Editor:
I agree and disagree with the letter residents deserve choice (Coast Reporter, letters, June 4).
I have seen big box stores result in the loss of family businesses on my side and my wife's side of the family. This is a common story repeated across the world as the small independent retailers lose out to the giants. It is true that we already have these here in Gibsons, which would indicate that, already, the small town stores have been pushed to the brink of extinction, replaced by service industry and tourist curiosities.
The argument here, on the Sunshine Coast, is surely not about competition and more about our way of life. I do not know what percentage of this population share my thoughts, but my view is that there is an appeal about being estranged from the "normal" way of life, that Gibsons and the coastline is not just like any other place and that our priorities are different than those wrapped up in the rat race. I like to spend my days wandering about the beautiful areas that this grand Coast offers, not traipsing around the cloned big stores looking for a bargain on socks.
I agree that we cannot stop progress and having yet another venue that sells all that familiar foreign merchandise will rubber stamp that Gibsons is "just another place" similar to whatever other place we recently visited. I have seen this happen in different parts of Canada and also in the U.K. where the individual character of small towns is stamped out. Love it or hate it, that is perhaps the future for us all.
Dave Weldon
Gibsons