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> the poverty stemming from having a single industry propping up the local economy This is such a dangerous game and Ontario small towns have played it and los
by mabbo 9y ago
> the poverty stemming from having a single industry propping up the local economy
This is such a dangerous game and Ontario small towns have played it and lost for decades.
Consider Smith's Falls, Ontario. Hersey built a nice big chocolate factory there, employing half the town. The town grew, lots of local businesses began existing by offering goods and services to the employees of that factory. They even offered factory tours with a rejected chocolate bar store at the end, and kids like me would beg their parents to go on the tour.
And then Hersey closed the factory. Everyone lost their jobs, many of the businesses closed, even Walmart struggled.
- randlet 9y agoInterestingly the Hershey's factory has been reused as a large scale marijuana grow op although I suspect it employs far fewer people than the chocolate factory.
- giarc 9y agoI remember stopping there on school trips to Ottawa. Must have been a teachers nightmare to stop a school bus full of 14 year olds at a chocolate factory.