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Last Updated: Aug 22, 2008 - 12:10:50 AM |
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Wayne Shaull’s ‘Eyewitness’ column (inside the print edition, page 3) is remarkable this week. In it, he details some of the many businesses that once called Ladora home - the list is impressive. The kicker is that the population of Ladora hasn’t changed all that much since the time all of those businesses were in operation. Yes, the demographics have changed - fewer families have nine or ten children these days but the overall number is still the same. If Ladora could at one time support a drug store and three supermarkets, why can’t it support that today?
The answer, of course, lies with us. It seems we have entered an era in which everything bigger is certainly better. Surely, the corporate owned Super-Discount Center is far superior to the local grocery, right? And hey, it’s cheaper, too!
Yeah, cheaper by a couple of bucks. Superior, no way. But don’t worry, the CEOs, large stockholders and the Chinese government thank you for your thriftiness in saving a few bucks - your savings are lining their pockets. Actually, I’m making that up - they won’t thank you. They don’t care about you at all.
It seemed offshoring began when I was a kid in the 1970s. I remember a junior high school teacher telling my class that Curtis Mathes was the last company to actually produce televisions in America. A color television set back then cost hundreds of dollars. Today, you can pick one up for under a hundred. Back then, if something went wrong with it, you’d call the TV repair guy to come over to fix it. Today, you just throw it away.
Is that progress? Are we somehow better now because a throw-away color TV costs $79? The 3,500 people who lost their jobs when Curtis Mathes finally went under probably didn’t think it was all that progressive. Nor would any small, local business owner consider it progress when they close the doors forever because the stuff they worked hard to sell was a buck or two cheaper at a superstore 20 miles away.
And therein lies the rub we may all soon be facing. Some industry analysts are quietly beginning to forecast gas prices going as high as $7 a gallon by next summer. Suddenly, the 20 mile drive to the Super-Mega-Warehouse store might not seem like such a great deal. We may be entering an era - or, rather, returning to one, in which we will again buy much of what we need and want locally. Soon, in addition to the sheer cost of driving to a discount store, that $79 television will also be effected by the rising cost of fuel - an ocean going container ship sailing from Taiwan can take on nearly $4 million in fuel for the voyage at today’s prices - that cost will definitely drip down to the cheap TV set.
If gas prices continue the march upwards, many by necessity will begin to look locally for their needs. Hopefully, should that happen, there will still be a local economy left. Look at what once was in Ladora versus what is today. Much of what was offered at one time is now available in one stop to a distant superstore. Apparently, a lot of people chose to do just that because none of those businesses are left in Ladora.
Certainly there have been enormous benefits to the corporatization of America. The huge economies of scale generated by massive chain stores have lowered prices and thus created an improved standard of living for millions of people. But perhaps we have reached a tipping point. It is possible that so much of the competition has been driven into the ground that the low prices are on the verge of becoming a memory. It is important to remember that corporations do not answer to their customers, they answer only to their stock holders and to a board of directors.
In the end, bigger is not always better and the true cost has been enormous. Today in Victor, a community of 1,006 people, you can’t buy a pair of shoes or dress socks. Ladora has been decimated and an empty storefront now greets visitors to Marengo. Yes, you can save money at a discount store but in the end our communities have paid for it. Keep in mind that a corporation based in New Jersey probably couldn’t care less about people in Victor, Williamsburg or Marengo - there is no commitment to the community at all.
That stands in sharp contrast to the Village Pharmacy, Marengo Farm & Home, Victor Lumber, Brown Hardware and Flower Connections - businesses that answer entirely to their customers. Not only that, but the owners live here and they care deeply about what happens to their communities.
At some point, we may all wish that the Pamida was still in Marengo, a grocery store was still in Victor and a drug store was still in Ladora. But those things are gone and they may never return. Perhaps now is the time to look around at what is left of our local economy and do something to save it.
Perhaps now is the time to consider whether or not the few dollars you save going to a super store is worth the steep price it may cost us all later on.
A report came out this week suggesting the U.S. could save the amount of oil that could be provided by ANWR and the Gulf Coast simply by ensuring tires are properly inflated and by driving with a little common sense. On an individual level, the oil savings would seem negligible - but put together, we could reduce our consumption by five or ten percent. The same applies to our local economy. By making the decision to shop at the local grocery or hardware store or at a local car dealer or mechanic, your act, together with your neighbors will make a huge difference.
Let’s start today.
© Copyright 2008 by The East Iowa Herald
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