Today, we live in a world of big box stores, but it wasn’t always that way.
Growing up in the 50’s, my hometown of Beckley, WV only had Mom & Pop businesses. There were no national or even regional franchises. Every business and store in town was locally owned. We had a Pontiac dealer, a Buick dealer, a Ford distributor, a Dodge dealer, etc. Each was locally owned and some sold wares other than cars – appliances for example or maybe tractors. The grocery stores, the hardware stores, the clothing and sporting goods stores were all locally owned and operated. It was truly a Mom & Pop world.
The Mom & Pops I most remember were the small variety stores. There seemed to be one on every street. Typically, the owner lived upstairs and sold goods on the first floor. They offered staples such as bread, soft drinks, cheese, canned goods, condiments and candy. Yes candy. And Boomer kids knew these owners on a first name basis.
There were lots of penny candies in those days – Mary Jane’s, Fireballs, Hershey’s Kisses, Red and Black Licorice, Malted Milk Balls, Kits, Tootsie Rolls, Bazooka and Fleers Bubble Gum, BB Bats, Dum Dums, Root Beer Barrels, Taffy, and many others. After school, since most of us walked home, if we had even 2 or 3 pennies in our pockets, we made a bee-line for the little corner stores, dark stores with squeaky wooden floors, pine shelves and large glass counters. There, we eyeballed each and every piece of candy in stock before making our selections, which usually included at least one piece of bubble gum and one fireball. Much of the candy was packed in large glass jars and you reached in and got what you wanted.
Several blocks from our house was another small, store that sold a few groceries. On many afternoons, Mom would end me on my bike to pick up a loaf of bread, a jar of mayonnaise or maybe a pack of cigarettes, for her of course. If I had any pennies left over, it went for candy.
When we moved to Lewisburg, the main street of the small town was totally occupied by Mom & Pop stores. I remember Zelda’s Grocery, which sold meats, canned goods and even baseball cards. Other Mom & Pops included Barr’s Five & Dime, Shaver’s Music Shop, Clingman’s Grocery, Caldwell’s Hardware Store, Yarid’s Men Shop, Court Restaurant, Pioneer Drug Store, and others. Those great stores sold most anything you needed and all were locally owned. The neatest thing about those businesses was that everybody knew your name, the name of your parents and where you lived. Life was simpler in the days of Mom & Pop stores, when there really was a middle class and a genuine sense of entrepreneurship across America.
Today, most of our businesses are mega stores, national franchises. Sadly, in those stores, no one knows who you are, nor do they care.