Ch-ch-chains of fools
I think it's been made well clear that I avoid chains stores and restaurants for the most part. It's not that I have any problem with the stores themselves. As much as I believe that corporate greed will be the eventual ruin of this country, I have to admit that chains tend to be better run and have better quality and prices.
The main reason that I avoid chains is more because I feel that they homogeneous life. People are robbing their lives and senses of nostalgia by going to the same stores and restaurants in every city they live in. I'd rather have a mediocre meal that reminds me of a particular time and place than a good meal that's the same in every place I get it. It reminds of the time my family was driving through west Texas, where they must film all those car-breaks-down-in-desert commercials and we stopped at this hamburger place that was nothing but some spare lumber and plastic-sheet windows, and the place was packed. My family always remembers and reminisces about that place, but we don't think twice about the Wendys we stopped at in Alabama or any one of the billion Chilis or Outbacks.
So while I'll occasionally go to a Chipotle or Starbucks (and enjoy it), and while I believe that the competition has generally been good for the quality of life, both local-owned and chained, I'm sorry to see when local places go out of business.
EXCEPT...(yes, it took me this long to get to the main point)
...in the case of music stores. Those places were the bane of my existence growing up. Any given music store that I went into in any place in the country was a den of snobbery and nastiness. No one was any help and if they employees could stop talking long enough to even pay attention to me, they would be so condescending, rude and short that it would make me promise to never set foot in there again until I absolutely needed a new pair of sticks.
It's not that the Guitar Center is much better. They're a little more helpful, but that probably has more to do with the fact that I'm now a grownup with my own income and much more likely to be buying big-ticket items (even though I'm actually looking for the cheapest deals) and there's still those guys shredding on the flying Vs. I'm just completely fine with seeing those small time music stores fall away. If they're gonna be snobby, rude and unhelpful, at least they can have a good selection.
As an extra added bonus today, I'll now present my favorite moments of Metallica: Some Kind Of Monster, which I watched last night:
- New bassist Robert Trujillo being completely awestruck at being told he'd be a full member of the band and getting a million dollar advance.
- Watching the band argue about what to name the new album
- Lars getting all excited about one of the songs come together
- Lars's son playing drums
- Watching the therapist getting all worked up about getting dumped
- Watching the band, after going through years of putting an album together, finally getting on stage
1 comment:
We have one of those Guitar Centers down the way from us, and I went in there recently to just check it out - the place was hilarious - straight out of Wayne's World. But, I will say, the help was pretty helpful - and actually nice...which I was pleasantly surprised by. And I was just looking for a thing to clean records with (the guy did ask me if I was a dj though, which was kinda flattering really).
Anyway, I think music stores probably equal bike stores in obnoxiousness (maybe they have the same managers) - and if big chain stores had the same stuff that small bike shops had, I would probably just shop there. Actually, now thanks to the internet, I now mostly just buy most of the stuff I need online...it's usually cheaper, and you don't have to deal with righteous bike store guys. There are a few exceptions of course, but for the most part, going into a bike shop just really intimidates the hell out of me (even if the stuff is cool).
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