Before I ever heard the term "sociology" I was fascinated by the subject. Why did our society develop the way it did? Why do we live the way we do?
Sometimes we're too close to the forest to see the trees. Things are changing dramatically before our eyes, but I sometimes think we're too busy to truly recognize how revolutionary this change has been. Here's what I've seen in just my 67 years walking upright:
My family did their weekly grocery shopping at Wyatt's. When we went out for dinner (which was often in my house) we usually went to Plaza Cafeteria or Harris Restaurant or CreMel's. To get our prescriptions filled we went to Payne's Drug Store, which was just a block away from our other local pharmacy, McKnights. Our theater was the Plaza in downtown Garland.
For a good hamburger we went to Scott's Cafe. (I was named after the Scott family. It must have been a damn fine hamburger!) Payne's Drug Store's soda fountain was our go-to place for ice cream, too. Our sporting goods store was on Garland Road near Duck Creek (I can't remember its name). We bought furniture from Rick's Furniture, and appliances from Hollingshead's. We bought cars from Ken Pruitt Buick, R O Evans Pontiac, Freeman Oldsmobile, or Jackson's Chevrolet. Mr Thedford was our mechanic.
For a new bicycle or lawnmower or anything hardware we went to see Mr Lloyd at Plaza Hardware. (There were a lot of businesses named "Plaza" in our town. Wonder why?) Our news came from one of the two Dallas newspapers (and 30 minutes a day from Walter Cronkite). Homes were built by local builders. I remember ours was built by a Mr Satterwhite.
The best barbecue came from Moore's, the best donuts came from the Asian family whose name I can't recall, and our tamales were made by the Hispanic man that sold them from a push cart on the town square. Mom bought her clothes from Stern's, and dad and I went to Jim Holland's Men's Wear or Ken's Man's Shoppe. Our bank was the First National.
Did you notice a common theme here? Every business I mentioned was locally owned by one of our neighbors. Today these have all been replaced by national chain stores, run by people we'll never meet, often from a thousand miles away. Home Depot put Plaza Hardware out of business. Pharmacies are now monopolized by CVS or Walgreens. Restaurants are now most likely to be named Chili's or Applebee's or McDonald's or Red Lobster. Most people get their groceries from Walmart or Target or Kroger. Whether you realize it or not almost all car dealers are now part of giant dealership conglomerates. 24/7/365 cable news now dominates how (and what) we learn what's going on in the world. On and on....
Now this second generation of retail businesses are themselves fighting for their lives. Thousands are closing every year, and it's estimated that 20% of America's malls will close within five years. Retailers are calling this time absolutely apocalyptic.
Today we're entering the Age-of-Cyber-Everything, and the prototype is without doubt Amazon. (Thank you Mr Bezos, or curse your Mr Bezos....TBD.) Millions of hometown businesses were replaced by a few thousand national chains, and now those are well on their way to being replaced by...what...ultimately just a few hundred MEGA players?
I find this fascinating, and somewhat frightening, too. Wonder what's next? Interesting times....
S
