When large chain stores take over something good is lost.
There is a trend that I have noticed on my past few trips to Puerto Rico, which has become even more obvious this trip, maybe because it is Christmas time. It is that shopping here is identical to shopping anywhere else in the United States. Now you might ask “why is that a problem?” Well, I feel that there has been something lost by this homogenization of America, and the world. I first really noticed this 8 years ago when I traveled to Moscow. One of the things I had been looking forward to was seeing the G.U.M. department store. For years I had heard about the “largest department store in the world. It was even in the Guinness Book of World records. Well, I obviously had not kept up with post-soviet changes. I walked into G.U.M. and found a modern mall, complete with all the biggest European and American chains. Bath and body Works, Nike, Addidas, Gap. All were represented. Right outside of Red Square, another, underground mall with more big name stores. I have also see...