At a certain stage in life, even as you might attempt to swallow the phrase, it will slip from your mouth: “back in the day” – and your conversational partner will immediately recognize that a walk down memory lane is about to commence. They may smile politely, perhaps stifling a grimace in the process, or they may roll their eyes. Occasionally, okay – rarely, they will be eager to learn about your experience. Meanwhile, you are thinking about alternatives to the above pet phrase: would

“you remember when” be better or “once upon a time?” Not really. So—————-

 

Back in the day, in a typical mid-sized suburban community, there often would be a convergence of the two most important local roads, culminating in an intersection where a wide variety of small local businesses and services were distributed among the four corners.

 

Today, that four corner imagery has been rendered obsolete. Interstate highways have both extended the consumer’s reach and homogenized the store landscape. The corporatization of America has made it difficult for the single location entrepreneur to compete. And now every product imaginable can be delivered to your door, either that of your car or of your house.

 

Enter the new four corners line-up: McDonald’s, Starbucks, Urgent Care, and Generic Smoke Shop.

 

With all due respect to the Egg McMuffin, the story of McDonald’s is one of managements ability, and that of its franchisees, to operate thousands of outlets around the world without anybody being mystified about what to expect from Mickey D’s. People value that purchase/product predictability to the point where healthy eating considerations are buried. The fries are too good, when hot that is.

 

Starbucks’ success is part psychology, part product, and part snobbism. A cup of coffee actually costs pennies to make; as a store offering, its price should be a dollar or two. As a Starbucks coffee, its dramatically higher price reflects the must-have special stuff added to the beans and the sense of socialization available to those customers sitting solo with their laptops and lattes.

 

Urgent Care is the satellite healthcare location for that big hospital a couple of miles away. If one believes cost to the patient will be lower because the facility has less overhead, a smaller staff, and a reduced list of medical capabilities, think again. Urgent Care, even if technically a “non-profit,” is run under the same bottom line business principles as any profit-seeking enterprise.

 

Generic Smoke Shop is, for now, a local entrepreneurial interloper. It sells products that not long ago were either illegal or frowned upon. It is an easy entry business, even with the cost of regulatory compliance, and as a result, it is highly fragmented. In time, there will be a consolidation; some proprietors will have decided they would rather smoke their product than sell it. If they have signed a good lease and generated a modicum of goodwill, they have an asset that is attractive to the prospective Big Smoke Shop Company, which will feel right at home with their neighbors.

 

The new four corners is recognizable to everybody, including those passing through as a result of an interstate highway exit. Only a cynic would point out that if you frequent McDonald’s or Starbucks or Generic Smoke Shop too much, you are on your way to becoming a customer of Urgent Care. Only somebody fondly (and selectively, for sure) recalling “back in the day” would yearn for

Joe’s Hamburgers, Mary’s Coffee Place, Sal’s Cigarette Store, or Doc Franklin.