green beam city

I always find shopping at Market Village/Pacific Mall very stressful. There's something about these independent stores that just breeds inconvenience. They never accept credit, and there's always some price floor for using Debit.

A few weeks ago, I was heading to Market Village to get some Vitasoy for a picnic event. Vitasoy is perhaps the best drink for this occasion because it did not require me to bring a cooler, nor did it require me to bring cups (had I brought large drink containers).

I grabbed six six-packs: two malt, two lemon teas, and two regular soy milk. I happily realized that there's a sale for them for 3 for $9, which was a pretty awesome deal. As I proceeded to the check out, the cashier spoke to me in Mandarin, and I vaguely heard something about her putting my purchases on two separate transactions- my uncertainty was cleared up when I witnessed her only scanning the first three packs in.

I wasn't exactly sure why she did this, but I didn't really question-- especially as there's now a clear language barrier.

I didn't have enough cash on me to pay for both purchases (typical me), so I pulled out my bank card, hoping to pay by Debit. The cashier recognizes my intent to pay with Debit and replies something I didn't understand. I tried speaking to her in both Cantonese (my mother tongue) and English, but nothing worthwhile was exchanged between us.

I sensed the issue was the about the need to purchase over a certain amount in order to use debit, which I later found out on the sign that you need a purchase of $10 or more.

So here comes the dilemma, and it's better demonstrated with math.

3 packs = $9

Thus,
6 packs = $18

Pretty simple, right? So I tried to tell her that my purchase is clearly over $10, so I didn't get it. So now I'm awkwardly standing there not knowing what's going on. Luckily, after ten seconds of silence and nothingness, the nearby cashier told me in Cantonese that there's a 3-pack limit per customer.

I finally get it. But it still doesn't solve with my situation. I seem to have fallen through the cracks of the supermarket's policies: I need to spend more than $10 to pay via Debit, but I'm limited to buying just 3 packs per transaction.

So what did I do? I disappointingly left with no Vitasoy.

After having some time to absorb what happened, I find it quite sad that two Chinese-Canadians were not able to understand one another.

Comments (1)

"I guess Queen Street West is officially dead now," a Globe and Mail piece writes.

As you may have heard, Pages bookstore in the heart of Queen and John will be officially closing as of August 31, 2009.

Obviously the demise of a bookstore that has been in business for 30 years is surely tragic, and it seems like this just one piece of the continued fall of (1) Queen Street West, (2) independent bookstores, and (3) independent retailing altogether.

Pages cites the inability to find an alternative location with suitable rent for its closure. But really when it comes down to it, people are simply not buying enough books.

Down the street on Queen Street East, the Librairie Champlain, Toronto's only french bookstore also closed its doors in May, citing similar reasons: not enough sales. In response to this, World's Biggest Bookstore (an Indigo brand) opens a French-language boutique in an attempt to fill that consumer void.

This makes me wonder: Are independent retailers doomed in this increasingly corporate retail environment? Should we accept the demise of these retailers simply that they weren't responsive to market conditions? Are there systemic issues (e.g. low corporate taxes) that make independents lose its competitive edge?

More importantly, are independents really worth saving?

Vertigo Books, a Maryland bookstore that encountered a similar fate as Pages, says yes.

Vertigo claims that our shopping dollars "help create the community [we] want to live in" and presents an anecdote that for every $10 you spend at locally-owned businesses, $4.50 stays in our community. Here's a list of their comparisons.

• Vertigo Books $4.50
• Barnes & Noble / Borders / Costco $1.30
• Amazon $0.00

Whether these numbers are reliable or not, I think we can agree that independents do (or have the opportunity to) make a greater contribution to the local community than corporate chains. Independents (1) are more likely to offer higher wages, (2) are more likely to demonstrate commitment to its staff, (3) are more likely for staff to be committed to the store, (4) are more receptive to local products and talent, and (5) are simply more responsive to local conditions.

Corporate chains like Chapters-Indigo operate on a national level. Their corporate structure, large operational scale, and strive for a consistent "store experience" simply makes it too rigid to be responsive to local demands. Having worked at Chapters, I can tell you that the books displayed on promotional tables at each Chapters, Indigo, and Coles store are preselected each month by corporate head office. There's simply no interest in featuring local talent and surely is no true interest in creating community.

Online bookstores follow a similar predicament. There's no chance to bring about that sense of local community.

The anecodal numbers presented by Vertigo does have a point. Money made in an independent store are likely to remain in the local community, while money made by a corporation are much more geographically diffused and are proportionately held by fewer hands (e.g. executives).

So what can we do? I admit, I'm a bit of a hypocrite. It's just so easy to buy a book on Amazon-- the economics makes it a no-brainer. But how can we redistribute the competitive advantage of firms? The only thing I can think of is to introduce taxes-- increased taxes for corporations.

At the same time, I'm sure there are externalities for increasing corporate taxes, especially as we're increasingly competing in a uncontrolled global marketplace.

Essentially, I think independents are doomed, but I'm intrigued to hear your ideas to keep independents alive.

Photo by Tim Shore of BlogTO.

Deadpool Looming for Pages Bookstore - [blogto.com]
Pages to Fold - [torontoist.com]
Save Pages Facebook group - [facebook.com]
Goodbye: We are Closing - [vertigobooks.blogsome.com]

Comments (2)