Why is it that Mom & Pop shops can survive in the cities but not in the suburbs? Neighborhood restaurants and boutique stores, hole in the wall ethnic cuisines and little trinket shops… they exist and thrive in urban areas. Areas where I imagine real estate is not cheap but business must be consistent enough to keep them alive. I have asked around to figure this out; most people told me that San Francisco has some sort of ban on big chain restaurants and stores. Recently I started looking into this and could not find any facts to back it up. I do think there is some truth to the zoning laws and restrictions but there is more to it than that. It is common throughout many cities in the US. I think a lot of it has to do with the people and consumer habits and thoughts. Shopping and fashion is in many ways the exception, considering the fact that name brands often matter even more in urban areas, so designer stores and popular brands can do extremely well. Trendy Foods can also find their niche in the city, most anything can. And I’m sure that the chain places in the cities still do very well. So why is it rare to see local Mom & Pop restaurants pop up in the suburbs? Not enough people, too expensive? Perhaps people have a hard time trying something new, or they are too cheap, or maybe there are just not very many restaurant entrepreneurs who want to live in the burbs? Maybe there's not enough family/kid friendly appeal, since those are the primary groups in the suburbs? But I have seen spaces in suburban strip malls that have had several different small businesses come and go in the space and each one just can’t seem to make it. Small cities struggle too, and the more homogenous the area, the more difficulty there is for unique/individual places to survive. Tourist towns are often an exception because there is enough traffic to keep things alive. But then again- why? Is it because the visitors are city folks? Or because they are the traveling or adventurous type? One pattern certainly is that the older, the bigger, the more diverse and the more transient the city is… the more likely you will see a little place that you have never seen before. I also think coastal cities have an advantage of access to more types of food and usually more fresh food. Of course, there are plenty of very isolated small towns across the country and throughout the world that are unique and full of their own charm. There’s something about middle class America that screams, “Best Buy” and “Chili’s” and “brand new town homes", or organized developments. Places where everything is new, and stucco and in a chain that you have seen duplicate models of time and time again if you have done any road trips in the past five years then you know what I mean. I’m not saying there is anything wrong with this or bad about these places. I too love my endless Olive Garden Salad and breadsticks! But I’m curious about the social phenomena of it all and wonder why it all plays out the way that it does. Do these massive chains scare away the little guys? Is it like the Bookstore battle in “You’ve got mail?” I would be fascinated to see some of the business consultant stats and figures that they have on their target markets, and wonder which ones flop and why? I am curious why so many great little shops and cafes just can’t make it, and why the ones that do, are successful? And what cities or areas do places like Applebee’s avoid and why? I assume they don’t like the beatnik neighborhoods that are always trying to rebel against the norm. There must be a lot of strategy behind it all, and there’s the marketing and PR and internet sending us all sorts of messages that we just don’t receive about the little guys. I don’t know where they get their research but it’s clearly there, we are numbers in their stats. Market research is a big player, done through little things like when we are randomly asked our zip code.... Anyway- besides my curiosity about these chain giants, I am still not sure about the factors that keep Mom & Pop shops afloat but I am quite sure there is some correlation among these random thoughts that I have been spewing out.
