Kryzanek, Michael

Virtual Commons - Bridgewater State University

Bridgewater ReviewVolume 18 | Issue 1 Article 4Jun-1999Editor’s Notebook: Whatever Happened to MainStreet?Michael KryzanekBridgewater State College, mkryzanek@bridgew.eduThis item is available as part of Virtual Commons, the open-access institutional repository of Bridgewater State University, Bridgewater, Massachusetts.Recommended CitationKryzanek, Michael (1999). Editor’s Notebook: Whatever Happened to Main Street?. Bridgewater Review, 18(1), 2.Available at: http://vc.bridgew.edu/br_rev/vol18/iss1/4EDITORS NOTEBOOKWHATEVER HAPPENED TO MAIN STREET?recent article in the business pagescaught my attention. Staples, the giantoffice products company ($ 7.1 billionin sales last year) is getting into the drycleaning and flower shop business. TomStemberg, CEO ofStaples, has investedin a chain ofcleaning stores calledZoots, which will offer drive thru win-dows and 24 hour service. Stemberg isalso an investor in Kabloom, a low costflower shop. Both Zoots and Kabloomare viewed by Stemberg as the next gen-eration of start-up companies that willcater to the fast-paced world of theAmerican consumer.Both Zoots and Kabloom will offerAmericans the essential ingredients ofmodern corporate culture - efficiency,low prices, easy access and nifty mar-keting. What Zoots and Kabloom willalso offer is a challenge to the momand pop stores of Main Street America.Competing with small, individuallyowned businesses on main streetAmerica is nothing new in the acquisi-tion/consolidation/competition driveneconomy of the 90s, but the appearanceof Zoots and Kabloom is certain to dealanother blow to the old way of provid-ing services in this country.Wal-Mart has already pushed outthe department stores and is makinglife miserable for the tried and truehardware store. Giant food chains likeStop and Shop have left the cornergrocery store as a quaint memory.Even my local barber must contendwith the national chains like ProCutsand SuperCuts. Thankfully, the cornersaloon has yet to become a victim tothis attack on small business, but thereis always tomorrow.The decline of mom and pop storeshas not really created a groundswell ofopposition along the Main Streets ofthis country. There have been someminor disputes over where to put theWal-Mart or the Stop and Shop, butthey have been confined to questionsof aesthetics rather than small businesseconomics. We have not had a seriousdebate over whether this countryshould have basic goods and servicesdelivered by an anonymous corporatecolossus rather than a neighbor who weknow. Instead we become resigned tothe power ofbigness with all the sav-ings and choices that it brings.The attack on the mom and pops ofMain Street, however, has not been theresult ofsome sinister plot. Small busi-ness men and women have increasinglybecome sick and tired ofall that it takesto run an enterprise with tax forms,workers compensation headaches,local health and safety regulations andthe absolute necessity ofhiring lawyersand accountants just to keep the gov-ernment off their back. Many of thesesmall business operators have cometo agree that it is better to work forsomebody else rather than endure thepain of ownership.But by pushing mom and pop offof Main Street we surrender to theconglomerate with all its impersonality,its bottom line attitude and its distantcontrol. Main Street becomes a sub-sidiary of a parent company thatanswers to a multinational with officesin London or Tokyo or Zurich. Theseare not ourstores on Main Street, theyare theirstores. The global economythat sent the garment industry to theCaribbean and athletic shoe manufac-turing to Asia has now begun to hithome as the corporate giants begin toshow their face just down the block.There of course is no stopping thiscorporate juggernaut. The old joke thatat some future date we will all be work-ing for one company may come to passsooner rather than later. But Americansshould take a little time out of theirhectic lives and ponder what we havegiven up in the name ofefficiency, lowprices and volume. We may be on thethreshold of relinquishing the enjoy-ment of seeing our neighbor succeedon his or her own, the confidence ofdealing with people we trust and thepride that comes with enjoying a MainStreet with a personal identity. Wal-Mart may have its greeters when youenter the stores, but the greeter is justanother cog in a gigantic enterprisefrom Arkansas. Smiley faces only hidethe fact that Wal-Mart has won, whilemom and pop have lost.Michael Kryzanek is Editor oftheBridgewater Review.BRIDGEWATER REVIEW 2

Editor’s Notebook: Whatever Happened to Main Street?

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Editor’s Notebook: Whatever Happened to Main Street?

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