Cheaper, quicker, familiar. A mantra, especially in these tougher economic times is becoming more and more important as people’s time and money becomes more stretched thin.
Perhaps that is, in part why, one of my favorite little local chains went out of business recently. It is sad too, this little shop made some amazing Mexican food, considering, it is, of course, in New York City. They put a nice spin on it though, something that reflected the wonderful personality of the city both in the food and the staff.
There is now another national Mexican fast-food chain near where this legacy once stood. It serves up a homogenized, assembly line prepared, generically presented version of something claiming to be (but hardly) authentic for a few pennies less and maybe a few paces faster. But at what cost really?
In this case the cost was a great local dive being sacrificed to the American way, I suppose. Why try something new, when one can have something familiar? Yeah, sure, it is consistent. It has to be. It’s all made exactly the same from Seattle to Santa Fe and presented with that same stoic indifference meant to get you out the door quicker than you can fart up a storm from your refriend beans side dish.
Don’t get me wrong. I have been to mom-and-pop restaurants where the food was atrocious and the service was underwhelming bordering obnoxious… just like I had some great meals and service at major chains.
For me though, it is more than just the comparison of the actual food and service from individual place to place. It is the concept behind cross-country corporate identities versus those local specialties.
A more poignant example for food is pizza. The tri-state is a pizza mecca. A NY slice is a thing of beauty that no matter how hard any chain will try, they will never recreate. No, it’s not just that it is something in the water as the locals joke. It is because a Bergen County pie and a Brooklyn pie are, although related, two completely different animals. Many a time in towns in North Jersey I lived in, some big name mass-manufactured pizza pusher comes along. Their life fortunately is short lived. The boom of business quickly fizzles out because pizza is indeed a way of life here and their ‘what’s good in Kentucky is good in North Jersey’ presentation just doesn’t fly for enough of the locals that they cannot sustain, no matter how much they try and compete on price and speedy service, they miss the main point that the people here crave a specific, unique, localized flavor.
Working in the entertainment industry for as long as I have, another phenomenon in the homogenization of culture is occurring beyond food. It began many years ago when the family run radio stations were bought by the regional networks, who, in turn where turned into national communication conglomerates. It just about killed what was once beautiful about broadcast radio: the localization of it.
When I first began in radio stations programmed to their market. They understood the local demographic and appeared to really hone the programming to it, both in the music they selected and how the air talent presented it. Some places the jocks were chatty, would talk right over the bleeds for the song right to the vocal bumper or place a huge emphasis on really well executed segues. Others were more cut and dry and almost terse but with this really cutting presentation that seemed to fit the listenership. I used to love traveling and hearing the accents of the jock and their approach to relating to the audience and the difference in programming from edgy to conservative from town to town and how they would integrate their best local talent.
Now, in my travels, every town sounds the same. DJs voiceover shows rather than doing them live, sometimes for multiple stations of different genres in different towns. Playlists are developed from corporate offices on a national scale for what is assumed to be a congruent audience to sell advertising to. It is sad, because it truly has stripped some places of the personality that once made them grand meccas of music.
It comes across in dozens of other things too. Towns and cities becoming cookie cutter versions of one another featuring the same retailers, entertainment and cuisine but not the same people living in them. At least, not yet.
I am all for quicker, cheaper, more familiar – I do it myself on occasion because I do have the time, the money or the spontaneity. However, when it becomes the leviathian devouring localization it frightens me.
As a marketer it is all about personalization and customization, and yet, in the things that should be most unique, our local community, this is the place where the least amount of those occur. Rather, we allow the illusion that the big box retailers and international chain give us something special while serving up the same exact thing half way across the country or halfway around the world.
I miss the days of going to a store, knowing the clerks, getting advice on the products that was as much about satisfying me as it was moving the right stock at the right time off the shelves. I miss when i could get to know the wait staff at restaurant and get expert advice on the best things on the menu because the chef decided to switch things up for the next season’s fare. I also miss when I used to be able to go to a new town and learn from those same kind of people the subtle things about the town that make it unique and special
Rather, sometimes now, it seems we come to rely on the same six places that are cropping up in every town to eat and shop and entertain ourselves at. Which then begs the question, why leave my town to experience something new if the next town over is exactly the same?
There’s no good answer except we know what to expect, quick, cheep and familiar. Well, I’m not quite that boring a person and I find myself rebelling more against it than ever as I continue to strive to find new places off the beaten path still defying the routing of the blessings of local culture.