Campfyre Stories

Let me start by saying that I support small businesses.  I think that starting a small business and making it successful is really what the American dream is.  Every small business owner wants his/her little shop to go national and become a chain like the now-boycotted stores such as Starbucks and Borders, but few actually make it.

Let me continue by saying that I was raised by activists.  That I was taught at a very early age about the value of small businesses and the evils of corporate giants and the horrors of monopolies.  While I have not grown up to be an activist myself, I do hold on to a lot of the ethics and morals that were taught to me by people who still believe that corporations have at least some measure of evil and that’s it’s almost always better to spend a little more to support a small business.

I don’t buy coffee at Starbucks - pretty much ever.  Usually I can find a better cup of coffee just about anywhere and, if I can’t find a specialty coffee place, a cup of joe will do me just fine.  I don’t do much fast food at all and never McDonald’s because it gives me food poisoning every single time (I was recently informed that the probable reason for food poisoning at McD’s is because they inject their french fries with beef extract,  I haven’t eaten mammal in about 20 years, so there you go).  I rarely eat at chain restaurants, not because I don’t like them or eschew them, but because I can usually get more satisfaction from a different restaurant.  i even order pizza from a local place rather than Pizza Hut or Domino’s.  I would rather buy my greeting cards at a funky little shop on Lark Street than just about anywhere else.  I rarely go see movies at the Regal (or whatever chain) theaters, preferring the indie art house or even the little local place with the smaller screens.

I do support local and small businesses on a regular basis.

All that said…

There has been talk of rezoning an area near where I live.  Walking distance, in fact.  It’s right by the hospital, the law school and several other businesses and they plan to put in a Panera and a 24 hour Walgreen’s.  I am excited by this.  I like the idea of having Panera (one of few chains I do enjoy) and a chain drug store close enough to walk to.  And it pisses me right off that the busybody activists in Albany are trying to prevent this from happening.

You see, there’s a pharmacy up the street from me.  It’s a ghetto pharmacy and skeevy people hang out outside of it.  It’s next door to a bar and it’s not very pleasant to visit.  I rarely have prescriptions that I need to fill, so when I go to a drug store it’s for things like shampoo or sanitary supplies or some pens.  Drug stores have a better selection of those types of things than supermarkets tend to, but this pharmacy is ONLY a pharmacy.  It does not have shampoo, it doesn’t even have Tylenol.  You’re lucky if it has acetaminophen or ibuprofen, let alone name brands, and all those things are VASTLY overpriced.  I don’t go in there because I am uncomfortable with the employees and clientele, but also, they have nothing to offer me.

I guess that’s the real key, small businesses need to have something to offer me or why shop there?  I’m not going to frequent a place solely because it’s a small business, but if they offer what I already need and maybe personalize the service, I’ll make a point to go back.  But back to my point.

The busybody activists feel like the Walgreen’s is going to put that ghetto pharmacy out of business.  There’s already a CVS walking distance from that store, apparently another will be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.  As a result, because of this pharmacy that offers nothing but prescription refills, people keep trying to block the progress of developing on a lot that has been ugly, barren and vacant for over 20 years.

It reminds me of a quote from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, "Progress for progress’ sake must be avoided."  Is there nothing else to complain about that these people are trying to stop what is clearly progress?  This opens up jobs near to the homes of people who need jobs.  This gives a large portion of students and workers a place to have lunch where they can WALK, thereby saving on gas and emissions.  It turns an otherwise useless and ugly plot of land into a revenue generating area.

I fail to see this as a bad thing. 

The people who use the pharmacy as a pharmacy are still closer to it than to this impending Walgreen’s.   The people who already walk to CVS may now have a shorter walk.  Give me a closer laundromat and I’m a happy camper.  With every new improvement that I can walk to, I become more and more happy with my neighborhood.

I want to see their side.  Maybe not agree with it, but I want to see the logic in it…  but I don’t, no matter how hard I try.  It seems like these people are simply complaining because they have nothing better to do and it’s going to wind up hurting the people in an area that needs more progress and development if they put roadblocks in the way of much needed improvements.  I’m sure that when these buildings go up and the shops open the protesters will be out in force with signs and chants that  only serve to make them look the fools.  I and a lot of my neighbors will ignore their jeers and catcalls while we do our shopping and sit down with a nice bowl of soup.

But there is definitely a part of me that wants to see their side of the whole thing…