The Starbucks Effect

What is most striking about central Mexico is the lack of diversity. The sky is one shade of blue, the clouds one shade of white, the dirt and grass share a golden hue typical of somewhere as arid as this; one species of tree dots the landscape, broken up only by one species of cactus. It is both dreary and appealing in its simplicity.

Commerce in Mexico can follow this same pattern. At the bus terminal where I write this, there are no less than five "Deli Mart Express" shops within sight of each other. All sell the same products, at the same prices. In the city center earlier, there was a coffee chain stationed on three of four sides of the plaza; only a massive cathedral prevented them from dominating the zocalo. A side street designed for pedestrian shopping leaves you with a feeling of deja vu; passing certain chain stores every block and then turning away and seeing another across the street.

I understand how a barren region might support only a handful of species, but a bustling city of over a million residents? How is it that certain shops can thrive on the traffic from a single block, knowing that a consumer on the next block, or the opposite side of the plaza, has no incentive to come to you? Even if one person owns the chain, wouldn´t it make sense to put any other kind of shop there instead? It worked for Starbucks for a while, but even that empire couldn´t sustain itself. We need economies built like jungles, not deserts.