Nothing more perfectly illustrates the reason I started VacaView than the closure this week of the Hometown Buffet in Power Plaza.  At first it may not seem like a big deal.  Businesses open and close all the time.  But the decision-making behind this move and the abruptness of the closure should be a concern to us all.  Here’s why:

The parent company of restaurants like Hometown Buffet will open a new location anywhere in the country where their market research shows they can turn a profit that will further the overall corporate goal.  As long as the location continues to meet those goals and as long as the corporation expands its profitability, great.  But, as in the case of Ovation Brands — parent company of Hometown Buffet — the company’s profits begin to slip, locations across the country are put on the chopping block.  And just like that, BOOM. Seventy-four Hometown Buffets across the country have closed, with no notice, no “thank you” to customers, no “sorry, loyal employees”. Nothing but a sign on the locked door that suddenly greets the shocked staff in the morning.

It doesn’t even have to be a decision based on declining profits.  Equally common is the practice of spinning off properties to generate quick cash, make the operation more attractive to a potential buyer, or to “reallocate resources” as they say in corporate-speak.

The point here is that absentee owners of corporate restaurants and retail stores have no loyalty to the communities in which their locations operate.  They have no stake in the lives of their employees — they don’t even know them.  They don’t send their kids to school in these communities, don’t attend church there, and they don’t spend their money there.

For these reasons, I’m dedicated to using VacaView to promote locally-owned non-formula businesses as much as I can. It’s these businesses which have a stake in what goes on in Vacaville. These local owners have put their own sweat equity into operations that help make our town unique and interesting, economically viable and ultimately provide a quality of life we can all share and appreciate.