4a
Opinion
Friday, February 16, 2001
For comments, contact Chris Borniger or Nathan Willis at 864-4924 or opinion@kansan.com
Perspective
Local businesses shouldn't receive special protection
Some people are alarmed when a local business closes its doors because it cannot compete with a national chain. Many of these people want to shut out national competition. But is sheltering local business a good idea?
Everyone agrees that wasting money and time is a bad thing. We feel good when we discover things we want on sale People who pay full price do not earn our respect. Instead, we pity money-wasters because they have nothing extra to show for the extra money spent.
So why should you patronize local businesses when it could cost you extra?
There are two different answers based on the type of local business we are dealing with. You could honor yourself by shopping at a local business if it provides unique goods or services that cannot be
obtained at a national competitor.
Earlier this semester, Terri Faune, co-owner of The Casbah boutique, 833 Massachusetts St., correctly said in the Kansan, "Some independently owned businesses stay unique enough that chains won't hurt us."
For example, the atmosphere and homemade ice cream at Silos and Moddy's is
Scott Kaiser
columnist
opinion@ansan.com
clearly better than Baskin Robbins. So this local business wins. Same goes for Rudy's Pizza, El Mecal and La Familia.
However, when local businesses sell the same wares as national competitors, they lose out. Assuming that the larger store can buy in larger volumes and pass these savings on to the buyer, it is reasonable to conclude that a national chain can sell the same goods cheaper than a local vendor. Thus, shopping at a national chain will usually be cheaper. And we should reward this thriftiness and efficiency by spending our limited dollars with national chains.
So sometimes it is wise to shop locally, sometimes nationally. However, some people insist that Lawrence adopt a local-only shopping alliance in which shoppers pledge to buy only from homegrown shops to prevent national chains from "destroying" and "oppressing" independent businesses.
Although these advocates often rally behind the banner of "the people," they are not people's champions at all. Instead, they are enemies of those members of our society who are trying to be thrifty and stretch a limited income. In other words, these local-only advocates are tacitly implying that you should pay extra for the privilege of bragging that you buy locally. Isn't "I always shop locally" another way of saying "I usually spend more than you"?
Some people actively deprive themselves of the benefits of efficient shopping. For instance, last fall a group of citizens revealed their remedy to the savings and utility that efficient national businesses were providing Lawrence. They proposed the REAL dollar currency system where people exchange their U.S. currency for REAL dollars, which are spendable only at participating stores in Lawrence. This means no shopping in Kansas City or Topeka or on the Internet.
What's next — embargoes on goods from our foreign competitors in Kansas City and Wichita? Customs duties on clothes brought into Lawrence from Oak Park Mall? Who would voluntarily restrict the places where they can spend money?
Perplexing? Yes. Does it affect me? No.
Most alarming, however, are the efforts by some to eliminate everyone's choice to shop where they want. Faune said that there should be limits on how many national chains could set up shop downtown.
Wrong. Let the local stores compete instead of sheltering them from competition that is beneficial to consumers. And this is the bottom line, as noted by Bill Sepic, president of the Chamber of Commerce: "It is not for us to determine whether a homegrown store is better than a national chain store."
For now, that choice is still yours.
Kaiser is an Overland Park first-year law student.
Nate Beeler/TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICE
Heard on the Hill
With the verdict against Napster, where will you get your music online?
"I just bought a CD burner ... So I don't really know what I'm going to do now."
Monica Lewis
Kansas City,
Kan., junior
"A few people have told me about imesh.com, which is supposed to be a similar program." Matt Jacobs Saling freshman
"I prefer buying CDs to downloading music online because CDs have good sound quality."
Momo Yamamuro Japan junior
"Gnutella. A friend told me about it. It was cool." Jeremy Frazzell Overland Park senior
Perspective
Student housing includes good, bad,a lot of ugly
W When I enrolled at the University of Kansas last spring, I had to decide
where to live. The housing application didn't give me much information about which residence hall would be best for me. Now that I live here, I have a better understanding of student housing. So for those who are planning to return to student housing or for incoming students, here are some of your living options:
McColum Hall - McColum is the big hall at the south end of Engel Road. If you've never been in McColum, congratulations. You haven't exposed yourself to the ugly side of the
University. A Free for All caller said it best: "Did we buy McColum Hall at a garage sale?"
How does the University do a sales pitch for McCollum, anyway?
"McCollum Hall is conveniently located at the farthest corner of campus, just an hour and a half by helicopter from the Kansas Union and only four blocks from the cafeteria, where the food is absolutely horrible. Why is the food horrible? Because we don't have
Ryan Wood guest columnist opinion@kansan.com
Oliver Hall — If a hall with community showers could be considered decent, this is the one. It has its own cateria; it's located to classes and athletic venues; and if you're a male on the 10th floor, you can get a good look at the girls tanning at the Nalshmit Hall pool.
