"The Old Mom and Pop Stores" I miss them..

[SteveGaines]

I went to the Drugstore the other day and decided I needed a flu shot, The man behind the counter owned his business for years, He took my information, we sat down behind the screen, he asked who my parents were, and when I told him, he knew them well, we laughed a little bit, then he gave me the shot, when I got up to leave, he stuck his hand out and shook mine. "If there is anything I can ever help you with, call me, if you have any problems call me, I appreciate your business and feel free to come in any time"

I don't know about you guys but that little bit of kindness on his part went a long way with me, so much so I am gonna do my business with him until he packs it in, These big cooperate stores that just get you in and out and just want your money and don't seem to really care, that's the down fall of our country, Older people like that old man are a dying breed.

[Amp360]

I miss going to the guitar stores where there would be some a-hole who was in a local band and only let his friends try out guitars (usually they had 2 strats in stock) and charged you list price.

I also miss having to give a 10% down payment (non-refundable) on anything special ordered that took about 6 months to get to the store.

[koen]

Everytime I go in and out a Walmart there is a nice fellow who greets me as well.

[AR-305]

Yup! Every since The W**M*** came to our little county of 20,000 many locally owned family businesses went by the way side. Not only did they dispatch the best places to buy the things you need but all the crap that comes with it. Higher crime, Meth, Murder, Illegal Aliens, etc. and more local people had jobs before.

[art_z]

Originally Posted by AR-305

Yup! Every since The W**M*** came to our little county of 20,000 many locally owned family businesses went by the way side. Not only did they dispatch the best places to buy the things you need but all the crap that comes with it. Higher crime, Meth, Murder, Illegal Aliens, etc. and more local people had jobs before.

Yes, but isn't all that worth saving a quarter on a roll of toilet paper?

[bluesjuke]

Originally Posted by koen

Everytime I go in and out a Walmart there is a nice fellow who greets me as well.

Every time I go into WalMart there is a man that is supposed to greet me.
No clue as to whether he's nice or not.

The were some cranks in Mom & Pops but there was a wealth of good natured, caring people that liked their businesses, lives, and customers and treated them accordingly.

[MudPies]

Originally Posted by Amp360

I miss going to the guitar stores where there would be some a-hole who was in a local band and only let his friends try out guitars (usually they had 2 strats in stock) and charged you list price.

I also miss having to give a 10% down payment (non-refundable) on anything special ordered that took about 6 months to get to the store.

I will miss my regular local owned gitter shop, where the owner and all employees I've interacted with really seemed to care that I left happy while giving them my cash.

Special orders.... never needed to do it so no experience there. That's what the interwebs are for.

I won't miss the blooze wanna-be rockers (small shop's version of the GC shredders)

[hellbender]

buy local people. save something for your kids

[pickaguitar]

If they could do a better deal than the big stores or internet dealers...then they would be in business

[eberg15101]

Originally Posted by pickaguitar

If they could do a better deal than the big stores or internet dealers...then they would be in business

Service and quality(many times, but not all the time) is sacrificed... Also, when you have specialty stores for things, you usually get a much broader selection with more options, resulting in more companies being able to be in business which also results in more jobs being available.. Walmart may carry 5 different brands of vacuums, and yes they may be the top brands, but are they the best out of what could be there?.. how do you know?.. the employees of a chain store like that certainly don't.. Walmarts music selection sucks, their electronics sections are horrible... the only good thing is convenience.. Which could theoretically could also be done by a small business structure.. It probably won't be, but.. it could be..

I don't like having to drive 40 minutes to go to a record store... I don't even have a decent guitar shop anymore.. they can do repairs, but their selection is pretty awful... hence my membership on TGP
I don't have a stereo shop, or anywhere with any knowledge on subjects.. I have to rely on the internet, which I suppose is good because I can learn for myself, but it's much harder to determine the right information from the wrong... then I have to order whatever it is that I needed the knowledge to buy online too..

For a very small part of my life, mom and pop stores were still around.. but anymore.. they are almost completely non-existent.. I will always support small businesses..

OK, rant over

[hellbender]

Originally Posted by pickaguitar

If they could do a better deal than the big stores or internet dealers...then they would be in business

Discount came about during the 40's when TV was a new toy and quite expensive. Retailers behind the scenes banded together to share the economies of scale and pushed products of various qualities out to the capital rich populace. Gradually local and regional retailers not a part of the cabal fell by the wayside and disappeared.

It was NOT free market capitalism, it was a rigged game.


Nothing new...

[zombywoof]

We still have several small Mom & Pop music stores around. The little music store that was the only one around for many miles of where I lived when I was a young 'un is also still there. I will never forget the old Gibson Harp Guitar they used ot have hanging on the wall behind the counter more for decoration that anything else (I later ended up buying it).

The kind of stuff I miss is walking into the hardware store with a couple of tubes from the big old console radio that sat in our living room and and sticking them on the tube tester.

[PlatinumRoom]

Originally Posted by pickaguitar

If they could do a better deal than the big stores or internet dealers...then they would be in business

All music stores have the same minimum advertised prices. It's been 20 years since I've been in a mom and pop shop that wouldn't discount down to near cost. There are dealers in Florida selling their Gibsons for DEAD cost. The lower pricing of super stores is a thing of the past.

The reason small guitar shops go out of business isn't because y'all buy your $5000 Historics at GC...it's because you buy your 25 cent picks there.

Everytime a TGP'er says "I just go to GC for strings" another mom and pop shop get's its wings.

[SteveGaines]

I come from a small community where everybody used to shop at the same grocery store. It was a farming community and people charged their groceries and paid their bill off at the end of the month, guy even sold boots, overalls, gloves, that kind of thing for the farmer, when people got factory jobs, Kroger came in and shut him down, but boy I miss those days when I was a kid and we would take a break from hauling hay and the guy behind the meat counter who wore one of those little paper pop-up hats would slice some tomatoes, get out the mayo or salad dressing, open a fresh loaf of Wonder bread and slice us up some bologna or ham and make us a sandwich, we'd get a bag of chips, a Pepsi and "GO TO TOWN"... Times to me were really fun back then..

[Luke]

Our supermarket gives antibiotics for free. Recently they added about six free diabetes medications. They have over 300 meds that they charge $9 for a month's supply.

No one can compete against free. It also highlights how cheap these medications are on a wholesale level, a savings your mom and pop did not pass down to you over the past 50 years.

As an aside, when you rent the carpet cleaner at the supermarket or Home Depot, that gallon of soap they sell for $18+ cost them LESS THAN $2