BY KYLE LOVERN
The idea of the super department stores where you can do a lot of things in one place is not such a new marketing strategy.
Many of us can remember the old general stores that were located in most communities.
Sure you can go into certain large “box” stores now and get groceries, shop for certain hardware supplies, get your haircut/styled and even go to the optometrist and buy glasses. You can also go to the garden center, and in some, there is a chain restaurant where you can grab a quick bite to eat. In some of these locations, you can even get your taxes done.
But the old general stores were ahead of their times. Many folks in this region grew up in “coal camps” and “hollers” with similar types of stores.
You bought groceries and provisions. Many had a post office located there, and maybe a store clerk also served as a barber. You could buy tools, farming supplies, and even a fresh sliced baloney sandwich with a large dill pickle on the side picked right out of a big barrel or large canning jar. In many of these old stores, you could buy shoes, work boots and clothing or materials to make clothes.
Walking into an old general store you would’ve seen a front counter with a brass cash register, scales where they cut the fresh meat and cheese and wrapping paper to protect your selections. General stores were stocked with great products all year long.
Most of them had a front porch with benches on the front for folks to sit and chat. Maybe old-timers would chew tobacco, whittle with their pocket knives and discuss the latest events or local politics.
It was a place for people to gather. A more innocent time and a part of Americana that has been disappearing.
Nowadays the large box stores will have about any item you want. And even though the idea is the same, it just doesn’t have the same charm as the old general stores many of us grew up with.
In the old days most everything arrived in bulk. There were very few packages or canned goods. The storekeeper did not overstock on canned goods since it was the general practice for most homes to grow a garden and preserve and pickle many fruits and vegetables during the summer to last into the winter months.
Families would buy large bags of flour, meal, sugar, beans and other items to last a while.
I’m sure your grandmothers saved aluminum foil or bacon grease to use again. Not because they were tight, but because they were thrifty. They had seen hard times in the past and were raised to conserve and save.
At many of the old grocery stores you could buy on credit and pay your bill at the end of the month. The shopkeeper or clerk kept a tab of the goods people bought and trusted that they would get paid when it was time. They had an alphabetized system to keep up with the bills.
That is something you couldn’t do in this day and time unless you use a credit card and pay high interest on certain goods. You certainly wouldn’t be trusted to purchase your products only to pay for them at a later date.
Of course, most of us complain about the economy and the high price of groceries and other items, and it seems to be getting worse.
Maybe we should all go back to raising gardens, chickens for eggs and maybe even buy a cow for milk.
The younger generation could probably not survive like many families and baby boomers did in years past.
They just go to the big department stores and buy what they need. Or they go out and eat at a restaurant every day to buy burgers, tacos or other fast food items.
Can you imagine your grandparents doing that?
So the large department and box stores many of use these days seem like a great thing; however, it’s actually an old idea.
General stores were at the heart of lives in quaint, tight-knit communities, especially in smaller rural areas, where they served the surrounding community as the center or hub of the town.
Nowadays people are rushed, looking down at their cell phones and racing to their next destination. As the old saying goes, they “don’t stop to smell the roses.”
Those older times were more laid back and innocent. It would be nice to go back to those days again — stopping to talk to those on the front porch to catch up. Maybe the world would be a friendlier place and our lives a little less stressful.