chains, chains, chains

[melidasaur]

Inspired by the Corporations you love/hate thread, I decided to share.

I am moving in a month from Chapel Hill, NC to Champaign-Urbana, IL. Both cities are home to major universities.

Chapel Hill is a really quirky place - a liberal refuge in the bible belt. Lots of unique botiques, locally own restaurants and a great downtown that runs right next to the UNC campus. Focusing more on the food, you can get a great gourmet meal just about anywhere in town - my favorite being Crook's Corner (www.crookscorner.com). Even the restaurants located on Franklin Street that cater to the college crowd (ie cheap eats) are unique and locally owned. Chapel Hill has very few franchise/chain restaurants. There is an Applebee's, your typical pizza places, and fast food restaurants - but not a lot. The town abhors chains... so it's surprising that we even have what we have.

Champaign-Urbana, on the other hand, is home to practically every chain restaurant/store I know. Even on the main street through the college town, most of the restaurants are chain restaurants. Absolutely no origniality. While it was funny to see all of these chain restaurants, it also made me a bit sad.

It seems that a town now gauges it's success by the presence of all of these chains. Come visit CITY X, we now have a Chili's, Bennigans and a Red Lobster. It just makes me really sad. Local restaurants are something that can truly make a place unique and you will always remember what you had to eat before you can remember anything else about a place you visited.