Change in the 'hood

Some people are really good about change. I'm not. 

This aspect of my makeup has been a part of me as long as I can remember. When my dad changed jobs in the early sixties we looked into moving to Bloomington. It would mean a big change for all of us. I did not want to leave Northeast. I protested loud and long. In fact, I don't think anyone in the family was as resistant as I was. Perhaps for this reason I have always been interested in what it takes to change gracefully and appropriately. I think I'm getting better at it.
I take for my references in this post recent changes in the old neighborhood.

Goodbye, Four Seasons.     Only a pale reflection of it's former self. Neighbors protest while Walmart decides what to do.

Case Number One: Four Seasons Mall. I'm not an expert in retail. I don't understand commercial real estate markets. I can only say I was sad to see it go. The neighborhood has not deteriorated, access is good. For whatever reason, the chemistry wasn't there. When we moved here in 1984  I was proud of the little collection of stores and services there. We bought our first real art print for our new suburban living room at the Four Seasons Gallery. Our hardware came from the friendly, local hardware store, our prescriptions from the Snyder's Drug store. It was a great place to pick up flowers on the way home for special occasions. You could drop of your dry cleaning, take exercise classes or buy groceries at SuperValu. There were two restaurants to choose from. I was happy. Today, the property is derelict. What did Four Season's do? or perhaps... not do? It's now owned by Walmart. They want to put in a Supercenter. The site doesn't meet Plymouth's strict zoning for such a use. Local neighbors turn out in large numbers to protest when Walmart officials present their plans.  A study determined that the 'appropriate' redevelopment of the site would contain small restaurants and local services like dry cleaners. Go figure.

Goodbye, New Hope K-Mart.            The last load goes in the truck.     It's now, according the new sign, 'Available for Redevelopment'                    Who knows, maybe Walmart will buy it, too.

Case Number Two: K-Mart. When I was a child there were two nationwide five and dime chains that were duking it out, S.S. Kresge and F.W. Woolworth. I loved them both, but favored Kresge's. They each had a long aisle of toys, many of them available for five or ten cents. They both had lunch counters. When you walked in the place smelled like dinner. I divided all my Christmas shopping between the both of them. Every trip downtown on the bus included a visit to both. I was happy. In the late sixties S.S. Kresge became K-Mart. The company has had a tremendously checkered history including getting into books (Borders, R.I.P.) making deals with Martha Stewart (who then went to prison) going bankrupt, firing and suing it's CEO for mismanagement. It's not a pretty scene. Look 'em up on Wikipedia. BTW, Woolworth was the largest department store company in the world in 1979. By the end of the nineties it was all gone. They now own only the Footlocker sports-shoe chain. Mismanaging change can be harmful to your health.

Goodbye, Universal Color Lab.       The end of an era I knew well.

Case Number Three, Universal Color Lab.  The Paul Simon song Kodachrome was popular around the time I started part-time work at Photos, Inc. One month later I got married. About a year later I graduated from the U of M. At that point, Bill, Photo's Inc.'s owner, approached me about working full-time for the quickly growing lab. It was intoxicating. We kept growing. We built new buildings, each one larger than the last. When I started we had seven employees. Eventually, we had close to one hundred.  Photography was cool. I made big deals with big customers for our services. The lab business was good and the bonuses kept getting larger. At the same time, many other labs started and grew. Universal Color in New Hope was one of them. Last week the building was being gutted. The banner out front said 'Going Out of Business, Thanks for Forty Great Years.' I could go on for hours about the lab business. I was there on the front lines as we tried, unsuccessfully, to deal with change, to 'reinvent' ourselves.

DigiGraphics bought what was left of Photos, Inc. shortly after I left the company in the late nineties. Two years ago DigiGraphics took the small, token 'Photos, Inc.' text line off their sign. Last year, 'Imagine Print Solutions' bought the last, bedraggled fragments of DigiGraphics. 

Today, I'm still somewhat fearful of change... but now I have managed it. I have somewhat 'reinvented' myself. Now, with retirement upon me, it gives me hope for the future. I've seen how easy it is to deny changes that can creep up and slowly surround you. We at Photos, Inc. looked at the first digital images and laughed. How could those ridiculous, fuzzy pictures ever compete with our magnificent chemical-based images? Impossible.

Impossible, indeed.