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HUMAN HOME | COURSE DESCRIPTION | READINGS | SYLLABUS | ASSIGNMENTS | FIELD WORK | GEOGRAPHY DEPARTMENT HOME |
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Task
Form into groups of three and visit at least three of the stores on the
list. Try to get a range of stores and try to visit different parts of the city.
Explain to the store managers who you are and why you have come (and buy
something in each market). While at the store pay careful attention to the
sorts of goods sold, their prices and their place of origin. Gather basic information
such as size and design of the store. Try to interview the owner or manager
to learn the history of the place. Some of these stores will be very busy so
it will be impossible for you to get a good interview. Observe the customers
that use the place. If possible interview a few.
Ethnic groups depend upon the resources made available to them by their environments. The structure of these opportunities is changing in the United States. Ethnic groups are undeserved and abandoned by the large mass marketing organizations. The over concentration of ethnic groups in the core city means they live in areas that are ill-suited to the technological and organizational conditions of large organizations but are favorable to small enterprises.
Minority Middlemen
African-American neighborhoods have seen an influx of Korean, Arabian and other
immigrant merchants who thrive in the absence of competition from larger native-owned
and operated organizations. Immigrants selling to a non-immigrant clientele
can be characterized as minority middlemen.
Stages of Ethnic Business Evolution
This classification is based on two factors, the ethnic population concentration
and the extent to which ethnic owners specialize in a narrow band or broad
range of business types.
A) replacement labor. a highly concentrated residential population and small specialized business population offering a narrow range of goods and services to the ethnic group.
B) ethnic niche. A concentrated population with a wide range of specialized jobs and business types. Stores focus on serving own ethnic community.
C) minority middlemen. Residentially dispersed ethnic population in which business owners provide a wide range of goods and services to groups other than their own.
D) economic assimilation, An ethnic community that is widely dispersed with business owners offering goods and services typical of the majority business population or ethnic food to a clientele that is not of the same ethnic group e.g. Chinese and Italian restaurants.
Important Market Conditions
Role of ethnic enclave as a starting point. Initial markets for immigrant
entrepreneurs typically arise within the ethnic group. Merchants provide specialized
goods like tropical goods among Hispanics, oriental specialities among Asian.
The cultural products have a direct connection with the immigrant homeland and
require detailed knowledge of tastes and buying preferences. Later special services
such as realtors, insurance agents, accountants and lawyer emerge. Many involve
what is called an export platform which is business such as garment making or
construction which attracts a large number of immigrants and from which they
expand.
Drawbacks of beginning in ethnic quarter
Over competition is the biggest obstacle of the growth of the ethnic entrepreneur.
The buying power of the local community establishes limits. the intense
competition means a high failure rate.
Three Important Characteristics of Ethnic Businesses
Low economies of scale The practice of self-exploitation and family operations
limits size.
Instability and uncertainty. The small scale firm is easy to adjust in an
uncertain environment. There are lower entry barriers and high labor to
capital ratios. There also is a low technology barrier.
Ethnic goods merchants convert both contents and the symbols of ethnicity
into profit making commodities. The sell exotic products and the most common
enterprise is a restaurant
Access to Ownership
There are two factors effecting immigrant access to ownership positions.
Business vacancies As flourishing European immigrant groups move into
the suburbs the immigrant groups move into the areas vacated and into the vacated
stores. In New York, Korean groceries have taken over from Jewish or Italian
proprietors who were "too old, tired and scared of crime to keep on minding
their stores"
Government Policies small enterprise loans.
The Issue of Predisposition of Groups
blocked mobility Some groups experience a limited range of jobs and income
generating activates because of language barriers and inadequate skills so they
become self-employed
psychological factors Self selective nature of immigrants. The have a
tendency to be more able. better prepared and more inclined toward risks. more
tolerate for lower profit of a small business. they also have a more favorable
view of low-lever work that do natives because of their much different job hierarchy
in their home countries.
Resource Mobilization
Ethic business are a set of connection and regular patterns of interactions
among people sharing common national background or migration experiences.
There are close ties among co-ethnics. they rely on social networks for
sources of credit or technical assistance, They also recruit employees from
families and have a custom of familial cooperation. The group is more important
than the individual.
Why do some ethnic groups do better in business than others?
Pre-migration characteristics some with prior training or special skills.
The successful group have informal networks that diffuse skills to new comers
and stress English language skills/
circumstances of migration temporary workers more satisfied with dead-end job rather than natives. As sojourners they send large sums of money home rather than invest in business. Their priority is capital accumulation rather than social mobility.
Post migration characteristics some environments are supportive to small business - there are ways to gain business related information and languages skills. Korean wholesalers help establish retail outlets.
Writing Assignment:
After you visit the three stores each of you should write a "travel feature
article" for a school or neighborhood newspaper. This article should convey
a sense of place, something about the interest level of the trip, and relate
it to interests of your readers. It should also reflect our discussions of ethnicity,
popular culture and the concept of minority middle men You may find it efficient
to take your notes in a form of "what I saw/what I thought" notebook. In these
journals you take notes on empirical observations on one page and record your
thoughts or interpretations on the opposite page. If you do this you will have
an abundance of material on which to base your article Both the journal and
article will be turned in.
These are just suggestions. Feel free to explore on your own!
Morgan's Lebanese Bakery
736 S. Robert Street, St. Paul
Buon Giorno Italian Market
335 University Avenue E., St. Paul
Hong Phat
563 University W.
Kim Hung Oriental Grocery
459 University
Phil Oriental
789 University
Phnomphen Bangkok Market
315 University
Cecil's Delicatessen
651 Cleveland S., St. Paul
Emily's Lebanese
Deli
641 University NE, Mpls
Nelson
Cheese Factory
1562 Como Avenue, St. Paul
Broders Cucina Italian
2308 W. 50th, Mpls
Ingebretsen Scandinavian Foods
1601 East Lake, Mpls
Capital Market
478 University