RE: no personal checks, please

["Keith and Margaret Howe" <kmhowe@moscow.com>]

I'm not entirely certain as to how one can claim that local outlets of
chain-stores are NOT still local businesses... they are typically started
and owned by local merchants and investors, employing local residents in
their operation, and I would guess retain a high percent of their revenues
for infusion back into the local sector. (If someone can quote figures to
the contrary, I'd like to hear them... common sense would seem to indicate
this is so, however). Obviously there are fees heading to some corporate
head somewhere which pay for the infrastructure backbone that makes their
low prices feasible, but I, for one, do not have enough money to waste on
intangible 'customer service' elements such as knowing that the ultimate
orders are coming from someone who owns a house in Moscow instead of New
York... the reality is that there is still someone running that store who
owns a house in Moscow, and if you think chain-stores are straight out of
some corporate mold, you need to do a lot more travelling. I've seen
Wal-Marts so fundamentally different that, but for the big blue sign out
front, you wouldn't guess they were related. If you want a 'corner market'
feel to a chain-store, take the time as a consumer to enable that feel. Get
to know the guy at the cashier or the girl stocking shelves. They certainly
don't import Wal-Mart employees from out of State simply to work the aisles,
and if you take the time to get to know a few of them as you would at a
'local' market, you'll probably find that, other than the colour of their
uniform, they're hardly any different. Given that the employees, often the
owner, and most importantly the CONSUMER are all local residents, it seems
that it is attitude, rather than fact, that give a chain-store a 'far-off
corporation' feel. Granted, there are many chain-stores in Moscow, and many
gradients to how they fit these arguments -- but in general (mis)perception
and (bad)attitude have a much more damaging effect than the chain-store's
parent corporation.

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