OK...please bear with me... [RANT] I was at Pride in July with my work (Starbucks). We were in the parade, and so I was wearing a Starbucks shirt. Three times while wandering the downtown core I was told by complete strangers to "support local business." I was getting sick of it, and then as I'm coming out of a Starbucks with a drink, another guy says the same thing. So I say, "wait, I have a question for you." He stops, and my friends look at me, puzzled. And I proceeded to rant on him, and sounded something like what is written below. Has it ever occured to anyone that Starbucks began as a local business in Seattle? Should they really be punished for being successful? At what point does a business no longer fit the criteria to be local? When it opens up more than a certain number of stores? When it expands beyond the municipality, the province? The Country? Overseas? Once it expands, does that small independent local business no longer deserve your support, simply because they used that support to expand? If so, that really speaks to the Loyalty of those who provide that wavering support. Of course this was all waisted on this skater hooligan who confronted me, but I felt better. [/RANT] Thanks for listening, everyone. I feel better now.
Yeah, I think people have a tendency to pull for the underdog, but once the underdog starts succeeding, he/she becomes the enemy. It's weird how that works. I guess it doesn't seem fair, does it? But we see this motif all over the place. In sports. Think about music, too... Lots of people are all about the indie artists, thinking their music is really great, but then if they become popular, those original fans are less inclined to keep following their music, just b/c they've become popular.
