Having lived around rural small town communities all my life, I have always had a vigilant eye on the dwindling decline of family-owned small businesses. No matter where you go, you see vacant business buildings wasting away on main streets, sometimes several in a row, turning entire city blocks into blighted eyesores.
Fifty years ago you could shop door-to-door for hours, walking down block after block, finding everything from fresh bakery goods to major home appliances. I remember when most small towns had department stores, several cafes, grocery stores, and even antique shops. Today, you are lucky to find a single bakery shop or a car dealership anywhere in the entire town. More likely than not, you will find corporate retailers or wholesale stores that have monopolized business in the community, nearly wiping out the family store owners.
Where has our society gone wrong? Has the development of economic prosperity changed that much, that it has replaced small businesses with the "Big Box" giants? How is it that companies, such as Wal-Mart, can walk into any small town's City Hall and claim to have a plan to "revitalize" the community with more taxes and jobs? What has happened to our "Small Town" values?
No comments:
Post a Comment