If we are to determine whether a chain store has a primarily positive or primarily negative effect on a community, the following questions should be asked:
1.) Will the business provide a product or service currently not available in the area? Is it a product or service the area wants? 2.) Is the business a known �category killer� with a documented reputation for eliminating competition, or does it tend to coexist with other businesses serving the same market? 3.) Will the business provide some living-wage jobs to the area, or only low-wage jobs? In the United States, the chain-store issue is not unlike the religious freedom issue: in order to have freedom of religion, one must also have freedom from religion. In order to be respected by business ethicists and communities, chain stores must exist in a market where they are not increasingly the only options. During the mid-1990s, I created the phrase �corporate totalitarianism� to describe businesses and industries intent on developing monopolies and oligopolies which limit consumer choices and consolidate profits and power into the control of few. �Corporate totalitarianism� is the capitalist parallel to the �centralized planning� practiced in the former Soviet Union: living in a world where the choices are between Target and Wal-Mart, Menards and Home Depot, OfficeMax and Office Depot, Best Buy and Circuit City, and Borders and Barnes & Noble satisfies the definition of competition about as well as a D- defines a passing grade. Residential neighborhoods practice economic discrimination: if one cannot afford the market value of a house in a given area, one cannot live in the area. This is expected, even accepted. If a community wants to select its business neighbors by taking local economics and other non-monetary values into consideration, why is this criticized? Not everyone is a NIMBY; some of us rarely or never shop at chains. Even consumers who shop at chains are entitled to question chains� proliferation: when I last worked in downtown Minneapolis (5 years ago), there were at least 4 Starbucks Coffee outlets, 3 McDonald�s (one has since closed), and 2 Walgreen�s drugstores in a fairly condensed area. I now work near the University of Minnesota, where in recent years the McDonald�s-owned Chipotle and Noodles & Company have opened branches on the east and west banks. Do we really want a Gap clothing store downtown, uptown, and at Southdale? Enough already! Some list members may be interested in www.responsibleshopper.org, which provides profiles on chains and other large businesses. This website documents criticism and compliments. Decide for yourself which (if any) chains you should patronize. Roberta M. Beach Minneapolis Ward 7, Precinct 5 (Wondering why in America economic elitism has always been encouraged, but �cultural elitism� is now scorned) REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
