The Two Main Streets
I walk along Alberta Street. The store on the corner sells musical instruments and equipment. Next to it is a French bakery and restaurant, a children’s toy store, a vegan Jewish deli and across the street, an art gallery and a bank.
The tourist bureau calls it Main Street U.S.A, mixing nostalgia for the days before malls and Amazon, playing with Portland’s quirky counter-culture charm.
There’s a second main street, though, that resides within this one.
“Can I speak to someone in marketing?” I ask the young man at the front desk of the bank. The name and the brightly colored ads suggest the bank is locally owned.
“They’re in Oakland,” the young man tells me.
“Can I get their name and contact info? I ask. After all, they’re a bank and according brightly colored posted that decorate the bank, they are all about supporting the community.”
“No.” He smiles pleasantly, but his tone is firm. “We don’t give out personal emails.”
“I am not asking for a personal email.” I explain. “This is concerning business.”
“Go to our website. There’s a contact form you can use.” This is not the first time I’ve been speaking to a person at a business and been told that no one is available to speak with me directly. The young man assures me that whoever answers the info@ emails will answer my question.
But I am fairly certain that an email sent to info@ will never make it to the person in charge of marketing. I also have doubts as to whether it will be read by a human being.
The corporation is designed to repel the general public. People like me.
I continue my trying to talk to business owners along main street. I ask the owner of a busy pet hospital about advertising. The local newspaper did a feature on them when they opened the month before. She woman at the front counter, juggles answering the phone and talking to me. When I explain what I want, she tells me to wait, while she looks up the person in charge of marketing, who lives in Omaha, Nebraska. “We’re love your newspaper.” she says, handing me the email address scribbled on a yellow stickie. “We just don’t have the power to make decisions.”
Although the businesses along Alberta street look like locally owned small businesses, there are in fact two main streets:
In a corporately controlled businesses, the people who live and work in the community, who interact with the public on a daily basis, don’t have the power to make big decisions.
And the people who do make the big decisions, don’t live in the community, nor do they interact with the people their businesses serve.
Does this make a difference?
I think it does. But I’d love to know what you think.
Read this post and more on my Typeshare Social Blog
