Brand Mix

Photo: Fairfax Parade by Martin Bishop (Flickr)

Does anyone know a way, there's got to be be a way to make this news Brand Mix-blog-worthy--Men's Journal has chosen Fairfax (CA), my home town, as one of its 2010 Best Places to Live. (Let's just ignore the fact that the list, no offense to its citizens, also includes Houston.)

I already wrote about Fairfax once before, talking about how its tagline "Only in Fairfax" captures its spirit and state-of-mind. So what's the angle now?

OK. How about this? The Men's Journal article mentions that one of the charms of Fairfax is that there are "No chain anythings here" which is true as long as you don't count Bank of America as a chain. There are no Blockbusters, that's for sure.

It has its own ice cream shop (Fairfax Scoop), its own natural foods store (Good Earth Natural Foods) and many local bars (like the Sleeping Lady). It's the Trader Joe's model for a town vs., say, a Safeway model. Rather than have the same brands as everyone else which would make it look and feel the same, it has its own unique set of brands which makes it look and feel different. That makes it a candidate for a best place to live and, hopefully, just-about-acceptably worthy of a post.