Welcome to Starbucksville

I’ve written many a blog about my love for working in downtown Chicago. I could go on and list of all the reasons again but I don’t want to bore everyone. However, something is going on in Chicago that makes my stomach turn and I see no way to stop it. You see it seems corporate America has finally beaten our great city down, as well and try as we might to fight it we are getting our collective ass kicked.

Slowly but surely Chicago is losing what makes it great, its uniqueness. I love being able to go to a local watering hole or restaurant. I will always maintain you will get a better product and better service from an independent business then from a chain. Well, Chicago our local companies are continually going away and no one seems to give a shit.

The latest casualty is the Bergoff restaurant. I have been eating at the Bergoff ever since I worked in the loop. With their German pot roast, bratwurst, German potato salad and homemade rootbeer, the Bergoff has always been one of my favorite places to grab a meal. Sadly, the owners who are getting up in age decided to close. The daughter is going to run her catering business out of the building but let’s not kid ourselves. They are just biding their time before they sell their building and rake in the millions it is worth.

On top of that there will no longer be a Marshall Fields. Somehow the dolts who run the company think it is a better idea to change the name on all the stores to Macy’s. (Typical East coast bullshit where they think anything west of the Hudson River is second-class.) To most people this is no big deal. You see they are all happy shopping at Wal-Mart, eating Big Mac’s and drinking Starbucks. They have stopped giving a shit and they either never cared to begin with or were brain washed into watching Chicago turn into just another city with nothing unique about it.

Well, I still care. I care because I love this city. I love that we are like no other place I’ve ever been to. I like that I can still go to a bar not called TGI Fridays. I like that I can still buy records somewhere other then Best Buy. (Though sadly my favorite local record store Rolling Stone is closing its doors.) I like having a choice and don’t want to eat lunch every day at the Corner Bakery. I just looked on their website and there are now thirteen of them located in the loop. If it is not a Corner Bakery it is a Starbucks opening up. I also did a search on Starbuck's website and put my buildings address in. I searched within a five-mile radius and came up with eighty-seven locations with in that radius. If that is not saturating the market I don’t know what is.

So, as I slowly start seeing my city become something I despise I get sad. I am sad because eventually all choice will be gone. There are like four banks left and five airlines. We no longer have a choice. We must live with our corporate warlords who we keep shoveling our money to. Maybe I am just an old crotchety man who is overly sentimental and can’t accept change. Or maybe I am the last of a dying breed, a breed that likes choice and likes to think for themselves. My only hope is that the few remaining Chicago institutions keep fighting the good fight and with at least with this consumer they have an ally.