FC NOW: The Fast Company Weblog
January 26, 2005
Do You Live in a Clone Town?
The more I travel these days, the more I feel as though as I never left home. The Detroit burbs look just like the Chicago burbs, which look just like the Atlanta burbs. The Gap? Check. Subway? Check. CVS? Check. Kinko's? Check. It's true in smaller towns as well. How comforting. And how boring.
The same thing is happening to towns in the UK, says Andrew Simms, policy director of the New Economics Foundation in London. "This identikit commercial culture isn't just killing diversity," he writes. "It undermines democracy and attacks our sense of place, belonging and well-being."
His group has developed a survey to gauge how clone-like a town is. You walk down the main street and count the chains (5 points), independent stores (50 points), and types of stores (5 points). To see where your town ranks, go here, scroll down, and look for the survey link on the right.
Posted by Chuck Salter at January 26, 2005 4:40 PM | Category: economic development |
8 Comments
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Interesting Survey. For those who havn't read Rich Karlgaard's book Life 2.0, check it out. He discusses many aspects of living in Clown Town and why many people want out.
I lived in the UK up until about 8 years ago and it was one aspect of UK life that I really detested. I now live in South Africa and there are real differences between say Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban in terms of the cities, but even here chain-creep is happening and inside a shopping mall you really could be anywhere.
Clone towns are built by clone people living clone lives. Where should we look for originality and individuality? Who has the courage to pursue those elusive gems?
RTodd hit the nail on the head...These really are "Clown Towns."
People want out but most are not willing to pay the price.
That price is higher costs for a lower standard of living. The Walmart article that appeared a while ago is yet more proof of this. People don;t want to live in Clone Town but lets face it. Mom and Pop can't beat the prices.
Instead of clone town, I've been calling it the Malling of America, which is basically the same idea.
While our physical world is suffering of homogenisation/cloning/malling, there is one place where an increase in diversity is happing: cyber space. Living in the U.S., I have almost completely given up on shopping at brick-and-mortar stores. They all carry nearly identical items at identical prices--goods that are cheap, bland and of average quality (and mostly made in China).
About 75% of my discretionary purchases are made on the internet! This phenomenon might explain the explosive growth of Ebay. It is one of the remaining places where one can find unique, unpredictable and suprising items. As global homogenisation continues, counter forces such as the internet will grow stronger.
Welcome to 2005. I love how everyone whines about these boring chains, but what is the alternative?
Obviously, there was a point in time when mom and pop stores were the norm. Now chains. Face it: most people prefer lower prices at chain stores.
Everything changes, including business. That's the spontaneous order of life. Maybe someday Wal-Mart will go the way of Montgomery Ward, the behemoth institution that the previous generation called "Monkey Wards". Then we'll be complaining about Wal-Mart's replacement.
Someday chain stores may lose their appeal, but I have no idea what's next except that I know more people will choose it.