death of the lemonade-stand dream

Arizona Daily Wildcat

This wasn't just any lemonade you proudly sold at the end of your driveway. An extra cup of sugar made your blend special and you harassed each passing car, cyclist, or unlucky pedestrian to no end, begging for them to help make your efforts financially rewarding.

Like all businesses, yours began with an ambitious vision. If the taste of your lemonade caught on, you thought, nothing would be out of reach. You would finally be able to help mom and dad pay off their bills, and maybe you could even get that puppy you had unsuccessfully lobbied your parents to buy.

But, no one ever said the business world was easy. At a young age, we each also learned the meaning of competition. There was a smoothie shop known as the Smoothie Express right up the street that cleverly mixed berries into its fancy fruit drinks, making your product look pretty bland to the targeted consumer.

Maybe your Minute Maid lemonade wasn't any better than the double raspberry blast, but people still came to your makeshift stand because of the personalized service.

Even with the odds against you, somehow you were able to find at least limited success with a few customers. Most likely, the neighbors came by and said hello or your parents all of a sudden really loved lemonade. Quite possibly someone might have stopped by your lemonade stand because they recognized your hard work and, despite having a taste for the delicious smoothies up the road, they decided to spend their money on your lemonade. You were able to maintain your business due to the support of a select few who preferred your business to that of the larger, more popular, Smoothie Express.

Now that we are much older and a tad bit wiser, the names have changed but the reality is still very much the same. This past decade has seen an increase in mergers between companies, producing what should aptly be called "megacorporations." Along this line, individual companies who have found success have squeezed out their less prosperous competitors through buyouts and contracts with institutions such as the University of Arizona. The Smoothie Expresses of the world have begun to increasingly dominate the corporate scene as they force lemonade stands, such as the one you worked so hard to maintain, to fall by the wayside and exist only in memory.

Many would argue that the 1990's have seen an increase in innovation that has led to the haves justly widening the gap with the have-not's. Those who could not keep pace rightly went bankrupt. They would say the reason a company such as Intel, maker of computer processors, is so popular is that it finds a way to make a better product and, as such, it makes sense that Intel completely dominates the computer industry. This appears a logical argument, but only because giants such as Intel and Microsoft spend so many dollars to make you believe they are not monopolies, but merely success stories. The real question that needs to be addressed is whether you, the consumer, has a freedom of choice. If your business must use computers to be successful and the only software available must be run on Microsoft Windows, do you have a true freedom of choice, or are you forced to support the dominance of a monopoly?

To better put this idea into perspective, look no further than right here on campus where, just recently, the Pepsi corporation forced Coca-Cola out of the McDonald's and Domino's restaurants at the Memorial Student Union. After the UA sold its soul, the Pepsi company. decided it had the right to completely dominate the market on the UA campus, generally dictating to UA students what they should choose to drink, but continuing to skillfully advertise its products as if still engaged in a competitive market.

Granted, Coca-Cola is certainly not a small, struggling company, but is it at all right for a company to restrict the consumer's freedom of choice? Shouldn't we be able to decide for ourselves what is best?

As it now stands, the only place to purchase anything other than Pepsi products on campus is at one of a couple convenience stores where it is drastically overpriced.

The Pepsi company has presented itself not as an innovator, one of the earliest companies to integrate business into higher education, but as a corporate monster, attempting to limit our freedom of choice.

If individuals, such as you and I, hope to enjoy the blessings of a democracy in our future, we must ensure now that we maintain our own freedom by supporting the hopes and dreams found in lemonade stands everywhere.