Archive for December 5th, 2009

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Location, Location, Location

December 5, 2009

The rule of thumb that the three most important things are “location, location, and location” doesn’t play out here. In America, businesses are rarely placed near their competitors. The thought is to be the only supplier of your goods or services in the area (unless you are Starbucks and the aim is to be on every  corner).

Here, businesses are clustered together with their competitors. I think it comes from the tradition of souks, such as the gold souk, spice  souk, or fish market, where all the suppliers of a particular product are together in one area. The picture below is just a few blocks from where we live. There are 10 rental car offices in the picture. There were more, but I couldn’t get them all in a single picture. 10 rental car offices on one street