By Alexander Germanis
Ours is a culture obsessed with convenience. Ease of access and speed have become the threads used to weave the very fabric of our daily lives. We seek for faster internet, faster banking, and easier shopping.
Perhaps most obvious is how we feel about our food. Growing our own food took too long and some foods were not available all year round, so the supermarket surfaced. Then we felt we weren’t getting our food fast enough, so fast food soon entered the American way of life. Having to actually get out of the car and waste precious seconds walking to a counter was still not convenient enough, and thus the advent of the drive-through restaurant — a gimmick borrowed, believe it or not, from drive-through banking.
Waiting for the basics of health care became horribly inconvenient as well, so our pharmacies hopped on the drive-through bandwagon. Ironically, the concept of getting a little exercise in order to get something meant to help our health is somehow appalling.
There is the argument convenience is as much about saving time as anything else. Then explain why people will drive around in circles for ten minutes in order to get a spot 50 feet closer to a store entrance.
Then again, people will pay extra money for convenience. We pay extra for rush postal delivery. We’ll pay an upcharge for movie tickets so we don’t have to wait in line at the box office (only to wait in an even longer line at the concessions stand).
Many people will pay more in order to get something at a corner convenience store — a store with “convenience” in its very name — rather than drive a little further away (although some may argue there is nothing “convenient” about paying twice as much for a sandwich that looks like it was made from ingredients someone found in a puddle).
Even in a city the size of Bloomington-Normal, driving to the other side of town often feels like more trouble than it’s worth, especially when there is something closer to home that offers the same service or product. For example, a single road like Veteran’s Parkway can and has become an unofficial borderline that some people just don’t like to cross.
It all comes back to the three most important aspects of real estate: location, location, and location. This adage proves as true for a business or medical practice as it does for homes, perhaps even more so. As this city continues to expand —particularly to the east — the location of the services that residents need becomes more and more important. After all, who can argue that there are entire shopping centers in town that go completely unnoticed and unused simply because of where they happen to be located?
In short, location and convenience are important — even vital — to how we operate on a daily basis. The easier and faster something is to access and find, not only will more people use it, the more often those people will use it. So, it becomes more and more logical for any business — new or expanding — to be conveniently located for the majority of the population.
If your business or medical practice is looking to provide a more convenient location for your patrons, you may be interested in available commercial property located at 1717 Ft. Jesse Rd. in Normal. For more information, contact David Juarez at 309-829-5885 or e-mail DavidJuarez@ExcelApartments.com.