The Lesson of Howard Johnson's

This article - brought to us from the business section of WorldNetDaily - is written by Clarke Canfield of the left-wing Associated Press, and put up on the New York Newsday website.

This chain of hotels and restaurants, once a powerhouse of 800 sites, has shrunk down to eight or ten restaurants and 464 hotels. The restaurants were a staple of the American landscape for decades. But thanks to huge competition from other chains, as well as lack of change or new ideas and such, Howard Johnson's - or "HoJo's", as it was called with affection - dwindled and whithered. There are some who are still hoping that some so-called "white knight", some investment giant, will come to the chain's rescue.

This problem could have been avoided long, long ago if the chain wasn't a chain to begin with. Distributism, on principle, rejects chain stores and chain hotels and such. At the very least, the hotel and restaurant chain should give it's employees the opportunity to own and operate the chain. Then, as a national worker-owned and worker-managed co-operative, it can work with marketing strategists from each local area. They can help tailor-make solutions for each HoJo's hotel or restaurant to keep it alive.

Like we wrote about earlier regarding the supermarket chain Winn-Dixie, HoJo's grew too big and got out of touch with her customers. Staying local and meeting local needs works. That is part of the Distributist way.