Low Market · 3:16pm Sep 16th, 2022
And now, apropos of nothing, a bit of headcanon regarding the commercial history of Ponyville:
Barnyard Bargains was Ponyville’s first general store, but not its most successful one. Not at first. Stinking Rich had a competitor who trumped him at every turn: store size, inventory quanitity, price point… Rich got by on quality, especially with exclusive contracts like zap apple jam, but Big Box’s Big Box was where many Ponyvillians went for their daily essentials.
The problem was that Big Box subscribed to the same maximalist approach in life as in business. After a disaster with a massive shipment of dried pasta meant the time had come for the next generation to inherit the family business, there were a lot of prospective heirs, and no established will saying which of them was to be general manager.
The resulting succession crisis made many Canterlot noble houses’ pale in comparison, and the end result was a corporate balkanization that saw Ponyville’s main general store shattering to a wide variety of very specific ones. The end result was Ponyville’s ever-notable Two Things Boulevard, the home of shops like Quills & Sofas, Mattresses & Medical Supplies, and the always popular Torches & Farming Implements. (Mob Mentality is a perfectly normal and stable pony, and anypony who says otherwise should expect to see him and about fifty of his friends express their counterargument on that pony's front porch.)
Stinking, meanwhile, made sure his affairs were in order and that Filthy was ready to take the reins.
The great tragedy of Mob Mentality was that he was never able to whip up a Sprout-esque song about his life’s desire.
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You know, pasta is one of those things that's so good you tend not to mind the fact that eating it may be one of the leading causes of your premature death. Death by dried pasta, however, is almost certainly not what any of us had in mind. What a tragic letdown. I'd prefer to die with the pasta in my stomach, as opposed to on.
In tribute to the old pony, Mob Mentality symbolically founded Orecchiette and Omertà and, after a minute of silence, closed it. And since that day nopony eats pasta in Ponyville.
You realize this needs a story now, right?
That's such a fantastic headcanon! Accepted!
This isn’t even headcanon. It’s just… accurate. Truthful. Correct.
And that's why you always have your documents in order.
I wonder if Mob Mentality knows Screwloose. They probably have the same therapist.
Ponyville Mercantile.
Nowadays changes in business models and technology have rendered mercantile stores more or less obsolete in most places, though they still hang on in some rural areas or small towns even now. In the nineteenth century, though, mercantiles were a very common way of doing business—a single building housing a passel of smaller businesses as a co-op, not quite an indoor mall but more than a collection of kiosks. Ponyville would be a perfect location for a mercentile, especially since it gets snow in winter.
I remember, some forty-plus years ago, a shopping center called
South CoastOld World Village opening in Orange County (California, not the other one). It was modeled on quaint European villages, with the largest building set up to house multiple businesses. They called it a mercantile, though I don’t think it actually was; I’m sure they offered conventional store leases. I think the shopping center is still around, more or less, but has evolved greatly over the decades.5686781
Wait do you also live in Orange county? And are you referring to the German village in Huntington beach? It's still around! There's a really good cheap burger place there and I got like four of my Hawaiian shirts from a store there with a lady who had me pay in cash so she didn't have to deal with taxes
Weirdly enough there's an equally fantastic cheap burger place literally like 100 yards away at the skatepark next door.
Old World Village
(714) 895-8020
https://maps.app.goo.gl/9AzM6yt1doHe9Xsa6
lh4.googleusercontent.com/XEh_bXh3u44o5RiZIyf6ddzSuBHmjjRzy0MD1yhPt_aJSWru2p9erhvHybNuesi96yfRkqrnxLlDeSHSDCEP4gPZajjIxsw8yPzxxTMNYJiHLvuWIAU-zCL0Fovqz-xtT2fiey1vGYGdsY9gCWqSejAoqrPUlegYnK0ZsF65hP8ZUiHZ3LI9HEE35w
5686789
I did live there—many years ago. And indeed, I was thinking of Old World Village, though I had forgotten the correct name.
Multiversal Constant #472B: The Spaghetti Incident.
Too bad the ponies never invented the concept of primogenitor.
5686792
literally made a list today of stuff I need to read and prachett is on it
👌
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Funny, when he referenced another Orange County I thought he might be referencing the one in Southeast Texas that was practically my back yard growing up.
5686839
I was thinking of California and Florida—I’d forgotten there was one in Texas!
Good heavens. According to Wikipedia there are Orange Counties in California, Florida, Indiana, New York, North Carolina, Texas, Vermont, and Virginia.
5686816
Oh gods, I hadn't even noticed that it was a literal noodle incident.
That's the correct emote, for sure. The Crown is a lot less likely to set precedents for succession when its holder is immortal.
5686842
Not as bad as Springfield, at least.
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5686839
Fun fact that blew my mind when I discovered it: Orange County, California has
the samea considerably higher population density than Bangladesh.https://www.opendatanetwork.com/entity/0500000US06059/Orange_County_CA/geographic.population.density?year=2018
https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/bangladesh-population/#:~:text=Bangladesh%20ranks%20number%208%20in,3%2C277%20people%20per%20mi2).&text=The%20median%20age%20in%20Bangladesh%20is%2027.6%20years.
5686842
Washington County laughs at the pitiful showing. 31 states have one.
Big Box has many children.
pbs.twimg.com/media/Fc9VbXUX0AI66tC?format=jpg&name=large
Hah, nice. :)