I miss all the smaller grocery stores

[blissful]

First world problem. We have freezers (chopped peppers) and a downstairs pantry where we stock canned food, food from the garden (potatoes, onions), extra spices, flours, sugars, coffee, oil.
Most of what we buy, we try (try) to buy on sale at larger markets farther away.

It's my job, like the small town grocer, to make sure none of the goods are going bad, like potatoes that want to grow, or canned food losing it's seal. It's my job as the freezer owner to watch the inventory, to make sure the equipment stays running. I take risks and I have upkeep, just like a small town grocer but this is just for one household.

I have two dry erase boards on the refrigerator. One lists the things I want from the downstairs pantry, a shopping list, and there is no traffic to deal with. One lists the things I want from the grocery store. There is another paper list of things I want but can wait until it goes on sale at the larger grocery stores.

I realize not everyone would go through the trouble or have the space to do that, but we like being prepared in case of job loss or natural causes. I was brought up by people born during the depression and those people were raised by people raising families during the depression, so it seems pretty natural to me. I'm pretty sure I should have been born during the 1880's.

 

[Addie]

We so often take our US citizenship for granted. I have a good friend here who just took his oath a week and a half ago, and he was so excited about it. He isn't even from a depressed country either... he's from the UK, Welsh, but he is married to a local man. They have been together for more than a decade, and actually married for 4 years. He is one of the most active members of our Methodist church, and has earned the respect of most of the locals. He posted a half dozen photos on Facebook of his celebration party after the naturalization ceremony. I found it interesting that even though he could live just about anyplace in the world that he wished (he makes very good money in corporate support and sales for IBM IT technologies), he chose to live here in this obscure little farm town.

Even though I've never lived anywhere that's as ethnically diverse as NYC, I've known quite a few naturalized citizens, and they have all been good, contributing members of society. Getting to know them over the years and learning their history has given me a deeper appreciation of my own good fortune in being born a US citizen - its not something that I take lightly.

When my first husband died, (he was born and raised in England) he had received his American citizenship along with that small American flag. We placed the flag in his hands along with his citizenship papers. Two of his most cherished items. He would tell anyone who would listen that he was an American citizen.

 

[milford]

Where in Ohio are you? I'm in a suburb of Cleveland. You don't go anywhere without passing a Save-A-Lot store. Then there's Aldi's, Marc's and even a couple of Drug Stores that have produce and a deli counter. There's also three small Farmers Markets and one Mom & Pop store called Gabors in my area.

 

[rodentraiser]

There was a small Mom and Pop store two blocks from me when I lived in California. I shopped there once and got hamburger, only to find it had an expired tag on it from the year before! I tossed that and never shopped there again.

But I know what you guys are talking about. The 7-11 I worked in had a dairy with milk, cheese, and meat packages. We also sold eggs and some frozen food. Recently I went down to the local 7-11 here to get some cheese and they didn't even sell milk.

On the bright side, though, I remember when I was five and we lived with my grandmother. She always shopped in a little store up the block on the corner called Cecil's. She was in there constantly.

When I was back in Minnesota in 2012, I went to find the old house and found Cecil's still on the corner. The sons are still running it and it's a delicatessen now, but their mom is still alive. I asked them to tell her Marie's granddaughter says hi.

That store has been there since 1949.

Cecils Deli Main Page

 

[CharlieD]

Sadly mom and pop stores are all but gone. There are some Asian and some Mexican stores, smaller ones, but they are located in certain areas not very convenient to shop. Corporations are killing good oled America.

 

[CharlieD]

....

When I was back in Minnesota in 2012, I went to find the old house and found Cecil's still on the corner. The sons are still running it and it's a delicatessen now, but their mom is still alive. I asked them to tell her Marie's granddaughter says hi.

That store has been there since 1949.

Cecils Deli Main Page

Sad, But it is the lousiest Deli ever. I ate there once, some 22 years ago, the reason I remember because my wife was in the hospital with our son, and I would not step my foot there again. People must be either really nostalgic to eat there, or desperate, as I was. Shame. Their cousins in Chicago have a restaurant, they should drive up and take a lesson on how to run it and what to cook.

 

[jd_1138]

Where in Ohio are you? I'm in a suburb of Cleveland. You don't go anywhere without passing a Save-A-Lot store. Then there's Aldi's, Marc's and even a couple of Drug Stores that have produce and a deli counter. There's also three small Farmers Markets and one Mom & Pop store called Gabors in my area.

