The wife and I stopped by a local t-shirt shop/art gallery Saturday night, and one of the artists whose work is displayed there also has a few pieces for sale in our local coffee shop. The recurring element in his new pieces is a bleeding Target logo.
This summer several new big box retailers moved into our neck of the woods, just down the way from Atlanta’s trendy-trendy neighborhood and retail district. The developer has a bad reputation for exacerbating urban sprawl, and many in the neighborhood were none too happy about it.
While I am a little worried now about the fate of the neighborhood’s feminist bookstore, so far Little Five Points’ eclectic blend of overpriced t-shirt, fetish ware, and bong shops have not gone out of business. I guess Bed, Bath & Beyond just can’t handle the competition from Cherry Popper and Nothing But Frisbees & Hacky Sacks.
I grew up in the burbs, and I live intown now because I don’t like them. The convenience of having the big boxes just around the corner can’t outweight the vacuous sense of sameness and consumerism that pervades everything. But the Edgewood Retail District, surprisingly, is not the suburbanization of Intown Atlanta that some expected. The development is very walkable and compact, even if it has three Starbucks so far (in Target, Kroger, and B&N). It’s built in such a way that drivers quickly get the idea that they need to slow down, park, and get out of the car. Once it’s finished, I imagine there’ll be a good deal of shoppers arriving by foot and bus.
So I’m going to assume that the bleeding Target logo is not about about the shopping center’s walkability. Just the presence of a Target was probably enough for the artist.
Until the Edgewood Retail District arrive, our part of town, southern DeKalb County, inside the I-285 loop, was almost completely bereft of all big box retailers. Though that may seem like a consumerist-free paradise at first, you must also consider this: South DeKalb is predominantly poor and black. What we lack in Petsmarts and supermarkets, we make up for with liquor stores, check cashers, and pawn shops. Many residents do not own a car. Which means groceries must be bought at an overpriced corner convenience store and everything else at the misnamed Dollar General.
Why should poor, black South DeKalb have to pay more for basic assundries? Isn’t that the consequence of condemning big box expansion here? (And, mind you, the Edgewood Retail District is in the northernmost—that is, richest and whitest—part of South DeKalb at that.)
Shopping at the new Target and Lowes, I’ve noticed something I’m not used to seeing in your average big box retailer: diversity. I’ve noticed working class people shopping in a Target for the first time. I’ve seen white indie twentysomethings in the same checkout lane as black families.
And it isn’t a Wal-Mart. Doesn’t that count for something?
I love Target. Walmart’s not bad either. And, by not bad, I mean, I enjoy shopping there. There’s a lot to be said for the warehouse store – it’s convenient and it’s cheap. Yup – stating the obvious, that’s me.
After living on La France street (which lies right behind the new Edgewood Shopping District)for 10 years, I read your comments with interest. I chose to bail a year and a half ago as constuction was begining, and haven’t looked back. But don’t think that I didn’t think a few times about how easy it would be to walk to Target……….
Sure, it is great that diversity is present, but I still would like to see a report on how Aurora coffee shop is doing now that there are four Starbucks withing easy walking distance.
I think the diversity of the shopping experience is as important as the diversity in skin color/age/and monetary income.
p.s. East Point is great (inside the perimeter and still has trees.)
True about Aurora. I’m not much of a coffee guy, so I sometimes forget that it’s there. It’s odd that they’d put so many Starbucks in the probably the most Starbucks-unfriendly neighborhood in ATL.
One problem with the Big Box stores, besides the low-paying jobs, is that they seem to have the attitude that “If we don’t have it, you don’t need it.” The diversity of goods disappears. Especially the higher quality goods. People have been convinced by advertising in the last few years that price is all that matters in considering “value”. I don’t think it is all that matters, but they are trying hard to brainwash the American public into believing that, and many do. We no longer value good design or dependability or durablity. The brainwashers have succeeded in making us think we can’t afford anything but the cheapest — in government too.