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| - I happen to be someone who doesn't think that a healthy skepticism towards large chains is a yuppie thing. Consumers are consumers, regardless of class, and I think that valuing locally produced products sold at stores that care about workers rights and fair pay is in fact a shared community value. I do not think that Tremont deserves to have a huge, eyesore shopping center any more than I think that the children who live in this neighborhood deserve the ill health effects of the Mittal steelmill.
But even if we set aside the philosophical reasons that I'm not really particularly fond of the Steelyard Commons, I could list several practical reasons. Sure, I like saving money, but I'm tired of crappy customer service, tired of salespeople who have no idea what they're talking about, tired of receiving sales pitches for unnecessary pricey product insurance, tired of stores that collect my information and then sell it (or leave my private information unprotected and susceptible to the identity-thieving hackers), and I'm tired of shopping at anonymous places where the bottom line appears to trump quality.
Clevelanders have a lot of pride, and a lot of that comes from the things here that make the city unique (take your pick: the Lakefront, Sokolowski's, Stadium Mustard, the West Side Market). Steelyard Commons doesn't do anything to further that cause. I'll probably still shop here at least occasionally, since it's close-by (hence 2 stars, not just 1), but I'll do it reluctantly. I have the luxury of a car and of being single (and therefore more flexible with my income), but I think that even those without those benefits in life have a right to demand better than the Steelyard Commons.
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