of business after 24 years, in favor of a giant Shaw's.
9 people who'd worked hard all those years, 7 days a week and had nothing they could sell for retirement.

[On the Road]

11. Foreign Nationals are Buying Businesses

because they have a 50% savings rate and see a 7-11 as a way of fulfilling their dreams.

How many Americans aspire to that? It's pretty much disappeared from our way of life.

[Mind_your_head]

3. We've ruined ourselves chasing after cheap trinkets.....

We were told by the marketing geniuses what was cool, *chic* (even though we ourselves were very far from EVER being considered cool or *chic*.....but we knew farming, business, how to run a small business).

Let's stop listening ONCE AND FOR ALL!!! PLEASE to all of the MARKETING (being led by the nose - like a bull with a gold ring in it's nose)....and listen to our hearts and our common sense!

Thank you (rant off),

M_Y_H

[KT2000]

5. The crapification of America

Where I live, the two small towns have two giant Wal-Marts and three Rite-Aids and Home Depot.
Wal-Mart and Rite-Aid are also landowners and control other retail spaces.
Family-owned retail is a thing of the past - except for furniture stores.

Wal-Mart demands cheaper goods and that is accomplished by the manufacturers making crap products. Is it really cheaper in the long run? No - things break or do not work or do not fit (as in a watch I just got that pinches my wrist, they probably took out some links to save money - I have normal size wrists) So much money is wasted on their junk.
This is an isolated community and other options are an hour and a half away.

Do Americans really have an investment in their communities anymore or are they serfs to the corporate owners.

[orleans]

8. "crapification of America"

never heard of that phrase.

it sums everything up perfectly!

[uppityperson]

6. We have worked hard inour small town to keep as much as possible local

but it hasn't always worked and there are things that are not readily available locally that should. At 1 point I joked about opening a bra, boys socks and blanket store, since there were none of these to be found in our town of 8,000ish. Lots of touristy stuff, lots of cute stuff for presents, but missing some basics. It has been difficult, with many rules which are not always easy to do, but we are trying to keep as much local and small as possible.


We have a drive-in theater (summers) and a soda fountain in the locally owned pharmacy (as opposed to pharmacies in chain grocery stores) where you can get pink drinks with whipped cream on them and french fries. They are usually packed for lunch.

[Wiley50]

7. What you are saying is exactly what

Joe Bageant was saying in a recent essay, "Dead Man Shopping"

http://www.joebageant.com/joe/2007/06/dead_man_shoppi.html

"Anyway, except for a few business owners who've owned their downtown buildings for a long time, things are slowly and inexorably drifting down the crapper. The fact that we have a Dollar General store plunked down amid this his mélange of historical buildings and boutique businesses speaks volumes about our downtown economy. One very honest boutique merchant says, "After tonight I am closing down. I'm just plain tired of sitting around waiting for nothing." Watching the public pretense of doing business in an economy rotting from the inside out is almost Kafkaesque in its interior grimness and exterior smiling and polishing of goods. Another downtowner tells me he/she hasn't made a sale over $15 in two weeks, mostly art bookmarks, stationary and similar doodads."

[SoCalDem]

9. We were convinced that bigger is better, and everything

should all be in one place..

"Family" businesses can no longer make it in most localities.

People have become accustomed to having choices between hundreds of items (thousands in a grocery store) even though they are creatures of habits and usually buy the same stuff over and over..

My hometown had a thriving downtown, and in 1969 a "discount store" opened up south of town in a desolate open area.. Of course everyone HAD to go to "Shopper's Fair" and soon, the camera shop downtown closed, then the used furniture store, then the shoe repair store, then a bank.. Once stores start to empty out, a herd mentality creeps in.

Before long, a developer bought some land and built a mall across from the discount store.. After a few years, the downtown became a wasteland..

Only a few stores remained..Some of them had been in business for 75 years or longer..

Now the OLD mall has been razed and there's a NEW mall a few miles down the road.. The Shopper's Fair was plowed under for housing, long ago, but it started the trend..

City planners don't plan..city councils don't consult.. they sell out and make deals..and communities have to live with (or die from) the consequences..

We never appreciate what we had until we lose it:(

[Tesha]

13. The most important lesson we're all going to have to learn, real soon now...

> City planners don't plan..city councils don't consult...
> they sell out and make deals..and communities have to
> live with (or die from) the consequences.

The most important lesson we're all going to have to learn,
real soon now, is that there's no such thing as eternal
growth. Eventually, you run out of something, whether it's
food, energy, land, water, or breathable air. And at that
point, you've either made plans to switch to a steady-state
economy or you're in for a world of hurt because you *WILL*
be switching to a steady-state economy whether you're ready
for it or not.

Right now, we're not ready for it and we ARE in for a world
of hurt as it arrives.

It's a shame more people haven't read Ecotopia and
Ecotopia Emerging, 'cause then they'd understand all
this and might have been ready for it.

Tesha

[Wiregrass Willie]

12. It happened everywhere

There is a small village in North Georgia that I use to drive through on a weekly basis in the 1980s. It was in the foothills of the Georgia mountains. I say "was" for although there is still a small town there it is not the one I knew and loved so well. The old town looked like something out of Norman Rockwell. It was a village of about 1,500 people and the town was clean and well kept as is common for these old places. It had a small town square and I use to stop at the cafe for lunch.

There was a small park in the center of town and older ladies and gents would sit out under the large oaks and play checkers and re-fight the Civil War. In summer they would wander over to the hardware store where and old Franklin wood stove provided not only color but a warm place for the folks to sit and visit.

As I say it was a small town and the best I can recall had the following business' on the square: A hardware store, a cafe, a ladies shop, a men's shop, an auto garage, an appliance store, a general merchandise store, a small grocery store and on the corner, the county library.

It is hard to believe but it seemed everyone knew and liked each other. All the business' were locally owned and operated. None of the owners were getting rich but they were all home owners and pillars of the community. I would guess that each business had from 2 to 5 employees and the library had four librarians.

The word "friendly" could have been their motto.

Sometime about 1985 WalMart bought a few acres about three miles from town and began building. There were about 7 other small towns in a 30 mile radius and would provide a base for their needs.

To make a long story short, within three years every business in that town plus the library were closed. The former owners had to either commute about 50 miles to jobs or retire if they were lucky.

The way those local business operate is simple. Like the men's store makes it's profit off of selling a few $400 men's suits. But it is the sales of small items (belts, hankies, socks etc) that pay the bills. Same with an auto parts store. They have a $200,000 inventory for the convenience of their customers but they get about 80% of their sales from about 20% of the items they carry. WalMart carries all these small items but none of the hard to find or expensive stuff. So the small shops go under.

Now a person who needs a automobile fuel pump has to drive about 30 miles to a larger town. That's why the auto garage had to close. Walmart has all the fast selling spark plugs, belts, filters etc, socks, belt, hankies etc but no pumps or suits.

So the town went to hell and now looks like a ghost town.

I have heard that an average WalMart customer spends about $30 a week at this store. And they might save about 20% (at most) on their purchases. This would be $30 X 52 = $1560 for a saving of 20 % = $312 a year they are saving from what they paid the local merchants. But they lost their town and I don't think anyone would think they came out ahead. I bet every home owner in that town would gladly pay more than $312 a year to have that store removed. But it's too late.

Now everytime I drive up that highway and come out of a certain bend in the road, I see WalMart sitting there like a fat vulture. I haven't stopped in that town in 15 years.

I guess the old folks are either dead (of a broken heart) or in a home by now and the younger ones who are now retiring will never know the spirit of "community" that existed 20 short years ago.