Nothing large ever started out that way. Shaquille O’Neal was once just a little embryo like the rest of us. That huge twenty-page term paper due at the end of last semester was once just a paragraph long assignment your evil professor conjured up in his head. Even the UMass administration was just one small group of people running for Massachusetts Agricultural College. And the same analogy is true for retail stores: none of them started out as a giant.
Be it K-Mart, McDonald’s or Best Buy, each of these businesses started in one location providing their product to a limited group of people in the immediate area. As they prospered, it was the idea of their respective management to grow and spread, and thus you see the corporate conglomerates that stand today. I must be careful though. Heaven forbid that in the Amherst area the words “corporate” or “commercial” are uttered. Those are four letter words in this small town.
The latest business to come under fire is Barnes and Noble. The bookstore giant, which operates over 500 stores under its own name and nearly a similar amount of B. Dalton bookstores in malls, is opening a store up in the newly invigorated Mountain Farms Shopping Center on Route 9. Once dead, Mountain Farms is in the process of a revitalization that began with the addition of Wal-Mart a little over a year ago. Soon followed Old Navy and Linens ‘N Things. Soon to arrive along with the new book warehouse is rumored to be new stores for the Gap and Michael’s. Now what once was left for dead is alive and well and putting pressure on the Hampshire Mall to improve its offerings as well.
The reaction received in Amherst is, not surprisingly, one of disdain towards any corporation, blanketing all of them as evil. The common view around town is that large chains bully the little guy, remove creativity and offer no redeeming values to society. Critics elicit the examples of McDonald’s and D’Angelo’s, two businesses which attempted to operate in Amherst and failed.
What critics always fail to mention, though, is that each of those businesses that they despise, once started as a store not unlike Atticus or Antonio’s. Barnes and Noble began as a single store in Wheaton, IL, operating out of Charles Barnes’ home in 1873. It grew from there into what is seen today. There’s a similar story for every major business in America. Wal-Mart faced numerous protests when it opened up its Hadley location. However many years ago it was nothing more than Sam Walton’s general store in a small Arkansas town.
The large chains that dominate the landscape of our country are not there by accident though. No business has become a large chain by selling crappy merchandise and having lousy customer service. I have worked for one of the largest retailers in America for the last three years. (I won’t say what store, as I don’t want it to seem like I’m promoting them, however those of you who know me know exactly what store I mean.) The company operates over twice as many stores as does Barnes and Noble. However, each store is uniquely its own. My fellow employees are at the very least friends, and for many of us, our co-workers are almost like a family. We take a lot of pride in making sure that Store 2260 is special, even if to some it is only one out of over 1700. I’m sure the same can be said for other companies and their retail establishments.
The bookstores in Amherst, and other local businesses for that matter, survive and thrive because they do something special. They’ve earned customer loyalty by offering the best products and outstanding service. This will not change, no matter who comes to town. Critics like to cite McDonald’s and D’Angelo’s as examples of local resistance to brand name businesses, but in order to do so they must overlook the success of CVS, Bertucci’s, Subway, Newbury Comics, and Starbucks, what some consider the beacon of the corporatization of America. These businesses thrive in uptown because they attract customers to come back again and again.
Businesses succeed for just as many reasons as they fail; there is no exception for large chains. Does everyone remember Lechmere and Zayre’s? These stores closed up a while ago because bad business practices had led customers to other competitors. When Wal-Mart opened up, people worried that local businesses would die due to the monster on Route 9. Yet last I checked there were few if any casualties due to Wal-Mart adding a location in our area. The same is said for the clothing stores that battle with Old Navy, the music stores that battle with Media Play and Newbury Comics, and this will also hold true for Atticus, Food For Thought, and all the other local bookstores that plan to challenge the behemoth known as Barnes and Noble.
There will be protesters when Barnes and Noble opens up its new location. Undoubtedly though these people will fade away and retreat back to the local businesses that they support in town, leaving the corporate giant to do business with the rest of the world. And then the tiny little town of Amherst will return to normal until the Home Depot decides to open up shop.
Regan McKendry is a Collegian staff member.
