On CVS, Ignorance, and Bad Formula Retail

The ongoing saga of the proposed Lindell CVS store has laid bare a number of startling misconceptions on the part of both the elected leadership of St. Louis and, to a lesser extent, the engaged citizenship of the city. St. Louis often takes its own struggles in isolation. Considering the proliferation of formula pharmacies, these local battles are part of a larger retail war that has been ongoing in cities for a decade such as Omaha (PDF), Cincinnati, and throughout the United States.

The challenge of formula retail, commonly known as chain retail, is exactly that it is formulaic. Clearly, architecture prototypes designed for exurban locations do not work efficiently in the urban context and erode the surrounding community. Any structure designed for infinite replication will fail to provide the sense of place that all neighborhoods need to thrive. Efficiencies of scale are often perceived to demand models that sacrifice this local identity for a standardized product, however this is a significant misconception.