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Friday, June 12th, 2015

How Huge Corporations Are Sneakily Taking Over Charming Little Hotels and Restaurants

Author:     Jim Hightower
Source:     Alternet (U.S.)
Publication Date:     June 10, 2015
 Link: How Huge Corporations Are Sneakily Taking Over Charming Little Hotels and Restaurants
Stephan:   This article describes an emerging trend in which large corporations co-opt existing small businesses by buying them out. The problem with this strategy, as this report explains is, "with these fabricators of corporatized authenticity is that reality will win out in the end. Small and local has a genuine feel and flavor that the imitators can't sustain as they sprawl out into 1,000 and then 10,000 stores." The leverage point to watch then is whether this business model can retain authenticity, or will it just become another form of generic chain? And to recognize that creativity is boundless and, in the end, there is always a new local iteration.
Credit: Shutterstock

Credit: Shutterstock

Near my home in Austin, Texas, there is a great, old refurbished motel that I recommend to people when they come to visit our fair city. It not only is right on the famed Congress Avenue but also has a keep-it-real attitude that is expressed right on its iconic marquee: “No additives, no preservatives, corporate-free since 1938.”
The good news is that more and more businesses across the country are adopting this attitude, providing a buy-local, un-corporate, anti-chain alternative for customers. Food shoppers and restaurant goers, for example, have made a huge shift in recent years away from the likes of McDonald’s, Pepsi and Taco Bell, preferring upstart, independent outfits with names like “The Corner,” “Caleb’s Kola,” and “US Taco Co.”
But uh-oh, guess who owns those little local alternatives. Right — McDonald’s, PepsiCo and Taco Bell. Leave it to ethically challenged, profiteering monopolists to grab such value-laden terms as “genuine,” “local” and “honest,” empty them of any authenticity, then hurl them back at consumers as shamefully deceptive marketing scams.
In Huntington Beach, […]

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