Rome falling to globalisation
Carrefour express is one of my pet hates. This French retail chain embodies everything I dislike about the globalised world: uniformity, replication, and visibility, a common euphemism to say “in your face”. Now Carrefour Express is conquering central Rome and taking away the very charm of the eternal city: the pleasure of finding hidden gems.
Unlike major cities elsewhere, Rome has until now resisted the call for globalisation and kept major retail brands outside of its walls into suburban shopping malls, thus preserving the individuality of the city. Unfortunately, this is changing with the growing appearance of a new city pest: Carrefour express. 50 new sales points in the past 12 months in Italy. How is the group doing it so fast? Through franchising: that wonderful business invention to spread one’s name quickly without doing the work. A decade ago, the French group was big into acquisitions, buying every ailing supermarket it could get its hands on. Now Carrefour is doing it cheaper: it takes a cut and sees its name as widespread as Latin inscriptions on Roman monuments. Is it killing small family businesses? NO, the very powerful group has done its communication homework: “our sales points belong to small independent entrepreneurs.” No further information on commission and profit margins is given, however, potential franchisees learn that they can rely on the professionalism of a “European leader in the sector”. They need to subscribe to Carrefour’s “Obiettivo Futuro” programme and they can learn about accessing a wide range of Carrefour’s own label (they will have no choice but to buy these products for their retail outlet); or be told how to benefit from business and space planning advice. In other words, they will have to adopt the Carrefour business model if they want the name. How independent an entrepreneur can be in such conditions? We live in a world where the big fish eat the small ones, but if the small fish cannot reproduce themselves, only the sharks will remain.
Ultimately, I don’t give a damn about Carrefour business model and the rhetoric that goes with it. But I care about Rome. I like to wander around its cobblestone streets and stumble across unusual boutiques, I like to have my morning espresso at a real coffee roaster and not at a Nespresso outlet. I like to have pasta alle vongole in that one particular trattoria or buy bread where it is still baked on the premises. I like Rome for its strong identity and indifference to passing trends. After all, the city has been around for 2,500 years, it has witnessed the rise and fall of so many human ventures, so who are we to even pretend to outpace it? Carrefour may think it is on a conquering crusade, but in 50 years it will have gone and hopefully Rome will still be there. In the meantime, I refuse to shop there.
