Convenience stores in my town...
The Henchman
according to the 2006 census. 330 of the non-whites said they are Chinese,
45 said they are Korean, 130 said they are Japanese, 65 said they are
Southeast Asian. 50 said "Other race" and 110 said mixed race. In other
other words this is one hell of a white flight town with very few
self-identifying oriental people.
Why then, out of the 2 dozen convience stores in town, are they all run by
Asians? Did the federal government recruit highly successful East Asians
and asked them to set-up convenience stores here. No complaints from me.
The stores I frequent all seem well kept, clean, well-stocked shelves, busy.
The loaves of bread are never past the best before dates, no dust on the
cans/shelves. I've seen two instances where they'll deny underage looking
kids cigarettes, a couple establishments even serve ice cream and have
generous scoop sizes. Hell 3 or 4 of them sell live bait, and clean water
in the bait tanks. None of them have gas stations, but that's a town law I
think.
But how is it that they are all Asian operated and run?
Which brings me to my next point: Why is it the 2 dozen or so pizza places
in town are all Indian and Pakistani operated?
larry
Report back in six months.
Michael Black
Convenience stores are just that, convenient. They are not one bit
frugal.
In both cases, they are businesses that people can buy into, get autonomy
and maybe use the kids as cheaper labor. They are also likely businesses
that a lot of other people aren't interested in. If they have more money,
or their fancy diploma from home is recognized when coming to America,
they will likely pursue other things.
Note that if you go far enough back, it was the same story, the only
difference being which type of recent immigrant was running the store.
Isaac Asimov spent a lot of time in his father's candy store (which really
translates to "convenience store", and they immigrated to the US from
Russia when he was very young. The hours were long, but it beat working
for someone else. The father could rope in the kids to do small jobs and
then later work shifts, without having to pay employees. Isaac went to
university, became a "distinguished man of science" and well known science
fiction writer. Maybe it would have taken a generation, or more, to get
there if his father had worked in a factory or something, rather than
be an entrepreneur.
Michael
Rod Speed
> I live in a town of 55 020 people of which 96% identify themselves as
> white according to the 2006 census. 330 of the non-whites said they
> are Chinese, 45 said they are Korean, 130 said they are Japanese, 65 said they are Southeast Asian. 50 said "Other
> race" and 110 said
> mixed race. In other other words this is one hell of a white flight town
Not a shred of evidence of any flight.
> with very few self-identifying oriental people.
> Why then, out of the 2 dozen convience stores in town, are they all run by Asians?
Presumably its an area that they prefer to work in.
> Did the federal government recruit highly successful East Asians and asked them to set-up convenience stores here.
Nope.
> No complaints from me. The stores I frequent all seem well kept, clean, well-stocked shelves, busy. The loaves of
> bread are never past the best before dates, no dust on the cans/shelves. I've seen two instances where they'll deny
> underage looking kids cigarettes, a couple establishments even serve ice cream and have generous scoop sizes. Hell 3
> or 4 of them sell live bait, and clean water in the
> bait tanks. None of them have gas stations, but that's a town law I think.
> But how is it that they are all Asian operated and run?
Presumably no one else is interested in that sort of operation.
> Which brings me to my next point: Why is it the 2 dozen or so pizza places in town are all Indian and Pakistani
> operated?
Maybe they have enough of a clue to realise that there is a market for pizzas there.
Al
Convenience stores are a niche business. They are not hugely
profitable. To a large extent it's a way of buying a job, often for
the whole family because it is labor intensive. It is also a way to
train family members and keep them close. Many times the owners would
not be in a position to work for others because of education or
discrimination, in some cases only perceived discrimination.
Nevertheless, they have the entrepreneurial nature that others may
lack so they take the risk. The risks are not only financial. These
stores have a greater risk of robberies and other crimes. People tend
to loiter around and generate trouble. If alcohol and lottery are
dispensed, the risks is enhanced.
If all 24 of your local convenience stores are truly Asian based, that
ethnic group may have simply specialized in convenience store
operation over time and acquired all available outlets. Perhaps a
local college might take on a marketing study of ethnic business
orientation.
SMS
> Why then, out of the 2 dozen convience stores in town, are they all run
> by Asians? Did the federal government recruit highly successful East
> Asians and asked them to set-up convenience stores here. No complaints
> from me. The stores I frequent all seem well kept, clean, well-stocked
> shelves, busy. The loaves of bread are never past the best before dates,
> no dust on the cans/shelves. I've seen two instances where they'll deny
> underage looking kids cigarettes, a couple establishments even serve ice
> cream and have generous scoop sizes. Hell 3 or 4 of them sell live
> bait, and clean water in the bait tanks. None of them have gas
> stations, but that's a town law I think.
>
> But how is it that they are all Asian operated and run?
>
> Which brings me to my next point: Why is it the 2 dozen or so pizza
> places in town are all Indian and Pakistani operated?
