I have a friend who always complains about living in a smaller city that lacks some of the amenities of a true metropolis. But his idea of sophisticated urban living does not consist of having an symphony orchestra, a major research institute, or a Fortune 500 company headquarters. Instead of that, to him a “real city” has ALL of the following:
Apple Store
Ikea
Whole Foods (or maybe a regional equivalent)
Cheesecake Factory
Hard Rock Cafe.
IMAX theatre
My observation is that most cities in North America that have one of these have all of these - except for maybe the Hard Rock (which is more resort oriented) and maybe an Apple Store. Are there any that are missing here?
And is there another set of stores that marks a similar leap from small town to mid-size city? Like Starbucks, Barnes and Noble, Applebees, or Costco?
Chain stores make a city? In the words of Al Einstein, “Oy vey.”
Chain stores make giant heaps of cartoonitecture turds that suck the life out of local alternatives. Especially chain restaurants. Until you drive around a significant number of metropolises, or drive across some good portion of the country, it’s hard to realize how much these prepackaged, preassembled shakedown centers have changed the face of the country. If opinions have evolved to the point where an Ikea or Olive Garden “makes” a big city, it’s time for the revolution.
I would go the opposite way. A city is only a truly big city if it has some of the chains listed but local alternatives are still more popular because it has the history and culture to support them. You can drop a mall or giant shopping center in any city but that doesn’t make it big or grown up. It is about the opposite in my opinion.
Ikea’s not a good example; they’re tending to go into the suburbs instead of the big city proper. In the DFW area, the Ikea is in Frisco, and in the Austin area, it’s in Round Rock.
I’d personally have said that the sign of big cities is the sustained presence of specialty shops, but that’s almost 180 degrees off from the OP’s question, since they’re going to be non-chain stores by definition.
Let’s see… major metropolitan area nationwide chains… I’d say that having a shopping mall with 2-3 of the big department stores anchoring it is a good start- you’re unlikely IMO to find a mall with some combination of Nordstrom, Macy’s, Saks, or Neiman Marcus outside of a major metropolitan area.
Not too many major cities have IKEAs - you need a lot of room for one of those. The only IKEA in the San Francisco area is just north of Oakland. San Francisco does have all of the others (in fact, it has three Apple stores).
I might replace IKEA with Barnes & Noble in that list, although a number of B&Ns have been closed in the past few years.
The IKEA is a stupid suggestion, Here in CT New Haven has an IKEA but not the state capital of Hartford. Rochester NY doesn’t have an IKEA. In NY, Brooklyn and Long Island are the only 2 IKEA locations, suggesting that Buffalo, Binghamton, Rochester, Albany and Manhattan aren’t big cities. In Arizona, Tempe suggests that Phoenix isn’t a big city. Orlando, Sunrise and Tampa suggests that Florida is a wasteland for major cities…
I would challenge by mentioning that traditionally ‘big’ cities was hinged upon population and territorial size.
Yes. The OP question (the OP’s friend’s concept) is misguided. While big metro areas may have various chains, nobody goes there for the chains. Chain stores do not make or mark a great city.
IIRC the one in Bergen County, NJ is the only one in the US that’s closed on Sundays. This is true of just about every chain big-box store in that county.
That’s very true. But I would still expect a big city to have all or most of those.
Two things we don’t have here: WalMart and Target. We have them out in the suburbs but not in the city. Is that common? Is it because real estate is too high?
There’s one in Bergen County now? I remember there was one in Elizabeth. (While driving past it on the New Jersey Turnpike, you can see Newark Airport, a big rail terminal, the highway of course and the Port of Elizabeth. It’s a vast transportation hub.)
I think there needs to be more to the idea of a big city being big because of speciality shops and local alternatives. Maybe a number of said shops? I mean, I live in a city of 200,000 people but we have a ‘cultural’ street with the organic grocery, specialized eateries, funky import clothing shops, etc. It’s also only four blocks long.
Part of it is population, too. Getting an Ikea and/or Olive Garden in Canada is a sign of finally being a big city, because they’ll only build if you have a certain population.
The IKEA in Elizabeth has a free shuttle bus on weekends that takes you from Port Authority on 42nd St to the store and back. As long as they are picking you up and bringing you and your haul back for free … it’s an honorary NYC location in my eyes.
This squared. As a New Yorker, now displaced, the true mark of a big city is that you can go to stores that are not in every mall in the country. New York had Macys before they expanded everywhere, and even now Macys there is a far different store from your average mall store. And there are plenty of department stores rarely seen outside. Ditto Philadelphia and Chicago.
But diversity is decreasing. When we moved to Princeton there were few if any chains downtown, not they are all over. Boulder changed that way also during the time I visited there.
It’s true for most cities not massive enough to support independent restaurants and retailers. I have experience with a half dozen locations, and a long, long list of beloved restaurants and stores that went under because the populace supported the chains instead.
