Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/01/23
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Doug and others, I am actually American (albeit naturalized), have lived in the States for many years, and am perfectly familiar with WalMart's business strategy. I had no intention of starting a discussion about the merits of large suburban shops vs. the Main Street. While I do agree that WalMark and suburban malls in general have done some damage to many U.S. towns, the situation is quite different in Europe. The biggest difference is that in most European cities and towns there is a large middle class population living in the city center. That will always ensure a certain vitality, no matter how many WalMarts are built on the outskirts. By contrast, in many U.S. cities the only people you will see downtown after working hours are the homeless and the poor. When I lived in Tampa in the late 80s, most downtown department stores closed at 5 p.m. (a ridiculously early time by U.S. standards) because that is when the office workers went home to the suburbs. Anyway, I just posted a picture of some shopping carts... Nathan - -- Nathan Wajsman Herrliberg (ZH), Switzerland e-mail: wajsman@webshuttle.ch Photo-A-Week: http://www.wajsman.com/indexpaw2002.htm General photo site: http://www.wajsman.com/index.htm - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html