Not until I started going to school at Virginia Tech have I witnessed a town with such an affinity for being “local.” With the new Wal-Mart moving into Blacksburg and additional “big-box” retailers popping up all over Southwest Virginia, is it going to be possible to “Be Local” within the next ten years? Is Southwest Virginia just going to turn into every other town in Northern Virginia, with the same retail chains scattered across a ten mile radius?

In a recent article, The Roanoke Times writes about big-box retailers, such as Dick’s Sporting Goods, that are threatening the existence of local wilderness shops. It is expressed by local shop owners that the only advantage these big-box retailers have over them is size. Local shops have unique product lines and employees with an abundance of knowledge; two qualities that big-box retailers lack. So, if the products and customer service of local vendors both outshine big-box retailers, why do they continue to be built in Southwest Virginia?

My name is Mackenzie Ebling and I am currently a senior at Virginia Tech. In my spare time I enjoy hanging out with my friends and watching the Food Network. I will be graduating from Virginia Tech this May with a major in Marketing Management.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 30th, 2008 at 9:52 am and is filed under Economic Development. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.