Ma and Pa Might Have to Pawn their Stuff!

I am back to the place where I spent half of my life, the city of St. John’s. Back in the day, this was a place where many women know how to fix a car and most men had a questionable night with the town slut (bless her heart). In this wonderful town, Bingo is still popular sport and was a place for grand discussion-a Canadian version of an 18th century French salon.

Skip ahead twenty years, and St. John’s is covered in Starbucks, Wal-Mart and McDonald’s, something many people consider indicative of “growth”.

And we are not alone. Having traveled extensively in the past 2 months, in almost every city I there are people prancing around with five-dollar coffees adorned with that green mermaid.

It’s tough to digest, but my city appears lost a piece of its identity and looking more like cities thousands of miles away.

I cannot speak for other cities I saw like Marrakesh, Casablanca, Dublin, and Cardiff, but I know that ten years ago most Newfoundlanders would never pay five dollars for a drink that wasn’t full of rum. Also, many people here couldn’t even pronounce the word “Latte”. I vividly remember the day when my mother, a women with two university degrees, visited a Starbucks for the first time in her life and asked a barista what was in a “Latty”.

So who gives a fuck about Starbucks’ international popularity? What’s the big deal about a store promoting Italian-ish drinks and snack?

With these stores comes new traditions. And I’m not talking JUST about Starbucks, but also other commercial chains. These places may adapt to local standards, but they are corporate inventions. Their menus are the products of focus groups and genetically modified animals. Their owners are not necessarily passionate about their menu. Often,these franchises are built just because district manager see a spot where they think people would spend a lot of money of their burgers, chicken or coffee.

This closes off the market for those who may open up their own restaurants, those whom actually care about their work and the food they serve. “Ma and Pa” have to compete against the corporate juggernauts of chain restaurants. In other words, a Starbucks has a better chance of surviving another recession because it doesn’t have the safety-net of a multi-billion dollar franchise. Ma and Pa are forced to live out of their car.

And cuisine is one of the staples of ANY culture. Like languages, food and how we eat it literally feeds who we are. And as such, it shapes our identities, futures, and children. Even in Canada, where we don’t have a distinct set of traditions, our cultural ecosystem has never seen anything like the Frappucino and may shift because of it.

The interesting thing about “Stabucksafication” is how it cannot permeate some cities. Rome was interesting this way. This city is so fucking proud of its culture, Starbucks and its “Venti Soy Pumpkin Spice Latte” could never compete against old-school espresso. Starbucks’s high prices will never attract consumers like the hundreds of small stores that sell better and cheaper coffee. After all, what country would like a place that promotes an Americanization of its traditions? Locals think Starbucks should go fuck itself. (Bare in mind, “Go Fuck Yourself” is Rome’s unofficial slogan).

Other cities have culinary specialties that are so good that big chains will never win their markets. Like Rome, Rabat had its coffee shops and coffee culture. Cardiff had “Chippy Lane”, a road of exclusively small chip shops that many locals called “The Heart of Cardiff Cuisine”. (Their words, not mine). McDonald’s doesn’t stand a chance in Chippy Lane. And even in Canada, the small pizza joints of Halifax’s “Pizza Corner” have always trounced corporate competition because their food is so good and cheap. Domino’s, in contrast is overpriced and uses mostly meat from Pizza Hut’s dumpsters.

Pizza Corner also has donairs and fist-fights. I’m certain this is discussed in an tourism brochures promoting the city of Halifax.

Starbucks is not necessarily the result of globalization or its superior product. Rather, its success was the clever marketing towards a cultural shift towards the illusion of sophistication. The same could be said for McDonald’s and KFC. Well, not so much the sophistication aspect of it, but definitely good advertising and cheap food-like ingredients. And as consumers we are free to eat whatever we want, but we need to remember that the presence of these places has influenced our attitude towards food, our vocabulary and role of the “mom and pop” store.

Yes, people need jobs, places to have awkward dates and somewhere to eat deep-fried things when they are drunk. But, I question if corporate America should be the only people controlling these places. What will the world look like if this trend continues?

Will bingo still be cool?!

I wish I had a solution, or some kind of way to show what exactly will happen. But I don’t. I jut found it weird how Starbucks, with its jargon and degree of Westernization was so prevalent. It also makes me wonder what going out for a coffee with be like in thirty-years.