"We've got to figure out a way to cause communities to also want them, the political, organized bodies"
About this Quote
Lee Scott is trying to sell legitimacy, not just products. The sentence lurches forward like a meeting-room confession: "We've got to figure out a way" signals urgency and problem-solving, but also admits they don't yet have the answer. Then comes the tell: "cause communities to also want them". That verb, cause, is doing too much work. It frames public approval as something engineered, not earned, and it gives away the corporate instinct to treat consent as a supply-chain issue: identify resistance, tweak inputs, deliver acceptance.
The pivot phrase "the political, organized bodies" is equally revealing. Communities here aren't neighbors or customers; they're institutions that can block expansion, regulate labor practices, or complicate zoning and permitting. Scott collapses civic life into stakeholders to be managed: city councils, unions, advocacy groups, neighborhood associations. Calling them "bodies" makes them sound abstract, almost mechanical, which conveniently drains the moral charge out of what those groups often raise (wages, local business displacement, environmental impact).
Contextually, this reads like big-box retail in its mature phase, when growth depends less on winning shoppers and more on winning permission. By the time a company is dominant, the real competition is political: narratives about jobs versus job quality, low prices versus local decline, efficiency versus power. Scott's intent is pragmatic - secure a pathway for expansion - but the subtext is unmistakable: the company knows it's not automatically welcome, and it is searching for the levers that make "welcome" happen.
The pivot phrase "the political, organized bodies" is equally revealing. Communities here aren't neighbors or customers; they're institutions that can block expansion, regulate labor practices, or complicate zoning and permitting. Scott collapses civic life into stakeholders to be managed: city councils, unions, advocacy groups, neighborhood associations. Calling them "bodies" makes them sound abstract, almost mechanical, which conveniently drains the moral charge out of what those groups often raise (wages, local business displacement, environmental impact).
Contextually, this reads like big-box retail in its mature phase, when growth depends less on winning shoppers and more on winning permission. By the time a company is dominant, the real competition is political: narratives about jobs versus job quality, low prices versus local decline, efficiency versus power. Scott's intent is pragmatic - secure a pathway for expansion - but the subtext is unmistakable: the company knows it's not automatically welcome, and it is searching for the levers that make "welcome" happen.
Quote Details
| Topic | Vision & Strategy |
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