“City character is blurred until every place becomes
more like every other place, all adding up to Noplace”*
This is a picture of Des Moines. Or Denver. No, it’s too flat. Might be Houston. Or maybe Torrance? Could be Atlanta…
Who can tell? Without a single, unique, independent store store in sight, it is truly Noplace.
Here’s picture of a street lined with small stores in Santa Rosa, CA.
Compare this scene with the one above. Where would you rather live?
Independently owned stores are the soul of a neighborhood. They bring diversity and life to the street scene. They give a neighborhood a sense of unique place. Small stores help to make your neighborhood home.
The dramatic growth of big box and national chain retailing is eroding the character and charm of our communities, limiting our shopping and employment choices, diverting money out of our neighborhoods and increasing traffic and pollution.
Big Box shopping centers have replaced tens of thousands of neighborhood shops and consolidated the necessities of life; food, clothing, furniture, hardware into mega-stores on the edges of cities that are accessible only by car. There are numerous studies that show how detrimental this trend is to our quality of life and just as many reports indicating that small independent retailing clearly benefits communities- economically, environmentally, socially, and aesthetically.
With millions of dollars to spend on marketing, Big Corporate retailers have managed to persuade many shoppers (and politicians) that driving to a stadium -sized concrete box off the highway is a better way to shop than walking about a vibrant community of independently owned stores, supporting local businesses and perhaps even chatting it it up with our neighbors while picking up the things we need.
It’s time to turn things around. Let’s bring back the neighborhood.
Independent retailers deserve their own national marketing campaign and to that end we submit the phrase: Shop Small Stores. A simple slogan, yes. But words are powerful, especially when repeated far and wide.
The logo, designed by our friends at Knock Knock, has been printed on window clings, bumper stickers and buttons. In the last year and a half, thousands have been distributed here at the LA Mart. Help spread the word by hanging one in your window and passing more onto your neighboring small stores. Like “Please Recycle” this is an important message that needs to get around. Clings and buttons are available at no charge in our showroom and at others in the LA Mart.
*The quote above? It’s from urban planning activist Jane Jacobs, from her book “Death And Life of Great American Cities”. She wrote it in 1961. Jane knew what she talking about.
