Subject: [Homestead] Community support and big-box stores
Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2006 11:17:44 -0600
I would be interested in a little feedback. I'm sure
that along with our preference for self sufficiency
most of us are concerned with our local communities.
Or is that just my ideal?
It is a common ideal to cherish and support one's community. Seems to
me that the closer one lives to a small town the more involved one is
in community affairs and the greater the affection. One of my essays
is titled Country Neighbors are More Important than City Neighbors.
Our nearest town is Gainesville, Missouri, population 632, fourteen
miles distant via state-maintained blacktop, the trip often made
without seeing another car. It is the county seat, the courthouse
sits in the middle of the square surrounded by maple trees, a
memorial gazebo and a small log cabin that once sat on our neighbor's
property by the spring that sustains our stream year-round. Besides
the courthouse, the backbone of the town is the bank which has
prospered over four generations of the Harlin family. Most of us are
on first-name basis with the president and we are addressed by name
when we show up. The first president made me a loan on this place
thirty years ago based on my phone call as a stranger. He sent me a
one-page form to fill out so he would have something in the file to
comply with banking rules.
I shop at the hardware store and the auto parts store because they
are closest, they have good inventory, they are locally owned and
because they are friendly. As is common, the hardware store has a
much larger inventory than the nearest WalMart, which is another
half-hour down the road. I tell people that we must support the
hardware store even though their prices are a bit high.
The same case exists with the building supply place, although I have
less sympathy there because it is not locally owned. (The original
lumber yard fronted on the square. I bought roofing shingles there
shortly after I bought this place in 1976. I gave them my California
check. They looked at it and commented on my name but did not ask for
identification. No, that's not why they closed.) Home Depot and Lowes
are only a half-hour further, have far larger inventories and better
prices. We use all three based on need and the size of the purchase.
Chris likes nice restaurants and was delighted that the bank
president and his wife bought and rebuilt the old family home and
turned it into the best restaurant in the county. The bank
president's wife runs the place, is the hostess, and her brother is
the chef. Chris also likes good wine and the selection at the
Gainesville Antler Package Store sucks, so she buys in West Plains,
Missouri, about an hour distant, where also is the WalMart Supercenter.
WalMart requires separate comment. Many of us have an easily
understood love-hate relationship as do I. In our case it destroyed a
few small businesses. One fair question is whether those small
businesses were being run well. Sam Walton started in a small town
and worked very hard and very smart, a superb American success story.
Power corrupts and I find it amazing that the company still seems to
possess some admirable community values, or is that simply good
business? Yes, I think so. I must admit to liking the modern general
store design. One-stop shopping. I don't like their paucity of
hardware based on hard-nosed business choices. I do like that I am
seeing organic items on the shelves. They have a superb business
model and they are here to stay. They are dependable. They provide
lots of jobs, though of modest wages. Like it or don't, WalMart is a
clear sign of the future. From here on out specialty stores will be
run smarter and will appeal to small niches of shoppers.