Ed Pawlowski wrote:
"Jon Danniken" wrote in message
When the local Lowes went up earlier this year I stopped by to check it
out. On the front door was a large welcome sign in both English and
Spanish. This theme was repeated throughout the store.

Now I'm pretty sure the last time I checked that this was still America,
and that immigrants to this country should understand English if they wish
to live here. Apparently not to the executives at Lowes.

Sears Essentials store is like that also.



They wouldn't do it if it didn't make a positive difference in their
bottom line. Even up north here, I see a lot of obviously
Hispanic-background folks in Lowe's (and other stores). In the
southernmost tier of states, if you are strawbossing a construction
site, you better speak at least some Spanish, or have an aide that does.
(or in the case of the hospitality industry, whoever heads up your
housekeeping department.) So if Lowe's standard signage for down there
needs to be bilingual, it makes sense for them to just have the default
setup for all the stores be that way. Like it or not, a large part of
the buying public in this country has Spanish as their primary language.
And not all of them are immigrants. Traditionally, maintaining the
'mother tongue' at home fades away by the third generation, but that was
when the 'melting pot' was the path most waves of immigrants followed.
Not all ethnic groups follow that practice.

Remember, in some areas of the country, Spanish was the 'official'
language well before English was. Us Anglos are the newcomers. I don't
know if Lowes is up in Quebec, but I suspect big-boxes up there have
English and French on their signs. I do know that in the Little Whatever
enclaves of big cities, stores have the language of the local ethnic
community on many of their signs.

--
aem sends, not finding the situation all that offensive....