Janet mentioned the failed resistance to the building of a Walmart in Eaton, Ohio. This started me thinking....
There is a store here called Cinty's. It is a large three story business. Across the street from Cinty's is another Cinty's that has everything the first Cinty's doesn't. Across that street on the next side, they have just completed a third building. It is open for business though it is still largely empty and they are still laying tile. Other than groceries Cinty's has everything a person needs. I know that sounds like an exaggeration. I am sure it is. Our landlady told me once the belt broke on here foot peddled sewing machine. Cinty's had a replacement belt. I have been told "They have everything in that mountain of junk, and they know where it is." Pots, pans, plastic tub, butane tank, refrigerator, TV, washing machine, mattress, table, chairs, and fans are things we have purchased there. I also know that they have fabric, boots, some clothing, and well only God and the staff of Cinty's knows what all else. They have a selection of these things. Not a big one, but you can pick from maybe five kinds of refrigerator, as many or more TVs. And if your purchase is to big or to heavy she will have her brother bring it round in the afternoon. They know and acknowledge their customers on sight, and this is significant because that must be all of Corozal district. If they deliver once to your house, they know where you live and don't need directions again. They don't write any of this stuff down, they just know. Their prices are good, actually after you run all around town checking prices, you realize that Cinty's is the best value. But you can't browse at Cinty's. There is a tiny aisle that runs from the front to the back of the store. I've heard of people who memorized epic sagas, well this family must have equal memory skills. They know where all that stuff is, they know how much they want for it, and they must know how much their competitors are selling it for. It is at least three generations of merchants. In the afternoon, they seem to have a crockpot of beans and rice or something for the whole family to eat. The father seems to supervise the construction of the third building which is done now, the middle generation women run the stores, the men seem to handle the heavy warehousing and delivery, and there are children everywhere ranging from young adults helping out to babies in playpens, ... playing with calculators. These are real live merchants and I strongly suspect a Walmart wouldn't have a prayer.
There is more to say about this, for instance, there are other stores that sell some of the same stuff, somehow Cinty's manages not to stomp on them. There seems to be no animosity toward Cinty's even though in theory they are the strongest competitor to just about anyone selling any sort of dry goods. Yet there appears to be genuine good will toward Cinty's. Now this intrigues me because a good friend had a discussion with me before we left Ohio. The topic of the discussion was exactly this situation with Cinty's. When there enough merchants to satisfy the demand in an area, what happens when another one appears. Cinty's seems capable of filling the demand for most goods in this area, yet other merchants appear to do well. What we eventually came up with was that about the only way to avoid problems was for the merchants to be interested in the welfare of each other. They could not act out of selfishness without causing disruption. Now it occurs to me that there could be a dark side to this that could easily be summed up by the word cartel. But I don't think that is what is happening here. The circumstances and conditions here are largely unknown to me, but it appears that there exists here a business model that has the best points of a Walmart yet has managed to retain it's humanity and keep a very real connection to the community in which it exists, which it serves and from which it profits. I doubt that the model is scalable. But if it is, perhaps there will someday be a Cinty's in Eaton, Ohio.
2 comments:
Cinty's sounds like Dunkelberger's in Somerville. It is an old fashioned feed/hardware/fuel oil/lawnmower repair shop. It began 100 yrs ago as a coal delivery service. Now the 3rd generation is in charge, and it seems that things are falling apart. Brothers and cousins disagreed about how to manage and the business split. The lawnmower guys moved out and the furnace repair went out of business. How many generations has Cinty's been in business?
Sorry for the delay. It got cold enough here that Rebecca wanted a blanket at night. So we went to Cinty's and purchased a blanket. While I was there I asked how long it had been in business. I don't know the number of years, but this is the second generation that is running it now. The father is still around, still involved, but the second generation seems to be staffing and running it.
As for problems by the time the third generation runs it: Perhaps that could happen, but the setup seems like it is designed to prevent or reduce that. There are three seperate large buildings. I do not know this but I suspect there are three siblings in the second generation. If there are more siblings, I would not be surprised if an additional building gets put up eventually. The third one, we watched being built. It went up very fast, and I am told that this indicates plenty of money fueling the project. I have noticed another lot here in town started to be cleared and prepared for building at about the time construction finished on the third building. I don't know if it is connected. If at some point one segment of grandchildren decide to do their own thing, one or all of those buildings may become a different type of business. Also families are more extended and more tightly knit here than in the US, at least until recently. Further, there is a substantial amount of wealth in just the land and buildings. It is impossible to say what will happen, but I have noticed other Belizans thinking out loud about how to divide up whatever property they might have after they are gone so as to provide for and avoid problems in the next generation. I suspect this is a human rather than cultural trait.
Just an offhand guess on my part, the man who started the business appears to have structured it so as to avoid any problems in at least the third generation. What happened to Dunkelbergers may happen to Cinty's but perhaps delayed one generation. If they can maintain their buisness sense, the fourth generation may indeed squabble but it may be a much much larger pie to divide.
Something has occured to me. Prices go up here, and there are shortages. The Cinty's business model may simply be "buy everything, warehouse it until the price goes up sufficently that you can sell some of it at extraordinary profit."
Post a Comment