Walmart sighting...

[JerryG]

<font color="blue"> I guess there won't be many Mom-n-Pops left around these parts.... </font>
When WM came to my small town, there were several small Mom-n-Pops that closed. With in three years there were several more that opened. There were more new ones opened that what there were that closed. The new ones also off more of a selection and have better customer service. There new individually owned Mom and Pops have better cash flow and are lot stronger businesses than the one that were closed.

 

[AndyM]

In NW Arkansas in 1962, Walmart WAS a mom and pop store.
As I've said before, these things come and go in cycles. 100 years ago, people would have laughed at you if you would have told them that Montgomery Wards would be out of business.

First there was downtown shopping, then we moved to strip shopping centers in the 1950's, then to malls (mauls) in the late 1960's and 1970's. By the late 1980's, people wanted to park right in front of the store they were going to and strip centers were back again. Now were back to smaller strip centers around the Walmart stores.

One of these local mom and pop stores owned by the small town guy in the pickup truck might be the next big thing... /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif It's happened before!

 

[JerryG]

Andy,
I agree. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[MikePA]

<font color="blue"> One of these local mom and pop stores owned by the small town guy in the pickup truck might be the next big thing... </font>
I am old enough (and I'm not that old, not near as old as Bird! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif) to remember home delivered milk. The milkman would drop off milk (in glass bottles!), cream, etc. and pick up our empties. My mom would always leave a note in the milk box for anything special she needed.

We also had home delivery of meat, and no, it wasn't a guy with a deer carcass in the back of his pickup! /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif It was a truck a little smaller than today's Mac Tool/Snapon trucks that had a mini-meat market in the back. The guy also had a retail store, but he also had a route for regulars. My mom would walk to the end of the driveway, ask about what was fresh, gab a little and walk back to the house with an armfull of vittles!

AndyM is right, these things run in cycles.

 

[Bird]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( as old as Bird! ) to remember home delivered milk )</font>

And home delivery of blocks of ice for your icebox. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[MikePA]

<font color="blue"> And home delivery of blocks of ice for your icebox. </font>
Just for the record...I am not old enough to remember home delivery of ice. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[ronjhall]

I'm not as old as Bird. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif
I do remember Ice Delivery, Milk Delivery, Vegetable Wagon, and the Junk Collector (not garbage). There was another phase for this person. But it's not P.C. to use the phrase any more. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

I would sure like to see some of them come back. /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[rdam]

I'm 40 and I clearly remember milk delivey, in re-turnable glass bottles, into a "milk box" on the back porch. I also remeber "Charles Chips" delivery to the house.

Most people say "Yeah, right, potato chip delivery...."

 

[jinman]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( And home delivery of blocks of ice for your icebox )</font>

Heck! Bird, I remember ice delivery and we lived just a little far out, so my dad would stop by the ice house and bring home a block in the trunk of his car.

I also remember milk delivery and how we couldn't have that either. I wanted it just because other kids had it and complained to my mom. She told me we couldn't get it because it would make our cows jealous. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif
That sounded reasonable to me. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

I also remember getting half-pints of milk in school for $0.02. They had that little round cardboard stopper in them that you could hold between your fingers, thump it, and it would fly across the room. I guess that was an early version of the Frisbee. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Bird]

Yep, Jim, we had the same kind of milk delivery; just had to go to the barn twice a day to get it from the cow, but my grandparents had theirs delivered to the door. And of course I remember those little cardboard stoppers.

Heck, I'm so old I still think we'd be better off if the milk, beer, soda pop, etc. came in returnable glass bottles. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif