All the Stores look the same

When I was home last month I was amazed at all the building going on. It seemed like every city I visited was having one or two of these big box stores built. You know the ones with the oversized book store, shoe store, clothing stores, and restaurants. Add those to all the existing malls, and I was wondering where they would find people to shop at all these places. I guess the nice thing is that every community now has one of every shop close by.

That is not the case here. I was sitting at the bus stop waiting for my friends yesterday and noticed that all the shops I was facing sold the same thing. They were all paper stores, if one didn’t have the colour of paper you needed, or the type of pen you were looking for all you need to do is head to the next store, just a few feet away. The more I got thinking about it the more I realized that is how all stores are out here. There are all the baking supply stores down one street, the toilet seats sold on another street, shoe alley, the used cell phone corner, the computer market, the sporting good stories, the DVD market, and carpet shops, even all the shoe shining guys seem to sit side by side in the same place. The convenience of having one of everything is gone. If you want to buy something you have of think where in town are the shops that sell that stuff. Talk about competitive sales… if the guy in one store doesn’t agree to your bargaining price you can just walk next store and see if they will give you a better price there.