Once upon a time I read in a Russian novel, possibly Tolstoy, of nostalgia for the time when one could run a country estate as a self contained unit, meeting all one's needs from one's own resources and not needing to go to market with all the chicanery, lies, greed & worse which accompany the business of buying and selling. One can understand this nostalgia, albeit for an estate where most of the work was done by serfs, but sadly it does not get us anywhere. Self sufficient small holdings and crofts have not provided a decent living for a long time and where, apart from anything else, there is the problem of generating enough cash to buy refrigerators and televisions which can hardly be made on the spot. Large estates might avoid some of the problems of smallness but would bring the problems of largeness, with some workers being more equal than others, the management of which might make the evils of the market place seem like the lesser evil. After all, the mathematical proof that trade was a good thing seemed elementary as a first year undergraduate.
All this prompted by the recent coverage of Tesco buying a 49% holding in a small chain of coffee bars, much of which focused on Tesco seeming to be hiding behind a sweet & cuddly independent business exterior, not a full blown lie but an economy with the truth which I found rather irritating. The Tesco story was that they were backing what looked like a good concept, which is fair enough, good for them even; but I would have preferred their contribution to have been recognised in the packaging. And for myself, I am quite happy to recognise their contribution: being sweet & cuddly and truly independent is not much of a proposition these days, not unless you are content to work for very long hours and to put at risk a lot of your own money.
Inconsistently, I am not bothered by Pret (the chain formerly known as Pret a Manger) being 33% & invisibly owned by what looks like a finance house called Bridgepoint Capital, these last having bought out McDonald's. But I do remember the Pret big cheeses enthusing about the fast food skills which McDonald's were bringing to the party - while I missed them enthusing about what Bridgepoint bought to the party.
The difference is not accounted for my using one but not the other as I very rarely use either coffee bars or sandwich bars, my own preference being for independent cafés staffed by foreigners and serving tea & bacon sandwiches. I've never been that strong on coffee whether in a café or elsewhere.
The mysteries of the ownership of pubs and chains of pubs present slightly different issues. I continue to mourn the passing of the traditional boozer and I do not much care for the idea of some large company running a stable of pub chains, each chain targeted at some particular customer group, each chain the subject of careful interior design and packaging to match with aforesaid customer group. It all makes one feel like a sheep waiting to be shorn rather than a customer. The decor & style of a pub should evolve out of the publican and his customers, not be something which is imported ready made from headquarters. But I guess the value for money of the import is going to beat the old fashioned mine host.
And I learned from a fellow blogger a couple of years ago that there is an analogy with restaurant chains in the US where an outfit called Darden Restaurants operate a chain to satisfy every taste and every pocket. And you wouldn't know sitting in one of the branches of one of the chains. Sadly, the blog in question seems to have cleaned up its act since I last looked in. Maybe management took an interest. See http://rlserver.blogspot.co.uk/.
PS: slightly puzzled how a blog which I think of as coming from the US should come with some UK dressing. A dot-co-uk suffix and an advert for RSPB. All very confusing.
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