Death of the mom and pop stores

[kvnchrist]

I remember, when I was young, growing up in a predominantly black neighborhood my usualy gaunt to school sent me past a small corner market, owned by a little old woman. I'd go in there and spend some of my allowance on a small portion of candy, or a neat little toy that caught my eye. Sometimes I would just stop in to see how she was doing. She always had a smile for the kids and sometimes she would give out candy, when we didn't have the money, which was usually around the end of the week. I guess it was an unwriten law that all allowances were paid on Fridays and was more than likely gone by Mondays.

 

On Saturdays, we would go out doing service work,which was the designation The Jehovah's Witnesses gave for going out and irritating the populous, by waking people up early in Saturday morning, so they could blink through a screen door at some religious wackos, for a second, before closing the door and going back to bed. One of the most memorable times is when a dog decided that one of our members leg reminded it of a fire hydrant and acted on the instinct. I wanted to be home looking at cartoons at the time and thought it was just deserts for taking me away from the Super Heroes.

 

After that, my brother and I would pile into the Corvair station wagon

 

http://img183.imagevenue.com/loc166/th_22625_1962ChevroletCorvair700LakewoodStationWagonr3q_122_166lo.jpg

 

and take off down the street to The Safeway grocery store to get the weekly stable of foodstuffs which we would devour, throughout the week. Sometimes we would go downtown to the Katzs drug store, down town to get what we couldn't get there. Every two or three weeks would would end up at the local barber shop, staring at the old man, as if he were a serial killer, as he cut our hair. The weekend would end, after I'd slept through another hour of church, by ruining a perfectly good day for play, by helping my mom do the families laundry at the local laundry mat.

 

All in all, I remember those days with fondness, and the people that are just vague memories to me now. I remember the innocence, but mostly, I remember the personalities that ran the little mom and pop stores that supported the neighborhood. I remember they were small and often cluttered to high heaven, but they were also homey and filled with people who actually wanted to talk with you, instead of at you.

 

Now a days we are seeing the takeover of small businesses by the large conglomerate stores. Crogar, Safeway, Katz, and the like are being replaced by Walmart and Target super stores. The neighborhood barber shop is now super cuts and the like. Walgreens, cvs and costco have all but obliterated Katz and smaller drug stores.

 

Has our addiction to convenience lead us to ignore the slow death of those places which may have been less convenient, but more down to earth. Have we sold our souls, so we could spend less time among our fellow man and more time infront of a TV or a computer. Have we given away supporting the neighborhood, so we could spend more time with ourselves and destroyed the very fabric that once held our communities together?

[ub3rman123]

What was the benefit of the down-to-earth stores, aside from how they felt less alien and hostile?

[kvnchrist]

What was the benefit of the down-to-earth stores, aside from how they felt less alien and hostile?

 

 

I guess you would have had to have been there to appreciate what has been lost.

[Flintlockecole]

What was the benefit of the down-to-earth stores, aside from how they felt less alien and hostile?

 

 

I guess you would have had to have been there to appreciate what has been lost.

It's the sense of community that was within the establishment.