America standardized

One thing really bothered me after I came to the US: There seems to be too many chain stores than I would enjoy seeing in my life. From grocery stores to supermarkets, from fast food to high-end restaurants, from retailers to department stores, perhaps also add in hotels, gas stations, and anything you can think of. In almost every business, you can think of a few dominating companies that come to your mind immediately.

I thought it is because I lived in LA, a major city, so I got more chances to see these chain stores trying to claim their share of the big market. But as I traveled across the country, my last hope was shattered. Now I have collected enough samples to safely claim that America, after all, is a highly standardized country for daily life experience. It doesn't matter where you are - East coast or West coast, you end up stuck with the same stores.

Coming from a country where small business, especially retailers and food shops flourish, I personally find the situation of business standardization in US boring and annoying, almost to a point of intolerable. In US, people can travel thousands of miles but still eat at the same restaurants, shop at the same stores, and stay at the same hotel chain. To me, this is nothing but boredom.

I understand that at times people want services that are up to a standard, especially when they come to a unfamiliar city. Therefore, the chain stores provide an easy way for people to know what they are getting by the names. This is of course a concern, especially for things that a standard must be met but it is difficult to tell before one uses the service. Hotels, gas, and car maintenance are the things I could think of. So I am less against chain stores in these categories.

On the contrary, I am particularly angry about the fast food and retailer chains. Do the names McDonald or Wendy make my hamburger more tasty? Do I trust fried chicken made in Kentucky better? Do people have to hang a bell in front of the store before they can make good taco? So why am I seeing all these chain stores for more than 100 times on the way across the country, to the extent that I doubt people don't know how to make hamburgers, fried chicken, and taco if the store name is changed. This doesn't make sense to me, because I know if people go to these fast food restaurants, the objective is not to look for a high standard meal. It is just to get something to eat and get full. So what is the point to make such places standardized to have something not so attractive to expect and deprive the fun of having different restaurants add their own twists to the food? I understand that eventually hamburgers or fries cannot be very different from one another, but I would be much happier to see stores trying to be different and failing to do so, rather than trying to be the same and failing to do so (That's true. If you notice, the fast food chain stores still taste different from one to the other)!! Back in Taiwan, there are countless of small restaurants or food stands providing basic food, such as fried rice, various noodles, etc. Because they do not belong to the same chain, so there is always difference, for good or bad, when I enter a new place. Although most of them still end up similar because the basic food just cannot be very different, this always adds additional fun into an ordinary meal. I am just sick and tired seeing the same store signs, menu, and interior decoration all over the place. Variety is the spice of live, and think this is particularly true when food is concerned.

By the same token, I also dislike seeing the same grocery stores, department stores, and household item retailers. It is after all the product I buy that matters, not the shop where I get it from. I am perfectly fine if I don't have Target, Albertsons, Walmart, BestBuy, or Office Depot around, as long as there are still shops for me to get towels, fruits, cans, hard drives, and printer papers. In fact, I would be much happier if I am not bombarded by the omnipresence of these too familiar names. As opposed to getting products from well-established producers ensures the quality of the goods I get, I just don't see a point of having well-established retailers.

I understand there is an economical drive behind all this, what we generally refer to as "scale of economy". But after traveling all the way across the country seeing the same signs of all the chain stores, I felt like I am traveling in the world of sameness. My daily life experience cannot be very different whether I am in LA or NY or Seattle or Chicago, wherever you name it. Because wherever I am, I still visit branches of the same chains for my basic needs, and hence the daily routines become essentially the same. This fact, to me, has really become a thorn in the back that I know I can never get rid of.

One thing remains puzzling to me: While the mainstream value of America honors diversity and variety, encourages people to pursue different ideas, and promotes that every person is unique and valuable, how can American people tolerate such a world that you see chain stores in almost everything? Isn't this idea of standardization, lack of variety and uniqueness against the key value? It seems to me that what we believe and what's happening in the real life are totally contradictory, and within that I am dully confused.