Ever see a cowboy at Macy's?
I'd like to link the pending merger of Federated and May, the disappointing financial results at Albertson's, TV networks, and cowboy movies.
The merger is phrased in terms of competitiveness, but what it really means is the decline of the classic department store. When I was a kid in the 1970s we went to department stores like Jordan Marsh and Sears to buy everything: clothes, gifts, appliances, etc. There was a nationwide middle-class culture of department stores.
We also bought all of our food in a single supermarket, and all watched one of the three TV networks. Today all these markets have been segmented by income and interest.
You hear it all the time about TV: with cable and satellite, there are all sorts of new channels for people's specific interests. One household may watch Biography and the History Channel, another ESPN, and another MTV. But nobody watches just ABC, NBC, and CBS.
The same thing has happened with department stores. Some people go to Wal-Mart, others to Trader Joes. And grocery stores: some people go to Wal-Mart, others to froufy upscale marts with sprouts. (Compare those two sentences and note the genius of Wal-Mart.) Stores that try to serve everybody are doomed.
There's nothing wrong with this. Just because they were here in the 1970s doesn't mean the three networks, department stores, and supermarkets have been around forever, or deserve special treatment. After all, none of them existed in the 1920s.
For that matter, in the 1970s the nationwide middle-class culture drank Budweiser and listened to Supertramp. Thank God those days are over.
I believe that John Wayne was a big part of that nationwide middle-class culture. The cowboy movie, and its vision of the American West, was a shared cultural dream. But nowadays that dream can be segmented by income and interest.
Skier? Snowboarder? Rock-climber? Petroleum geologist? Real-estate developer? Wilderness advocate? Cattle rancher? Horse rider? Each of you (and there are many more ways to slice and dice it) has a different vision of the West. Some of us fit into multiple categories, and thus have conflicting visions.
There's nothing wrong with this. Just because they were here in the 1970s doesn't mean cowboy movies represent a "real" West. After all, none of them existed in the 1880s.
At the same time change is difficult -- especially when the change involves complexity. Where on earth could this region be headed?
Join the discussion at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/johnclaytonoutreach/
The merger is phrased in terms of competitiveness, but what it really means is the decline of the classic department store. When I was a kid in the 1970s we went to department stores like Jordan Marsh and Sears to buy everything: clothes, gifts, appliances, etc. There was a nationwide middle-class culture of department stores.
We also bought all of our food in a single supermarket, and all watched one of the three TV networks. Today all these markets have been segmented by income and interest.
You hear it all the time about TV: with cable and satellite, there are all sorts of new channels for people's specific interests. One household may watch Biography and the History Channel, another ESPN, and another MTV. But nobody watches just ABC, NBC, and CBS.
The same thing has happened with department stores. Some people go to Wal-Mart, others to Trader Joes. And grocery stores: some people go to Wal-Mart, others to froufy upscale marts with sprouts. (Compare those two sentences and note the genius of Wal-Mart.) Stores that try to serve everybody are doomed.
There's nothing wrong with this. Just because they were here in the 1970s doesn't mean the three networks, department stores, and supermarkets have been around forever, or deserve special treatment. After all, none of them existed in the 1920s.
For that matter, in the 1970s the nationwide middle-class culture drank Budweiser and listened to Supertramp. Thank God those days are over.
I believe that John Wayne was a big part of that nationwide middle-class culture. The cowboy movie, and its vision of the American West, was a shared cultural dream. But nowadays that dream can be segmented by income and interest.
Skier? Snowboarder? Rock-climber? Petroleum geologist? Real-estate developer? Wilderness advocate? Cattle rancher? Horse rider? Each of you (and there are many more ways to slice and dice it) has a different vision of the West. Some of us fit into multiple categories, and thus have conflicting visions.
There's nothing wrong with this. Just because they were here in the 1970s doesn't mean cowboy movies represent a "real" West. After all, none of them existed in the 1880s.
At the same time change is difficult -- especially when the change involves complexity. Where on earth could this region be headed?
Join the discussion at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/johnclaytonoutreach/
