Uneasy Rhetoric

Anita Creamer’s column in today’s Bee about the impending opening of an Ikea mothership said something I’ve been saying for a long time:

In Sacramento, we’re particularly susceptible to falling for big chains’ sales pitches before we even know what we’re buying.

We’re always so pitifully grateful that they notice we’re here–a population of smaller market consumers yearning for the chance to consume just like they do in the big markets.

Perhaps it served our collective self-esteem poorly that all throught the 1990s [even earlier, actually] our civic leaders talked about turning Sacramento into a world-class city, thus leading residents to the logical conclusion that it was anything but….

…The local frenzy [over Ikea] is about to begin; the crowds are poised to descend. Woo-hoo, guys: we’re about to join the global cult of consumerism.

Again.

I’ve certainly been guilty of implying Sacramento is less than a world-class city. It is less than a world-class city, but that doesn’t make it any less of a great place.

Sacramento has its share of independent cafes, art galleries, good restaurants, live theater, and things to see and do. And “world-class” cities like San Francisco or Seattle or Vancouver BC have their share of Starbucks, big-box retailers, and fast food joints.

Part of the problem here, though, is that Sacramento’s cultural zeitgeist is so dominated by people who don’t live in town. You know who I’m talking about–the kind of people who read Sacramento Magazine as though it weren’t an advertising rag and who vote for Starbucks as best local coffee shop or, worse, Taco Bell as best Mexican (if someone has a copy of that issue, I’d like a copy of the article–it was about ten years ago).

Which isn’t to say there aren’t plenty of people in the Sacramento region who care about Sacramento for being what it is– a mid-sized city or a large capital city. The problem is there are a critical mass of those for whom trendspotting is only a prelude to the real sport: trendfollowing. Hence the disproportionate worship of the chain.

Will that stop me from shopping at Ikea? Probably not. I’m as susceptible to cheap furniture as the next guy. But I’m going to keep complaining until Starbucks disappears from the top three of the “best local coffee” in the SN&R. Starbucks is good coffee, but there has to be at least three truly local shops that serve coffee that is just as good or better.

And, in defense of Sacramento, you could plop down this same Ikea outside of any world-class city and you’d have the same class of nutjobs who just have to risk life and limb in order to participate in the crush of those first fool/hardy/ish Ikea consumers.