Convenience stores and gas stations require long hours and family
employees that are paid little or nothing.
In my city it's a similar thing in regards to the ethnicity of the owners.
One thing that's happening in my areas is that the the 7-11's are
closing and being converted to other stores. 7-11 takes a huge chunk of
the revenue in franchise fees--I was reading an article about it in a
trade magazine at a relatives' gas station, and 7-11 takes about 50% of
the revenue.
Napoleon
>Easy, start one of your own.
>
It's not so easy to start a business in America, unless you have alot
of money to put down and an infrastructure in place, whereby someone
helping you has already started and run the same business.
Try to get a small business loan on your own. Good luck. I've tried.
Impossible. But, as a Chinese-American friend once told me, "the
reason the chinese can come into the smallest town in America and open
a chinese restaurant in two days is they all work together in Chinese
gangs to pool money and finangle through all the government
regulations." That's it. Foreigners have money from other foreigners
and have the gang-lawyer, corporate shill, to open and buy these
businesses. They are not starting from scratch hoping a bank will lend
them money. Before they come over to America, they know where they're
going to work, it's set up through the gang.
Americans don't open businesses, unless daddy owns it. We just go to
college.
h
"Napoleon" <ana...@666yes.net> wrote in message
news:subsp5trk1uf5pi2a...@4ax.com...
> On Sat, 13 Mar 2010 17:13:31 -0600, larry <la...@foobar.com> wrote:
> Americans don't open businesses, unless daddy owns it. We just go to
> college.
Or, we open a business while keeping a full-time job and don't take out any
loans. It's called VERY HARD WORK, and it can be done. It's not easy, but I
opened my business in 1991, for $50 in start-up fees. I was finally able to
quit my "day job" in 1999. Now I only work 50 hours a week instead of 90.
Oh, and I have advanced college degrees, too, although they have nothing to
do with my current career.
Napoleon
>what is your advanced college degree in?
Not to hijack h's answers. But for me my degrees are in Library
Science and Law.
>and what is your business?
Right now I'm trying to start up a cemetery gardening/maintenance
business, which obviously has nothing to do with either degrees. And
thank god it doesn't require a small business loan, which I would
never get anyways.
>and if you had to do it all over again, would you have
>skipped college?
ABSOLUTELY! To think of the years and money I could have saved. In
fact the best job I ever had was right of high school - at Arby's.
Loved it, and if I stayed I could have been Regional Manager now.
Stupid me. I believed in the "American Dream!" Go to college - get a
career!
Nope. Doesn't exist anymore. People should start working straight out
of high school, unless they want to go to college for fun or need to
be a doctor or lawyer (as long as daddy owns the firm - otherwise
there's no jobs out there).
Just my disgruntled view.
Vic Smith
wrote:
I saw a movie called "The Graduate" when I was a lad and starting out
on my detour-ridden career path.
There was a character in that movie who recommended Plastics! to the
main character.
I ignored that.
What happened was I took a lib arts path - which I liked due to my
non-materialistic nature and love of literature - then switched to
computer science because that's where the money was, and I had a wife
and kids to keep fed. Hardly read a non-technical book after that
switch.
It worked out ok, but I sometimes regretted it.
My recommendation is to stay flexible in school looking for something
you really like. It will find you, actually.
Then take every course you can, and if you can avoid work, just stay
in school the rest of your life, even if just to kibitz.
--Vic
h
<m...@privacy.net> wrote in message
news:g1usp518bt9c8thcg...@4ax.com...
> "h" <tmc...@searchmachine.com> wrote:
>
>>Oh, and I have advanced college degrees, too, although they have nothing
>>to
>>do with my current career.
>>
>
Elizabethan History and Library Science
>
> and what is your business?
Custom made-to-measure historical clothing and bridal
>
> and if you had to do it all over again, would you have
> skipped college?
Nope. Actually I probably wouldn't have the knowledge and research skills
required to reproduce historical clothing without the education. At the very
least, it makes it much easier. Plus, I've had two careers prior to this one
which required the degrees I had.
h
"Vic Smith" <thismaila...@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:n93tp5lmg99k7hfdu...@4ax.com...
I had to take a "motivational" class at one of my old corporate jobs, and
the guy said two things which stuck with me. "Do what you love and the money
will follow," and "Do what you love and you will never work a day in your
life." I filed my DBA a few months after that class.
I have to say that while I make less now than I did in a cube farm, I am
happier, healthier, much less stressed, and my time is my own, at least as
far as scheduling my day. As long as the stuff gets shipped on the due date
I can work any hour of the day I like. If I feel like working at 2am and
sleeping at 11am, I can. I sometimes feel like I'm retired and my business
is just a hobby I enjoy. A hobby that pays the bills. Of course, since I
work at home and have no employees or storefront issues with which to
contend, YMMV if you're a business owner.