I'm in the Youngstown/Warren area so about an hour and a half SE from you. Yeah, Cleveland and its 'burbs have a ton of places to buy real food. I wish we had a Trader Joe's like you guys have.

 

[jd_1138]

I found this on YouTube -- footage of a late 1950's era Safeway supermarket somewhere in the SF Bay Area I assume. There's a shot of the Golden Gate Bridge at the end.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzCVuQgNz4s

A lot of comments are "wow, they're not dressed in pajamas like today's shoppers, and the women are wearing dresses." I rarely see people shopping in PJ's around here.

Really, it looks like a modern grocery store. Notice the hot foods clerk cooking all those rotisserie chickens. I wasn't born until 1972 but I think I remember the tiny kid size shopping carts. The local Safeway we shopped at must've had them. My mom usually shopped at Lucky's, though.

 

[caseydog]

A lot of comments are "wow, they're not dressed in pajamas like today's shoppers, and the women are wearing dresses." I rarely see people shopping in PJ's around here.

Have you been to a Walmart, lately?

Where I live, I never see a lot of things, unless I go to the one Walmart in town.

I remember the year that store opened. We had 3 homicides in our burb that year, and two of them were in the Walmart parking lot.

CD

 

[Cheryl J]

I miss them, too. We only have maybe two mom and pop food stores here - one of them is an Asian store which I love. The other is about 10 miles out of town so I don't get there often and to be honest, their produce is not all that great.

This thread reminds me of back in the day when my brother and I were around 8. We would beg my mother to let us walk to the corner store by ourselves, so every now and then my mom would give us a dollar to go to the store for bread and eggs....and we'd bring home the change. We didn't know until years later that she pretty much craned her neck out the kitchen window watching us to make sure we got there and home OK.

 

[jd_1138]

Have you been to a Walmart, lately?

Where I live, I never see a lot of things, unless I go to the one Walmart in town.

I remember the year that store opened. We had 3 homicides in our burb that year, and two of them were in the Walmart parking lot.

CD

I try to stay out of Wal-Mart. I am not a fan of that place. I did buy a 5 quart jug of full synthetic 5W-20 motor oil there 2 months ago for my oil change. It was only $17 for their SuperTech brand (one of their brands), though I could probably have gotten a jug at the local Napa or Autozone for the same price.

The times I've gone to Wally World there were way too few open checkout lines, slow as molasses clerks, and their patrons are not the type to let you go ahead of them even if they have 100 items and you have 1 or 2.

Not my idea of fun. I get about the same prices at the local store that's 1/4th as far away. I buy my food at the local mom and pop grocery store, and I buy my cleaning and paper products at the local Dollar General. We got a local DG a mile away 3 years ago.

 

[caseydog]

I try to stay out of Wal-Mart. I am not a fan of that place. I did buy a 5 quart jug of full synthetic 5W-20 motor oil there 2 months ago for my oil change. It was only $17 for their SuperTech brand (one of their brands), though I could probably have gotten a jug at the local Napa or Autozone for the same price.

The times I've gone to Wally World there were way too few open checkout lines, slow as molasses clerks, and their patrons are not the type to let you go ahead of them even if they have 100 items and you have 1 or 2.

Not my idea of fun. I get about the same prices at the local store that's 1/4th as far away. I buy my food at the local mom and pop grocery store, and I buy my cleaning and paper products at the local Dollar General. We got a local DG a mile away 3 years ago.

We don't have any Dollar General's in my burb. We have one Dollar Tree. I had to do a google search to find that one. There is a dollar store in the next town over that has a good selection of party supplies. That's the nearest one I've been too.

CD

 

[buckytom]

Is it me, or does anyone else get an uncomfortable feeling when people from such far flung and disparate places have the same exact choice of stores?

 

[caseydog]

Is it me, or does anyone else get an uncomfortable feeling when people from such far flung and disparate places have the same exact choice of stores?

You are going to have to expand on that question. I'm not exactly sure what you are asking.

CD

 

[buckytom]

I probably shouldn't. It'll get socio-political.

 

[caseydog]

I probably shouldn't. It'll get socio-political.

Tease!

CD

 

[jd_1138]

Is it me, or does anyone else get an uncomfortable feeling when people from such far flung and disparate places have the same exact choice of stores?

