Unchained in America

Well, Lisa’s and my experiment in living an unchained life for a year ended on December 31, 2009. Now we can return — if we want — to shopping at chain stores and eating at chain restaurants. Did I gain any insights from that year year of “sacrifice”? Did I learn any lessons?

Actually, I learned quite a few lessons.

Lesson 1: Living Unchained Can Is a Balance Between Convenience and Principle

Living without shopping at chain stores and eating at chain restaurants can be difficult. We’ve been trained by society to want convenience. We do not want to wait — and we do want everything now.

I struggled with balancing convenience and principle. A nonchain store might not be nearby. And if you’re in a hurry, you might not want to spend the time traveling a long distance just to pick up a single item. (For me, a round trip to Cleveland from home is sixteen miles.) After all, just how much is your time worth?

Also, nonchain stores tend to carry a much smaller variety of products than the chains. So if you need a particular item, you might be able to get it only at a chain store. I certainly found that to be true. I tried to find substitutes. But in some cases — such as wanting to use a certain kind of Selsun Blue shampoo — I could only find the item at a chain store.

Another example is buying gas for the car. As far as I know, there’s only one independent gas station in the Cleveland, TN, area. It’s on the other side of McDonald, where we live, toward Cleveland. For me to gas up the car on the way home from work in Chattanooga, I’d have to drive several miles past my house to go to the station and then return home. I simply wasn’t prepared to do that — especially when I tend to gas up on the way to work or on the way home at night. In the beginning, Lisa talked about using the gas station, but even she ended up not using it.

I also found not having access to a video store a privation. Our only alternative was to buy used DVDs at used book stores. Toward the end of the experiment, though, we did find a small, struggling independent video store (that’s since changed hands). But the store has few choices. (Now that the experiment is over, though, neither Lisa nor I have run out to Blockbuster to rent one of the DVDs from last year that we were lamenting about not being able to watch. Go figure!)

For me, living an unchained life became a balancing act: convenience vs. principle.

Lesson 2: Sometimes You Have No Alternative But to Go to a Chain Store

Sometimes I had to buy something at a chain store because that was the only place I could get it. A good example is our buying a new dehumidifier at Sears. We tried to find a dehumidifier at an independently owned store, but none of those stores carried dehumidifiers.

Lesson 3: You Have to Plan Ahead

I mentioned balancing convenience and principle. I learned that you can reduce the tension by planning ahead. If you see yourself getting low on something, buy a replacement before you run out. By doing that, you won’t have to run to the store to replace an item you need to use right away. You also can buy two of the same item. When the first runs out, replace it so that you continually have a spare on hand.

Planning ahead doesn’t take much effort — and can save a lot of time and frustration.

Lesson 4: I Spent About As Much Money as I Usually Did

A lot of people told us we’d end up spending more money because we weren’t shopping at chain stores. For me, that wasn’t true. I ended up spending less money than usual. For several reasons.

I Didn’t Need a Lot of Stuff

Many times I found myself wanting to buy something. But when I thought about it, I realized that if I bought it, the thing would just sit around collecting dust. I became aware of the many needless things I used to buy.

I Had Less Opportunity to Buy Stuff

I might have seen stuff in a chain store, but I realized I couldn’t buy it. After I left the store, I forgot about the item — so obviously I didn’t need it. How many of you have had that experience?

Savings in Other Areas Outweighed Higher Organic Food Prices

We tried to buy organic food whenever possible. It’s true prices for organic foods are higher than regular industrially raised food. But I wasn’t buying as much in other areas, so the differences balanced themselves out. I did like the fact that I was eating healthier. I also liked the fact that I was supporting a lot of local farmers and shop owners.

Lesson 5: Chains Stores and Chain Restaurants Are Everywhere

I was never really aware of it before I began the experiement, but after I did I discovered that chain stores and chain resturants are everywhere. They’ve spread like a virus over the American landscape. They’re crammed into strip malls. They’re filling up malls. They’re all over the place!

After a year of living without chains, I’ve become sensitized to their presence. It’s not a good feeling when I think about how the chain stores and franchises have forced so many independent stores out of business and how they’re destroying cities and towns across the country.

Lesson 6: Chain Stores and Chain Restaurants Are Destroying Cities and Towns — and the Middle Class

During my year of unchained living, I’ve learned how chain stores, big-box stores, and chain restaurants are destroying towns and cities — and the middle class. For me, this was a wake-up call. I’d never thought about this before because I’d always seen chain stores and fast food chains as part of the local community and economy.

They’re not.

Chains Force Independent Stores Out of Business

Chain stores and big-box stores such as WalMart force independent stores out of business by underselling them — and then raising the prices after the businesses have gone under. Box-box stores such as WalMart don’t really offer low, low prices. They just make people think they do by using a lot of loss leaders and using phychological techniques — including special colors and displays — to make people think they’re getting great deals on items.

Chain Stores and Fast Food Chains Use a Business Model That Pays Part-Time Workers Minimum Wages

In Roadside Empires: How the Chains Franchised America, Stan Luxenberg talks about the business model most chain stores and fast food chains use to help ensure their profits — aka their “bottom line.” A model they could have chosen was to hire a small number of full-time workers and pay them a livable salary. Some stores actually chose that model and have done quite well.

But the business model most chain stores and franchisees chose was the exact opposite: to hire numerous part-time, nonunion workers and pay them a salary they can’t live on. You can see that business model in action every day of the year at chain stores and fast food chains such as WalMart, Target, Marshalls, McDonalds, and Wendy’s.

This business model has created a large class of poor workers who have to rely on food stamps and other government subsidies to get by. In fact, one chain store puts fliers in its break room that tell their part-time employees how they can apply for food stamps.

The workers also have no health insurance. Even now stores such as WalMart and Marshalls — which are seeing increased profits during the recession — are “transitioning” full-time workers to part-time workers. I assume the reason is because the honchos at corporate put the money they save in health care costs towards their bottom lines.

But who picks up the tab for chain stores’ employees’ food subsidies and health care costs? The tax payers. That’s you and me. The honchos who run the chain stores and big-box stores are using our federal and state tax dollars to increase their bottom line. These are the same people who talk about “free enterprise” and oppose health care reform or call such reform “socialism.” Part of their profits are based on socialism.

Chain Stores Replace Jobs That Pay Well with Ones that Pay Poorly

Chain stores and big-box stores replace good paying jobs with low paying ones — after forcing the stores that paid good wages out of business. In Big-Box Swindle, Stacy Mitchel relates the story about how in one town WalMart forced the bicycle maker Huffy to close its manufacturing plant, lay off its 650 American workers, and move its manufacturing facilities to China. Those workers, who were union members, made $11.00 an hour, plus benefits. A few years later WalMart opened a Supercenter on the same 50 acres that Huffy had occupied, but paid its nonunion workers only $7.00 an hour.

You can see this happening all over the country.

Chain Stores Drain Money from Local Economies

Chains drain money from local economies. For every $100 spent at a chain store, only $48 $43 of it stays in the community. But for every $100 spent at an independent store, $68 stays in the community. I never thought much about where the money I spend unltimately ends up. But now I do

See also:

• 10 Lessons I Learned from Living Unchained: Lessons 7-10

Tags: chain restaurants, chain stores, fast food

This entry was posted on Monday, January 11th, 2010 at 1:29 pm and is filed under Unchained Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.