Dublin, Ohio

 Unlike most of my classmates who I assume have hometowns in Pennsylvania my hometown is actually Dublin, Ohio. In most contexts I would think that this would change my answers from those of my classmates at least a little but I don’t think this will be what happens here. I think our shift to globalization as a society will probably look very similar even though we are in different states. 

Over my time living in my town I have seen multitudes of small shops and storefronts open their doors only to close them again. The places that open and are the most likely to stay open are already established chain stores. Sometimes they are chain stores only in Ohio but oftentimes they are global chain stores with locations all over the world. This is a lot different from how my town looked pre-covid. Before Covid small mom and pop stores were the normal thing while there weren’t a ton of chain stores. 

Something that I think is true almost the entire time I’ve lived in my town is that whether the store was a chain or single standing almost none of the products they sold were manufactured in the U.S. and if they were a big deal it was made about it on whatever display it was on. 

I would overall say globalization has definitely had an effect on my town. I don’t think it is an inherently good or bad thing either way I personally just saw it as change which is always bound to happen. But I think the largest and fastest push of globalization was made because of the pandemic, causing many small stores to close and large chains to take their place. That left a bad taste in my mouth but I understand just how much the economy was affected by it and I hope with time some of those type of small stores come back with the chain stores.