Yeah there is a lot of corporatization going on. The corporate owned stores are taking over, and they have more buying power so they can put the screws on suppliers to get products for less money and therefore drive smaller chains out of business.

They're not stupid, though, as soon as they get less competition the prices go back up. It's a science. I often find Amazon, even, to not have the lowest prices on products, so I just buy my general stuff locally. I try to buy from locally owned stores like the Ace Hardware (local owner). I get most of my tools, building materials, supplies, furnace filters, etc there. I buy car parts and oil at the local Napa.

I even bought my cast iron skillet from a mom and pop hardware store. The hardware store was like the Wally World and Target of 100 years ago. You could get your cookware, tools, radio, lamps, lamp oil, those old style fuses, so on. There was a mercantile for food, tailor for clothes, and a hardware store for everything else. lol.

 

[caseydog]

I probably shouldn't. It'll get socio-political.

Okay, I'll just have to make assumptions. That should fit right in on a internet forum.

It seems like the "American Dream" has become a race to accumulate the most stuff possible with the money you have -- or don't have. Walmart fits right into that dream. You can fill a cart up with cheap stuff -- some of it you need, but a lot of it that you don't need. All around me are people parking their cars and trucks outside, because their garages are full of "stuff." They park a $30K car outside, because their garages are full of Walmart-fall-apart crap that they used one time.

I see immigrants come to the USA, and adopt that version of the "American Dream" way to easily. They make some money, and go straight to Walmart to spend it -- just like an American.

I fight it, but still find myself getting sucked in from time-to-time. We live in a land of abundance, so we "stock up," whether we need to or not. See my post in the What are you doing thread for more on that (freezer/pantry clean-out).

As for more geo-political aspects, I live in a predominantly white suburb of Dallas. Walmart is the "melting pot" in my burb. Everyone from rednecks to Nigerians shop at the Walmart in town. People talk about music or food or art being the common thread of society, I think the real common thread is buying cheap stuff.

CD

 

[jd_1138]

Okay, I'll just have to make assumptions. That should fit right in on a internet forum.

CD

Yeah I get what you're saying. People are choking on cheap junk. I have a friend whose mother has a 3 car garage, but she can't even park her $25,000 Lincoln inside of one of the bays. Because her son (my friend) is storing all his crap in her garage. It's all in there in one massive single pile. So there's like 3 feet of crap scattered across all 3 of the bays. Looks like he bought everything at Wally World except the shelves. lol.

It's asinine. Also my neighbor is the same way. He has a huge custom garage that he had custom built. There's a single layer of junk scattered throughout -- no shelving. I actually offered to help him build some shelving, and he said "ain't got any room for shelving".

Meanwhile my step dad was of the older generation. Completely organized. He had a massive wall of shelving in his garage that neatly filled a 3 foot wide gap between the wall and the start of the garage door. He had everything neatly organized. And he had a USA made tool box full of USA made hand tools (mostly Powr-Kraft Montgomery Ward's and SK too). He didn't buy the low grade crap made in sweat shops.

 

[Cooking Goddess]

...It seems like the "American Dream" has become a race to accumulate the most stuff possible with the money you have -- or don't have...All around me are people parking their cars and trucks outside, because their garages are full of "stuff." They park a $30K car outside, because their garages are full of Walmart-fall-apart crap that they used one time...

How apropos that this topic comes up just after I read the editor's column in my recent "Midwest Living" magazine. The bulk of it was about a Tiny Homes festival called "TinyFest Midwest", that was held near Des Moines, IA. A few points from his column: American homes average twice as much space per person as they did 40 years ago. 8% of households rent off-site storage now, compared to 3% in the 1980s. And a lot about our drive to consumerism.

I'm sure I was born in the wrong decade/century. Before adding on the sun room, our current house was only 120 square feet larger than our first house we had built in 1977. Both of our cars fit into the garage...along with all of the yard equipment and various other garage sundries. I still use my Mom's old stand mixer (circa early 1950s), sit at a table that was a hand-me-over that my Dad refinished in 1977. Much of our furniture is from what we bought when we lived in our first house (1977-1991) if it isn't furniture that my parents' (or my aunt and uncle) had in their home! We aren't much in the way of consumers. Now if I could just get rid of all of the nostalgia stuff in the basement, we could have a much lighter load whenif we move.