In the [Los Angeles] Sentinel interview, Young was asked about whether he was concerned Wal-Mart causes smaller, mom-and-pop stores to close.Except for the fact that, in my experience, the Muslims in the urban convenience store game tend not to be Arabs (demographic fun fact -- most Arab-Americans are Christian and most American Muslims aren't Arabs), isn't this roughly accurate? I appreciate the neighborly service at my local ammi and abbu shop with the classy bulletproof glass around the behind-the-counter area and the moldy-looking apples as much as the next guy. But the last time that really manifested itself was when the proprietor advised me not to buy his milk, which had all gone bad due to inadequate refrigeration, but was still there and seemingly on sale."Well, I think they should; they ran the 'mom and pop' stores out of my neighborhood," the paper quoted Young as saying. "But you see, those are the people who have been overcharging us, selling us stale bread and bad meat and wilted vegetables. And they sold out and moved to Florida. I think they've ripped off our communities enough. First it was Jews, then it was Koreans and now it's Arabs; very few black people own these stores."
Regulatory measures aimed at actually improving working conditions for people at big box retail outlets are great. I worry, though, that progressives are sometimes serving as useful idiots in little retail's efforts to defend itself against larger retail outlets that offer better goods at lower prices. It's not, after all, as if mom and pop are offering pension plans and full health benefits to the local kids either. Keeping inner-city neighborhoods chain-free doesn't help anybody; what you need to do is create a situation where the stores exist but treat people better. The racial demagoguery angle is uncalled for, but it's still the case that progressives shouldn't be making a comprehensive defense of mom and pop the center of our approach to dealing with the economics of retail work.
--Matthew Yglesias
