| BIGGER NOT ALWAYS BETTER |
| Published in The
Monterey County Herald, on August 6, 2000 |
A pox on me for thinking small. But I, for one, fail to see how any good will come of the proposed 16-screen cinema megaplex at the Del Monte Shopping Center. Most opponents of the project cite the negative environmental impact it would have on the city of Monterey: the congestion, the noise, the lack of available parking. Others fear that the megaplex would hurt local businesses. Clearly, there are more than enough practical reasons to halt, or at least rethink, the project.
There's a deeper issue, however, that irks me. It's the lack of proportion, this never knowing when to quit, that seems to govern the marketplace. I would like to believe that there will come a point when we Montereyans say, "Enough! We already have more places to shop, dine, play golf—and suspend our disbelief—than we know what to do with. Leave us alone!"
The proposed megaplex, added to the 39 screens currently in operation in Monterey County, PLUS the new 14-screen theater in Salinas which has already been approved, would raise the total number of screens in our area to 69! What are the odds that the new theaters at Del Monte (however plush and state-of-the-art they may be) will offer us film lovers any choices that aren't available elsewhere? Eventually, these same titles will resurface on home video where, if we are patient, we can enjoy them in the comfort of our living rooms at a fraction of the cost.
The developers have this smug confidence that the market can sustain the additional screens (i.e. If they build them, we will come). How can they know that? Are we consumers so predictable, our appetites so easy to exploit, that we can be herded like cattle into this monstrosity simply because some opportunist had the bucks and the chutzpah to build it? Is there some "manifest destiny" that states that every last plot of land, every last resource, every free moment of our existence, must be devoted to our entertainment?
The regular price of admission to a movie (and let's not forget the popcorn and soft drink) is already more than what many of us can comfortably afford, and it's only going to increase in the years to come. Meanwhile, VCR's, DVD's, personal computers and wide screen televisions are providing people with more incentive than ever before to amuse themselves at home. To my way of thinking, the megaplex hasn't much of a future.
Am I being naive? One could argue that these market visionaries have made it their business to understand the consumer mentality, to know what you and I desire even before we do. Moreover, they are willing to wager an obscene sum of money that for every oddball like me who resists this newest attraction, there are thousands of others who will snap at their bait, regardless of the expense, the inconvenience, the environmental mayhem.
To these calculators of human behavior, I say: Do not factor me into your profit making equation. Your invention is not the mother of my necessity. I may not echo the sentiments of the entire community, but I know my mind, I know my limit, and tossing me another fish isn't going to change it.