According to my calculations, my town would have to triple in size before Wal-Mart would consider building here. We’re safe for a while.

SMALLVILLE GROWING PAINS

Letter to editor of Smallville paper:

“. . . Smallville needs more food stores, drug and hardware stores. How come only Safeway is in Smallville? No competition. Smallville doesn’t change. Gas prices stay high. The few stores that are there charge too high of prices. They don’t care. That is why we shop in Metropolis, sixty miles away. At least there is competition. When will the people of Smallville ever learn? Sir, when my subscription runs out, no more renewals.”

L.D., Smallville

Therein lies the dilemma of Smallville, and Smallvilles all across the country.

If we were to ask Mr. L.D. why he lives in Smallville, he might answer, “Less pollution, less crime, no traffic jams, local school control, better view, more peaceful atmosphere, friendlier people, . . . it’s easier to be a big fish.”

Supply and demand is a basic rule of economics. It is also safe to say that big-time supermarkets, hardware stores, discount warehouses, movie theaters, fast-food chains, and pharmacies have studied and are aware of every Smallville from sea to shining sea. Their research staffs know to the nearest gnat’s eyebrow the population base and buying power of each community. And when the time is right they will strike. And when they do, they will replace and eliminate those businesses presently supplying the needs of Smallville folks. To the point that they are the only places in town to shop. Then they will raise their prices until demand stimulates even bigger competition. On and on and on.

The only way to please Mr. L.D. is for Smallville to become more like Metropolis. To grow until he himself becomes an anonymous fish in a crowded sea of goods and services. Then he will begin complaining about the congestion, the crime, the pollution, the long lines, and the fact that no one listens to him anymore.

So he will move to another Smallville where life is at a slower pace, he can still get served coffee by a real waitress, have a charge account at the hardware store, where the barber knows his name, and the local paper will print his letters to the editor.

For those of us who live in Smallville, there’s a little Mr. L.D. in each of us. We should be careful what we wish for.