Anywhere, USA
“Come to Anywhere, USA. We’ve got a McDonald’s, a Dollar General, and an Olive Garden!”
Yes, this is quite possibly the worst destination marketing slogan ever, but its satirical reality isn’t that far removed from the actual preferences, priorities, and patronage of many Americans. You would never hear someone bragging that their community has a Dollar General, as if this fact was something to be proud of. I mean, at this point, I’d venture to say that any town in America with at least 2,000 residents has at least one Dollar General, Family Dollar, Dollar Tree, or maybe all three.
My community and your community’s best marketing strategy would never boast that it has a Walmart or a Burger King, but yet, I’ve heard many people in my town and in other communities say something akin to “if we only had a ______ (insert national chain name here), then we’d be somebody,” or “why can’t be be like _____ (insert name of nearby town) and have a _____ (insert national chain name here) too?”.
As if this isn’t bad enough, there are countless examples of local city and county governments around the United States offering public subsidies and incentives to help attract and build big box stores. Why? It’s not like Walmart is struggling. In fact, the list of the top 15 wealthiest Americans includes not one, but three members of the Walton Family. Thanks to the nonprofit research group, Good Jobs First who tracks all of these subsidies, we know that Walmart has been the beneficiary of more than $1 billion in municipal, county, and state subsidy funds in the last 30 or so years. Can you just imagine what it would be like if these incentives were instead given to local small businesses (ya know, the ones that aren’t backed by Wall Street)?
I’m almost afraid to say this, but a few days ago, my family ate at a local chain restaurant. You can judge me, it’s ok. In my defense I had a coupon for a free kids meal though…
Were the biscuits good? Sure. But not enough to pack the entire parking lot and dining area on an early Saturday afternoon. My local downtown has dozens of exceptional locally-owned restaurants, and I’ve never seen them as packed as that on a Saturday afternoon.
Not too long ago, my community was all abuzz with the new chain chicken joint (headquartered in Pasadena, CA) had just opened up on a local road (or, stroad) populated with dozens of other similar establishments. In fact, multiple local news outlets covered the grand opening as the drive thru line snaked around the parking lot with wait times exceeding 30 minutes. Nothing against their chicken (I’m sure it’s great), but you can literally order the exact same thing in 106 other communities across America.
Wouldn’t it have be nice if the community embraced and celebrated all of the locally-owned small businesses as much as we did with this restaurant's opening? Our locally-owned businesses are owned by our own friends, neighbors, and family and they care deeply about the community we all share, not to mention, they offer products that can’t be found anywhere else in America.
Doesn’t it feel good to celebrate what sets your community apart from other communities? Don’t you want to be proud of the businesses that call your town home? When guests from out of town come to visit you, don’t you want to show them around and provide them with a unique experience that they won’t get back home? I don’t know about you, but when I go on vacation, I don’t want to eat dinner at an Olive Garden. If I did, I could just stay home and have the same experience (and save some money).
Believe it or not, there was actually a time in our history where there were no national chains. Every community had their own locally-owned restaurants, shops, and service providers. Every community had its own unique identity. Every community had something that they could be proud of and call their own. Every community had something that made others want to come visit.
I’m not arguing that we should go back to those days, but I am saying that it would be nice to celebrate and champion our local community’s uniqueness, and support it with our preferences, our priorities, and our patronage; before every community in America ends up looking exactly the same.
