March 2, 2025
It is Sunday, March 2nd. Want to know what sticks in my craw today?
The “Eat Local Anti-Chainers.”
The Eat Local Anti-Chainers say things like “I only support local. I don’t support chains.” That’s a real quote made on one of my posts. It is such an ignorant statement. As if the two are mutually exclusive. “I cannot support a chain restaurant because I only support local.”
Let’s discuss an example of a restaurant in Wichita that is a chain restaurant (there are many, of course). I have one in my mind, but will not name it. It’s a franchised chain. The restaurant is owned by a local dude whom was born and raised in Wichita and hires local residents to work at his store. All he does is pay a fee to some company to use the name.
What makes a local guy that owns a restaurant that pays people in town to work for him not “local?” Is it because he pays a franchise fee to someone out of state to use the name? Is that the litmus test? Whether someone has a contract with someone out of state to pay a franchise fee?
Of course that is not it. But the problem with the Eat Local Anti-Chainers is that they do not want to do the work to figure out the difference between (a) a Sonic that is owned by a couple that has lived in a community for 60-years, hires a bunch of local kids and donates times and resources to the community; and (b) a Sonic that is owned by a corporation formed in Delaware consisting of 20 LLC members that own 400 Sonics throughout the United States.
I support and eat local. But I also do just a little bit of work to figure out what that means. There are many chain restaurants in Kansas that are owned by huge corporations not based in Kansas and not keeping their money in the community. But there’s a helluva lot of chain restaurants that are owned by some local guy, gal or couple and they are in the community and keeping their money in the community.
But the Eat Local Anti-Chainers do not want to do the work to figure it out. I guess it is easier to say “I only support local. I don’t support chains.”
