Great Falls has chains. Not the diamond-encrusted dollar sign chains worn by rappers with nothing better to spend money on, and not the actual rapper 2 Chainz (you know you’ve made it big in the industry when you can include both a number and a “z” in your name): but chain restaurants.
It began with the Subway last year and has continued with the new Starbucks coffee shop that opened this summer.
Many Great Falls residents resisted the addition of another chain restaurant because, they say, the community atmosphere is tarnished with big businesses (a round of hearty jeering should begin here).
To these naysayers I ask, have you ever tasted a Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte? I’m sure you have not, which would explain both your resistance to Starbucks and perhaps why you are so adamantly uptight.
When it becomes possible, (and I say when because it will), I will be the first test-subject to take Starbucks drinks through an IV. Yes, I think they are that delicious.
The only con I can present to the addition of the Starbucks to Great Falls is the amount of people from school I am forced to encounter when I go (having a bad hair day? don’t bother getting a coffee, you’ll see the entire population of Great Falls).
Despite my bias to Starbucks, I would be completely okay with the addition of more chain restaurants in Great Falls (can you say “Chipotle?”).
Great Falls may be more rural than surrounding areas, like McLean, for instance. But Great Falls is in Virginia, not West Virginia: we Great Fallsians are not farm people. Most of us don’t raise our own animals, obtain our own milk and yogurt, and shear our sheep for wool in the winter.
We don’t need to focus so heavily on preserving the small-town, community vibe. Our area can benefit from the increased business chain restaurants bring, and it will save us all time and money to drive to Great Falls for food and drinks than out to Reston or McLean (synonymous to the ends of the Earth for some of us).
Most importantly, though, it will save me from facing a school day without caffeine (an experience I liken to Snooki giving up alcohol during her pregnancy), and you all from enduring me this way.