So, Lindsay is going to be getting a big-box store. I won’t mention any names, but I do believe its name might just rhyme with “Mal-Wart”. Lindsay’s getting a big-box, store, and do you know what I say? I say bring it on. It wasn’t that long ago that I thought “What do we need with a Mal-Wart? We’ve got good local businesses, we’ve got Zellers, we’re set. We don’t need no big American sales-factories with customer satisfaction down to an algorithm.” But then Zellers folded. Then we got Target, which was kind of cool, because it was the only place in town that sold baseball cards from this millennium, and it had some neat t-shirts and jeans. Then Target folded. And Lindsay was left with no big store where one could get anything one was in need of, just a big empty storefront that, anytime anyone ever drove by, began a discussion about what would go there.
To digress for a moment, I would like to point out that I have absolutely nothing against Lindsay’s small, locally-owned businesses. I am, in fact, what you might call a fan of local merchants and their friendly service and personal touches that make shopping locally such an enjoyable experience. It’s the difference between talking to a person who has built their business in an area they are passionate about from the ground up, and are happy to give advice, provide opinions, and just talk about what they sell, and talking to a minimum-wage worker with no ties to the titanic conglomerate they are a “team member” for, and who, through no fault of their own, have the personality forced out of them by means of employee codes and handbooks. I would like to stress that I have nothing against people who work in big-box stores, since they don’t have a lot of say in their workplace, and, in to maintain predictability and “image” of the store, are supposed to think inside the (big) box.
With all that said, though, I also am not a fan of having to drive to Peterborough in order to pick up something that’s only available at Wa- ahem, Mal-Wart. So, I say, bring it on to Lindsay. All the other big-box department stores have failed so far, so we’re not really left with another choice. Besides, I’ve heard that this particular store, if it is indeed finally going to be built, sells baseball cards. Some stuff, you just need a big-box store for.
By Yannick Grignon
