Heat-Moon takes a generally negative view of corporatization and commercialism. As he travels the country, he deliberately avoids the interstate system, which he believes symbolizes corporatization. Likewise, he pointedly visits small-town, independently owned restaurants and bars and other business establishments. He does what he can to escape the modern ethos, the trend toward an increasingly cheap and hollow culture that chooses convenience seemingly at all costs. Corporate America’s unrelenting drive for commercial success is a destructive force, and part of Heat-Moon’s project is to show another side of America—the ingenuity, authenticity, and resilience of its people, especially those operating small businesses.

Heat-Moon sees various manifestations of this insidious commercial culture, and his contempt is evident in such statements as: “[M]aybe America should make the national bird a Kentucky Leghorn and put Ronald McDonald on the dollar bill” (16). His aversion to fast-food is obvious, and he eats at small, out-of-the-way establishments, or “where-you-from-buddy” restaurants (17). This is his effort to resist the increasing onslaught of the “franchise system,” which, according to him, has destroyed local character and livelihood around the country. Heat-Moon has thereby staked out a kind of ethical boundary, and even though he is occasionally tempted to eat at a chain restaurant, he refuses on principle.