There was a highly conventional travel piece in The New York Times of the sort that such venues have been running for many years now, even decades.
It’s about a small resort town in Italy, namely Bologna, that is being wrecked by tourism and corporations moving in to promote it and take advantage of it, thereby changing the character of the place fundamentally.
You know the type of article. I’ve ignored them for years, dismissing such travelogs as nothing more than the kvetching of the elite rich toward the common man and his desire to see the world. There is nothing more conventional than journalists yammering about the evils of “commercialism.”
However, for whatever reason, I read this one in full. Buried in the article was the following:
“The slow eating of our city by mortadella [meat] shops started before COVID but accelerated when, as in many cities, lots of Bologna’s independent shops, cafes and restaurants went out of business during the pandemic. Many of those in the center of town were bought up by chains with deep pockets and a singular vision: to sell mortadella to foreigners.”
The article did not admit this, but any marketing person can immediately see the connection between mortadella and bologna; you guessed it, the American luncheon meat. That’s right, international corporations seized on the town’s name to invent a fake tradition to sell to tourists. That’s cynical, even dark, but entirely expected.
The article continues.
“Downtown has changed completely. In the streets around the historic main square there used to be many old stationery shops—a favorite sold fountain pens, inks in every color and all the hand-bound notebooks one could dream of. It had been there for as long as I can remember, but was recently turned into an ‘Ancient cold cuts butcher.’ It’s part of a chain. Just across from it, in what I think used to be a jewelry store, is a second self-styled ancient butcher from the same chain. When I asked the shop assistant how ancient they were, she replied that they had been open for three months.”
Did you catch that passing mention of “went out of business during the pandemic?” Yes, and, if you have been paying attention these past four years, you know precisely what that means. It’s not about a severe flu. It’s about the response to the flu, namely the brutal lockdowns that destroyed small businesses even as big businesses all over the world were allowed to function normally, provided the customers were masked up and vaccinated.
So any reader knows the score, even if the journalist buried the point.
These small businesses were wrecked by the government. This happened not only in Bologna but worldwide. We have no firm numbers to put on this because they do not exist. But I’m sure you have your own stories of your town.
The local shops were destroyed. Stimulus could not save them. They finally gave up, crushing dreams all around. It’s not just in the United States, not just in your hometown, but all over the world.
They were replaced by heavily capitalized multinationals that were in a position to weather the storm. This all happened in the course of a mere two years. We all felt it and saw it.
I recall getting a message from a friend who achieved his dream of making and marketing a charcoal toothpaste, working 18-hour days to develop supply chains. He had 150 employees, and life was good, with robust supply chains and a bright future. Then the lockdowns hit. Eighteen months later, he had to notify everyone that the company would go bankrupt and that everyone would lose their jobs. The end.
He cried deeply and has never recovered from the devastation. I’ve cried for him too, but millions are in his position. The lockdowns transformed life for billions of people globally, shattering dreams, wrecking businesses with long traditions, destroying intellectual and physical capital, and transforming small towns with organic structures of enterprise into hubs for multinational sellers of junk.
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