Pick Your Poison

Pam and I wanted to try a new restaurant that had popped up on the ever expanding complex of shops and stores that have metastasized on Broad Street, west of Short Pump. Wood and Iron, its called. As we drove out there Pam asked this question, “Why are they constantly building more buildings out here when there are so many empty spaces in the buildings that are already here?” This is what is known as a rhetorical question and it is unanswerable. First off, the word they in her question is instructive, referring as it does to the faceless, nameless developer behind each new project that carves itself into the landscape. My only answer was something like, “Why, indeed?”

When Pam and I first moved to Short Pump, there wasn’t much out here. Thirty nine years ago there was Short Pump Elementary School, that auto repair shop with the crashed airplane lodged in its roof and a couple of general stores. Now, its a mass of retail stores, strip malls, restaurants and gas stations. And that crashed airplane was finally laid to rest several years ago. But the question remains…why has there been such an explosion of construction. Well, this is what commerce does, it expands. Some will call it progress. Some will laud the convenience of having practically everything you could ever want or need within ten minutes of your house. This is true. Convenience is convenient. But in the new era of online shopping, I can buy virtually everything offered by every store in greater Short Pump from the comfort of my sofa—buck naked. Aside from the horrible mental picture I just painted for you, it does make Pam’s question all the more relevant.

So, I decided to test an hypothesis that has been brewing in the fertile soil of my warped imagination which is—despite the endless choices offered to me in Short Pump for shopping, eating and entertainment, which buildings do I actually patronize? How many of the 2000 stores and shops have I ever actually entered, and how often do I do so? With the handy assistance of my credit card statements over the past few months, here is what I have found for the time period between August 15th and September 15th:

Publix in Short Pump Village—13 visits

Various restaurants—12 visits

CVS, corner of Cox and Broad—4

Sunoco gas, corner of Three Chopt and Church—4

Lowe’s—2

That’s it, the sum total of institutions that I have visited more than once in the past 30 days. There were a few other places where either Pam or I visited just once:

Jiffy Lube

Flagstop Carwash

Cutz for Guys

Staples

Dog Crazy Groomers

Judging by this list, Pam and I are most interested in…food. We spend most of our time and money either buying groceries to make food, or going to places where they cook it for us. In this way I don’t think we are different than most people. Of course the above lists only include places where there is evidence that we spent money. Obviously there are other places we go frequently and spend no money:

Hope Church—8 visits

Hope Thrift store—three visits

My office—20 visits

So, the question remains, why the endless construction and expansion of choices? Pam and I might not be good examples but the answer is because its what the people want. Developers don’t spend their money unless they can do so for a handsome profit. Businesses don’t expand unless there is substantial evidence that such expansion will be profitable. If you are one of those people constantly decrying urban sprawl and complaining that there are no more beautiful fields in Short Pump filled with grazing cattle, I would suggest that you stop buying stuff. Oh, and don’t complain if you have to wait an hour and a half for a table at your favorite restaurant after the board of supervisors changes the zoning laws to prohibit new construction.

Or, if you’re really fed up with all the convenience/congestion of Short Pump, move out to Fluvanna County or Louisa. I hear there’s virtually no congestion and you have to drive twenty minutes to pick up a prescription. 

Pick your poison.