I took a tour of Oliver last spring. The girl giv-
to try. You have to eat there anyway. What are you gonna do, starve? Just kidding."
ing the tour took me to the model room shown on all tours, and it actually turned me off. Housing officials need to make that room appealing, or potential res hall rats will save "no."
Gertrude Sellands Pearson-Corbin Halls — All-female halls. I've never been in there, but I've heard great things, mostly from the male population. "Hey Beavis, a building full of chicks!"
Lewis Hall — Laid out as suites. Recent remodeling has paid off, as the hall is posh and comfortable. But it requires residents to volunteer their time for community service. Doesn't that defeat the purpose of "volunteering"?
Hashinger Hall — A residence hall for fine arts students. Because I can't draw, sing, memorize lines or even write, I doubt they would even let me take a tour of this hall.
Naismith Hall — This is the private hall I live in. The food is good; we have cool arcade games; there's a bathroom for every two rooms; hall staff is more lenient on alcohol; and we have a swimming pool that's great for the first and last month of the school year. Naismith, however, sucks out your life savings. We pay cable bills; we pay extra for a phone; and only the wealthiest 10 percent of Americans can afford our parking passes. With all the money I've poured into Naismith, I could buy a wine of McCollum. Not that I'd want to.
Ellsworth Hall — Ellsworth is easily the most boring hall in Kansas. To Ellsworth residents, I have to ask: What made you say, "Wow, this is where I have to live!"? I'd rather live in my car.
So where should you call home? If you have a money tree in your backyard, try Naismith or Lewis. For the rest of you, stick with Oliver. And don't forget your flip-flops.
Wood is a Lee's Summit, Mo., sophomore in pre-journalism.
Editorial
Checkpoints save lives worth hassle
The prevention of drunken driving outweighs nuisance of being stopped on highway.
On Feb. 3, the Douglas County Sheriff's Department conducted drunken driving checkpoints on Highway 59 south of Lawrence. From 11 p.m. to 1 a.m., sheriff's officers stopped 136 cars and arrested two people for driving under the influence. Those two arrests may have saved someone's life.
Checkpoint stops usually take only a few minutes. The inconvenience that this may cause is trivial when compared with the grave consequences of drunken driving.
The sheriff's department receives a grant from the Kansas Department of Transportation to help cover overtime and other costs of the Feb. 3 checkpoint and the five more it plans to conduct between now and October.
The grant also helps to provide the brochure officers pass out to every stopped motorist. The brochures include drunken driving statistics and help explain the purpose of the checkpoints.
Cathy Slade, the state director of the Kansas Drunk Driving Prevention Project, said the brochures also included an evaluation that asked for feedback from those who went through the checkpoint.
"The majority of the people who fill them out don't mind being stopped," Slade said. "They know that the sheriff's department is trying to keep drunk drivers off the road."
Slade said checkpoints were a major deterrent in keeping drunken drivers off the road. Drunk driving is the leading cause of death for people 15 to 24 years old, and Slade said that the chance that a driver had been drinking increased as the night grew later and that the project supported anything that attempted to reduce the number of intoxicated drivers.
"Drunk driving is a loaded weapon." she said.
And it leads to unnecessary, untimely deaths. Keep that in mind if a drunk-driving checkpoint ever seems to be an inconvenience.
Kate Williams for the editorial board
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all for
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Valentine's Day, schmalentine's day.
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Who is the Einstein who decided to put KU on the only hill in Lawrence?
I think skeptics fear the truth more than they desire it.
Attention Bob Frederick and University of Kansas Athletic Department: Why don't you be like every other Division I school in the nation and make the student section center court on the basketball floor?
Here's a hint to all the Student Senate people involved in lobbying in Topeka today; In case you haven't heard, there's a $50 million budget shortfall for the upcoming year. I don't think you're going to get any more funding than you've already been allocated, so don't even waste your efforts.
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I'm not a racist or anything, but I think it kind of sucks there's Black Entertainment Television and Black History Month and other exclusive Black organizations. But if there was anything like this for Whites, we'd all be looked at as racists.
I just got kicked out, so I moved into a pothole on 15th Street, and the pothole is bigger than my apartment.
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I just took a nap in protest of ridiculous activist groups.
I was really happy to find out today from the Christians handing out candy on campus that Jesus really likes Reese's Pieces because those are my favorite candy also, and I feel closer to Jesus now.
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For all those that are worried about the length of Black History Month: The last I checked, there wasn't a Caucasian month.
Agnostic potholes make me believe Chenowish shouldn't wear white short-sleeved T-shirts. Who wins now?
Wait a second. You guys are telling me that that was soap in those dispensers in Wescoe? I think my nose is in trouble.
Every other university has matching T-shirts at their basketball games. Why can't KU?
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