There’s this South Park episode from season 8 where the town’s residents greet the grand opening of a Wal-Mart (sneakily spelled “Wall-Mart” in the episode) with sheer bliss and open wallets. It’s not long, though, that most of the local mom and pop establishments are forced to close their doors—all of their once loyal customers have been lured away to the endless aisles and low, low prices of the mega-huge, international chain. Once the townspeople notice the scope of the damage done to local business, they realize that saving a few bucks on toilet paper and potato chips doesn’t justify it. In typical South Park fashion, the South Park Wal-Mart is burned to the ground by a riotous mob. The point that the show’s creators are making is simple: local business will always take a beating—and will probably be steamrolled—by the Wal-Marts and Best Buys and Targets of the world. New, this message ain’t. But I feel that it’s still important, because independent businesses are still important; they often help fill a gap that the huge chains simply can’t fill.
A few years ago I discovered Houston’s Cactus Music, a locally owned and operated independent music store located a few miles from Downtown. The selection is great, the employees are eager to help, and there’s live music just about every weekend (last weekend Dr. Dog performed a near hour-long set to a packed store). For a music lover, Cactus is just about as good as it can get—and in Houston, it means a lot to have an Austin-worthy music house.
