Defending your small town from sprawl: Your friendly neighborhood outlaw MC.

The average Walmart covers 102,000 square feet.  Costcos cover an average of 141,000 square feet. That's store floor area - the parking lot and any road widened to accommodate increased traffic is extra. 

Why do we need these places?  What does a Costco have that my neighborhood supermarket (which still covers an immoral amount of fertile topsoil) doesn't?  A giant jar of pickles? Value packs of Nutella with two - count 'em, two - giant jars?  Why do I need two giant jars of Nutella?  Sure, it's sweet; It constitutes the happy union of milky, creamy, gooey, scrumptiously yummy chocolate and richly sinfull hazelnut.  But do I NEED it?  No.  I certainly do not - the fact that I still haven't lost the last five to ten pounds of pregnancy weight is a testament to that.

Where am I going with this, you ask?  What, you ask, has this to do with Sons of Anarchy?

If you've seen the deleted scenes from Season 1, then you'll know of an interchange between Floyd (the barber) and his employee.  The employee asks Floyd why he always gives Piney a free haircut.  Floyd responds:  "Do you see any Fantastic Sam's? Any Supercuts?" (or something to that effect...I need to check my references).

Now, I'm not expounding on the evils of franchises.  And I'm not necessarily beating a "big box stores are evil" drum.  I'm an active participant in the capitalist structure, and a card-carrying member of Costco.  The issue here is, what good does having all of these conveniences really do?  Are we healthier because of convenience?  Are we more connected to each other?  Is it a good thing that we have access to giant jars of pickles and spreadable chocolate?

I don't know.

One "theme" of Sons of Anarchy is that the MC keeps Charming "charming."  There are no big box stores, no franchises - just lots of mom and pop shops, a quaint main street, kids on bicycles, and a locally-owned and operated auto shop (perhaps even a cigar shop). And, at any given moment there's an illegal store of automatic weapons somewhere within Chief Unser's jurisdiction (or maybe Trammel's).


What do we trade for convenience?  How do we define it, and what does it cost?  Do we define convenience by our access to couture fashion, stores that carry everything you need to survive the day - from Froot Loops to wide-screen televisions?  Or do we define it by non-consumables?  Does it  mean living somewhere we can walk safely from our front doors to our schools, restaurants, and jobs?

Would you speak up at town hall meetings to keep fertile farm land from being sold to developers?  Would you choose to get your oil changed by the local mechanic?  Or would you go for the convenience of the Jiffy Lube?  Would you make the extra effort to stop at the Farmers' Market for your fruit and veggies, or do you prefer the one-stop convenience of Vons?

The fact is, one voice isn't very powerful when it comes to issues like sprawl.  One consumer making the choice to buy local doesn't make much of a difference.  Like Wal-mart, activism deals in volume.  And, when it comes to acting out against sprawl, volume is critical.  Unfortunately, many of the decisions we make about our own communities are made through inaction, or passive acceptance that growth, and all its side-effects (insert drug, crime, or other viral-like transgression here) are inevitable.

Who knows what the populace in Charming would choose if Sam Crow wasn't around?

Maybe we deserve social structures like Sam Crow when we're too passive to make the right choices about our communities.