From the mailbag

Mercuy Art Works owner Chris Wyreck respectfully disagreed with my Sunday column ...

Johnathan McGinty's column in the Sunday, August 9, 2009 Athens Banner-Herald titled, "Economy vs. morality in local business debate" is comparing apples to oranges. He supposes for the sake of comparison that a nameless large national chain might employ 100 people and generate $100 million in sales and that a similar local business might employ 15 people and generate $10 million in sales. But what are we comparing here?

The last time I visited a large national chain like Target, the cavernous interior contained multiple stores: a women's clothing store, men's clothing, children's clothing, sporting goods, a grocery store, gourmet foods, cooking supplies, a drug store, office supplies, home accessories, textiles, home furnishings, gifts, and toys among many other things. If you add the employees and annual sales of Heery's, Dick Ferguson's, The Elephant Trunk, Bulldog Sporting Goods, Bell's, Daily Groceries, Healthy Gourmet, The Rolling Pin, Horton's, Chastain's, Toula's, Heery's Too, Helix, and Homeplace Gifts, what is the result? Do you not end up with job and revenue figures equivalent to a ‘Buy ‘N Large’ all-in-one retailer?

McGinty's column also suggests that the "ripple effect" on local businesses of a national chain building a super center, such as the one on Epps Bridge Parkway, is positive. It would be more accurate to say this development is positive at the moment, while the space fits the needs of the chain at that time. What kind of ripple effect has the decision (made somewhere in Arkansas) to move WalMart had on the businesses formerly located in the Perimeter Square Shopping Center or the infamous Pink Mall? More often than not, there is a complete lack of accountability on the part of big box national chains for the fate of malls they pick up and move out of when the architecture or neighborhood ceases to measure up to the brand standard of the moment. Renovation is more costly than new construction, but it is common practice for local business entrepreneurs who have daily visual reminders of the far more costly impact of the corporate cadavers lining our major business arteries.

In ‘Economy vs. Morality’ McGinty talks about the decision to buy locally as a “morally fulfilling” position, intoning that more sound, rational thought processes should be employed when choosing your retail outlets. Though this is not the reason I choose to buy from shop owners I know, he may have gotten to the core of the issue with this assessment. There is a popular conception that people who buy locally are self-righteous about their shopping practices. Where are we as a community if you are derided as being sanctimonious for trying to help your friends succeed? There is an insidious fear in this country of being labeled an elitist. The bad news is that the majority of the population of the world would consider you elite for being able to shop at a Target. Buying locally is not a country club – there is not pool there.

Finally, to address the convenience factor: many feel their lives are more efficient because they can buy everything they need in these mega-bazarres. You don’t have to drive to four different stores to get what you need. You have fun. You get popcorn and a slurpie from the snack bar. There is no mention of the fact that you have to drive four times longer to get to your shopping nirvana. And that’s until they move to better shores and rebuild on cheaper land ten more miles down the road. Continuing to support chains that behave this way is tacitly rewarding these irresponsible land-use practices. But I’m sure those who pull in the profit, wherever they may be, are feeling the love. It may not be a face-to-face ‘thank you’ like I get from my friend Charlie at Jittery Joe’s, but the Benjamins are always greeted warmly in Arkansas.

Likewise, longtime reader RM, offered this thought ...

Just a couple of thoughts on today's column. First of all, I applaud you for trying to get those who have a fairly narrow definition of "buy local" to think a bit more broadly. It's more complicated than they would like to think it is. However, I'm sure that you are going to hear from a few of them regarding your numerical example. If the $100 million in sales gobbled up by the non-local store could support 10 local business with $10 million in sales then the impact of the non-local store would be less than the local businesses.

That being said, your example of Epps Bridge got me thinking that it's a very good example of an effective local/nonlocal hybrid. The drawing power of the Wal-Mart/Kohls/Home Depot/Lowes combination is such that it creates enough traffic to support a very large number of local businesses in the surrounding retail centers that probably couldn't survive on their own. In fact, this town of full of examples where a non-local anchor store generates enough traffic to create an environment wherein local stores can flourish. None of the local businesses have the drawing power to create the environment on their own but they thrive within the shadow of a large non-local store.