Remember the Corner Grocery Store?

It is always a great idea to raise the bar! 

Hi Dick- my family had one of those corner grocery stores...a little larger than 600 sq feet, but I was just a kid and lots of things seemed larger. My grandmother took care of the produce and my mother worked the register.

Isn't it funny how the large stores came and then the Stop N Go's popped up. It's like we'll often run to Ace Hardware even though they're a little more expensive than the Bigger Box hardware stores. 

Hi Dick  I do remember the 'corner store' and the people who owned it.  It was bigger than 600 sf by a long shot. They even had a butcher shop. I remember my Mom asking one of the kids to go get X from the butcher.  And it was right across from the elementary school. How great was that for after school snacks!!

Ironically, the Wife and I were talking about the neighborhood corner stores, last night.  We do miss seeing them and stopping in to visit the owners and other neighbors in the small towns.  Thanks for the posting, DICK BETTS !

Good morning Dick. I remember the corner grocery store in the neighborhood I grew up in in Chicago. When a Jewel came to the heighborhood (it was about the size of a 7-11 today) everyone thought it was a wonder. Nobody envisioned the grocery stores of today with parking. Enjoy your day.

Thank you very much for sharing your memories.

Many real estate agents are also at risk of being replaced.

Interesting analogy! We do need to take action to make sure our value is recognized, so the "big store" won't shut us down.

Good morning Dick Betts,

I'm so glad Kathy Streib featured your post in her "Ah-ha" moments for the week as I missed it. I remember the corner store well, the owners and when that was all you knew their inventory was never questioned. When your horizons expanded you found larger inventory and  more value for your money so need to remember that in everything we do.

Good morning Dick Betts - I love the comparison.  I rememvber those stores when I visited my grandmother who lived in Philadelphia.  The point is clear, make you value proposition known rather than worrying about Z.

I used to walk to the Fiesta Gardens Market weekly for my mom. We knew the owner, the clerks and the butcher. When I walked in as a kid, they made sure I got what was on the list and wouldn't let me sneak in candy. I haven't thought of that in 45 years, thanks for the memory lane post!

good point! In our area now the gas stations are no longer just that. They have 2 restaurants that serve breakfast, lunch & dinner. They are clean, you can get other stuff in the 'station' part. It works well & we'll see how long they survive.

Literally a one-stop shop after work. Gas, liquor, food, lottery tickets, TV.

I loved going to the corner grocery store and spending my heard-earned pennies on candy.   I miss those stores.  

Most gas stations don't provide auto repairs, so, of course they're cleaner. Most small grocery stores are gone because they couldn't put items on their shelves that the super market didn't have, so, volume buying caused consumers to stop shopping at small grocery stores. The challenge, if you're a small business owner is to foresee your future business and steer in that direction or initiate an exit plan and get a business for the future. Fail to plan and plan to fail. That's the almighty truth.

Perhaps we are about the same age! I remember a small grocer near our home, and my mom would send us up there for food, and we could 'charge it' --not on a credit card, it was hand written ledger in the store!  Most kids don't even have a corner store to run to these days...

Nice memories of a different time.  So understand.  When I was a kid, we spent weekends about 75 miles outside of our big city to spend it in a town of 100 people.  Saturday nights were always auction night and I'd get to buy 5 cent jolly rancher sticks in the old time drug store that doubled as the ice cream store with the swivel bar stools, red cushions I remember.  Ahh, a simpler time! 

Good post Dick,  I am your age and have very fond memories of Thompson's store which was about 800 sf.  They lived above it.  It was on my paper route.

When I was a teenager I worked at another corner grocer which was owned by a Lebanese lady. We sold many middle eastern foods in bulk. I had Sunday dinner with them every week for 2 years. (I worked 12 hours Sunday so she prepared the same meal for me and relieved me for dinner time.) the old Lebanese ladies all thought I was a nice Lebanese boy. I had black hair and dark brown eyes. Good memories that you have stirred. 

Some of the best groceries happen to be small mom and pop families. After WW2 it was more open to the non-Caucasians and resourceful Chinese Americans borrowed money and started opening family owned grocery chains.  Outside Zoom and Cisco there was a crumbling grocery shack taken in 1981 and today.

Another 40 years have passed and the building is remarkbly kept intact with no vandalism. This is Alviso neighborhood of north San Jose, CA

Near ZOOM and CISCO, TESLA FACTORY is on left a few miles away.

My mom did not like crowds and in a small town not hard to avoid them. But the corner grocery, there were lots that served the neighborhoods surrounding them. Volume and low price trumped the owner in the store appreciation for many though and like the small farmer, bigger happened. Unless people will pay more for the one on one personal touch Dick.