Valentine's greetings, everyone. It's nice for me not to need worry about buying candy & stuff on a day like this.
It's amazing -- and utterly pathetic at the same time -- to see Michigan's economy as it is now. And the ripple effects are now being felt all over the country. With President Bush scared to his wits to mention the "R" word (recession), most of us working-class types have been seeing the signs coming for the greater part of a year.
Recession aside, times may be changing in the business industry anyway, in much the same way the old five & ten stores (witness Neisner, Kresge) were replaced by the conglomorate chains; the way the mom & pop corner stores were replaced by big-boxers.
Just this week, I saw a golf cart distribution facility shutter. Ironically, that cart distributor was located across Michigan Avenue from Inkster Valley Golf Course. Although the Lincoln Park Plaza is slated for demolition, it was still interesting to note that President Tuxedo was closed... and another dollar store was in its place. And the venerable Cardinal Fabric Care drycleaner in Southgate, complete with its 1950s neon sign, finally closed down almost two months ago after they limited their business to second-hand work clothing sales.
What does that say about the needs & tastes of people today? I'm not criticizing how or where we spend our lives and money these days... but it's nothing like my parents witnessed when they were my age.
One of my cab fares this week needed a watch battery. There was only one place (PCP watch repair) that could fix his problem. The passenger told me a specialty store was the only place he could trust to have the battery he needed. "Take it to Meijer's or Wal-Mart," he said, "and first, you'd be lucky to have (a salesperson) pay attention to you." Then, "they wouldn't even know what type of battery you want. I wouldn't trust..." the people at the big box stores.
That is true today, again without criticism. People used to specialize in one area of knowledge; watch repairs were a specialty and would take up an entire store (my dad would remember Southgate's Campbell's Jewelers). PCP was a rare exception; Ehrlich's in Wyandotte is another example. But that's about all we have. There's no choice BUT to take it to a place which sells thousands of other, unrelated items.
Back in the day, we abounded in specialty stores or businesses. If an entrepreneur from those days had an idea for a business, he or she added it to the growing list of variety. If you needed anything that wouldn't be sold commercially at a regular store, those other storefronts would sell the specific items.
Now the whole business climate has been watered down. Odds and ends (such as watch batteries) are relegated to the caverns of a superstore. And your typical salesperson today is trained to know about everything & every department in the store, not just one or two things. It makes the salesperson more productive, but what's lost is the intimacy in knowing that one person can help solve minor, specific problems.
President Tuxedo's closing is not a surprise, either. The chain no longer exists in Michigan. In fact, there were several formal wear places not too long ago. Formal wear is getting harder to find in a specific, formal atmosphere. Would I go to Meijer's for a suit? Would that salesperson even know how to measure me properly? Very doubtful.
The fast-food complex now affects all business. People want one-stop shopping, and what they want, they want fast. It's almost as if quality of the product or service is a dying art -- if it hasn't died already.
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Anita Rose, from whom I got the inspiration to do this blog in the first place, co-runs a website, deadmalls.com, which profiles dormant, shuttered malls. She would be pleased (?) to know that the old Southtown Crossing shopping mall in Southgate is completely vacant now. Co-Op Optical moved out last month, so nearly 500,000 square feet of mall frontage in a prime intersection now sits unused.
I remember the mall's construction in the mid-1980s. I howled with protest at the demolition of the Michigan Drive-In that anchored the site for almost 50 years. Now the howls of "I told you so" echo. Drive-in's were another specialty service back in the day. Now, if we want a movie, we have to share it with 19 others in a stadium-type venue which is overwhelming to some.
"Keep America Beautiful" didn't only refer to litter in the landscape, I guess.
