A couple of readers have had some fun in a thread below teasing me for going to Starbucks the other day, instead of to a mom-and-pop coffee shop. The reason why is because Starbucks was right next door to the Mexican restaurant I just came out of, and the only mom-and-pop coffee shop I know of was miles away. I actually don't care much for Starbucks coffee -- it's too burned for my taste -- but don't feel guilty about buying from Starbucks under those circumstances.
Still, the controversy raises an interesting question: what happens when the chain option is far better than mom-and-pop? I can't think of a better case than what happened eight years ago on Court Street in the Cobble Hill section of Brooklyn, where we lived at the time. Cobble Hill has a big stay-at-home mom culture. Moms out and about with their strollers need places to meet and socialize between errands. But the one good coffee shop in the neighborhood back then was Java Jim's (not its real name, but I can't remember the actual name of the place), a quirky, independently owned coffee shop on Court Street. We went there a couple of times, but quit. Why? Java Jim wore his politics on his sleeve, and made sure you knew that you were drinking coffee in an achingly p.c. atmosphere. Well, that was no biggie (this is New York, after all), but his real sin was to be anti-children. He made it quite clear that strollers annoyed him. Which was his right, certainly, but you're sending a lot of the neighborhood business away if that's your attitude.
Came the news one day that Starbucks wanted to open a store down the street. Man, you would have thought the Antichrist was setting up a reading room in downtown Colorado Springs or something. Java Jim went berserk. He started a campaign to support your local coffee shop against the evil corporate hegemon. But you know, I didn't feel sorry for Java Jim. He had a terrible attitude. When Starbucks did open, it quickly became a neighborhood fave for moms with strollers, who appreciated the fact that the staff there was friendly, and welcomed them and their children. I started going there to write, even though I wasn't fond of the coffee (I usually got tea), because the staff was nice, and the vibe was truly communal. Java Jim went out of business eventually, and as far as I could tell, was unmourned.
The thing is, that neighborhood is ideologically biased toward the Java Jims of the world -- we certainly were -- and heaven knows nobody goes to Starbucks for the inexpensive coffee. People went to Starbucks mostly because of the customer service, and the fact that it fulfilled a need for a "third place" far better than the competition. (As I recall, there was a bakery between Java Jim's and Starbucks on the same street, but it didn't attract the same mom-and-stroller crowd mostly because its chairs were really uncomfortable.)
Anyway, I'd like to see what you all think about the conditions under which it's okay for someone who believes in supporting mom-and-pop stores to choose the big chain store over the locally owned alternative.
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My favorite part of Rod Dreher is how completely oblivious he is to the way-too-easy ridiculing of him that's done so often.
Glad to be of service, but you've confused obliviousness with apathy.
I'll add to Kevins's post: in my experience, you can only count on the chains to have changing tables in the women's (always) and men's (usually). My two-and-a-half-year-old is well-behaved enough to go almost anywhere, but I am tired of looking for point on the floor in the men's room that's farthest from the urinal to lay her changing pad down.
Todd, I'm just impressed that at 2 1/2, you still even have a changing pad. :) My daughter has been potty-trained quite well for over a year and my son, the 2-year-old, is pretty good about holding it until we reach the car, at least.
Why shouldn't Rod be "oblivious" to Roy Edroso? His summary of Rod's post is: "None of this Crunchy Conservative stuff is meant to supersede hatred of liberals, of course, nor uncomfortable chairs." But the post obviously isn't about hating liberals; it's about a shop owner who hated children and drove away people who wanted to be his customers.
So why should Rod waste his time with people who are either too dumb to read or too dishonest to care? Roy Edroso is like a leech; he never has anything useful or intelligent to say of his own accord; all he can do is make grunting noises at misrepresentations of what Rod or Lileks supposedly said.
I'm with Kathy- biggest draw for me is the drivethru and those Izze's. I can get my fix and give the kids a treat that isn't full of HFCS all without having to unload them go inside. If a local shop opened up with those options, I would be there in a heartbeat.
The older I get, the less ideological I get about this subject, and the more often I encounter bloviation offered in place of argument.
Franchisees of major chains can be small businessmen and women, too. So if one is interested in patronizing one's neighbors, the brand on the storefront is not the only sign one is doing business with a local. Ultimately it is a matter of the customer's individual choice meeting the competence and the customer-commitment of the merchant. My wife and I still purchase our coffee mail-order from a local roaster in Long Beach CA where we used to live (thereby bypassing some merchants here in Washington DC where we now live) because the coffee was good, the merchant committed to customer service, his staff friendly and courteous, and his store offering a charming ambience. I'll make similar decisions as a prospective customer on a store-by-store basis. I won't shop at the Safeway in our neighborhood because it's badly managed. I won't buy gas at Citgo because purchases there enrich the Hugo Chavez regime. I buy New Balance shoes (at a franchise store) because they at least assure that some element of the manufacturing process occurs in this country -- and because the manager, who is a returning Army vet is a great guy and knows how to fit a shoe. I buy ice cream at Giffords (local, founded in 1938) rather than one of the chain ice cream places, because they're local, and they serve the biggest scoops for the buck, but I will also go to Max's Best, or to Dolcezza if I'm biking or wandering along Wisconsin Ave. I will buy a book on Amazon if I can find it there, although I will also make a special trip to Politics and Prose if I know I can find a book there, because it is a bookstore owned, managed and staffed by people who read the books they stock. I will be a repeat customer of any business that treats me with respect. I will look for the businessperson who wants to treat me with special courtesy.
Little of this is ideological. I consider it exercising my options as a (hopefully) informed customer in a capitalist system. Going beyond that, to me, is going to lead to wasting one's time and/or money, sooner or later. I don't have enough of both to engage in false generosity under the pretense of "crunchiness".
Richard
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