Sprawl and Small Businesses Essay -- Stores Retail Essays

Sprawl and Small Businesses During the past 15 years, I have seen my once-rural hometown of Washington Township transform into a maze of single-family housing developments and strip malls. This type of growth has not been gentle on the local economy, especially small businesses. Stores such as the mom and pop hardware store, a local mainstay for many decades, have been forced out of business by the construction of two Home Depots and a Lowe’s within a two-mile radius of the town’s main street. This negative aspect of sprawl has been a trend that has repeated itself nationwide in recent years. Mega chain stores, or big boxes, are a phenomenon that has spread all over the country, and has exploded in popularity in recent years. Contributing to this phenomenon are monster chain stores, such as Home Depot, Wal-Mart, Lowe’s, Target, Kmart and Best Buy. The success of these stores has depended upon the saturation of the retail market in areas where they are built. For instance, Wal-Mart’s strategy of store placement is such that in urban areas, stores are placed within a 10-mile radius of each other and a 30-mile radius is created in rural areas. (sprawl-busters.com/hometown.html) The density of store placement can vary, depending on the presence of competitors in the area. By saturating the market, these stores are undercutting their competition and making it virtually impossible for their smaller competitors to survive, or even start up in a free-market economy. In addition to their planning strategy of market dominance, big box stores have other attributes that are difficult to compete with. These attributes are attractive to the consumer, but come at a detrimental price.... ..., these corner stones are becoming a dying breed. Although progress cannot be stopped, we must hope that ideas like town centers can catch on, and save our small businesses. References: 1. http://www.sharbell.com/washington/washmain.htm : Sharbell is the developer that is building the Washington town center. 2. http://www.sprawl-busters.com/hometown.html : â€Å"Home town America fights back.† â€Å"A citizens view of Home Depot: The Orange Wars.† 3. www.reason.com/9505/NICKwalmart.may.shtml : â€Å"Do Wal-Mart and Home Depot spell the end of Community?† 4. www.nlcnet.org : National Labor Committee Website. 5. www.tradelocal.org/arts/wrongwal.html : â€Å"What’s wrong with Wal-Mart?† 1999 6. www.lawmall.com/rpa/chap1.html : â€Å"Surviving the Invasion of the Mega Stores: The Impact of Mega-Retail Discount Chains on Urban, Suburban and Rural Economies†