What I learned watching the big box stores and local owned businesses is that most of the locally owned businesses were making bank on our backs before the box stores moved in. In fact most of the locals survived the box store by simply dropping prices on average of 15%. Now most of the local businesses were 2nd , 3rd and sometimes more generation businesses. That means they were bought and paid for. Property taxes, building upkeep, insurance, utilities and merchandise was their overhead. So dropping prices was easy and didn't kill profit. Well the kids moved on and didn't stay so at retirement they sold out. The new owner now had a monthly payment for the business and an attitude. That attitude was "I'm my own boss". I can open at 10: and close at 5:. And as someone else pointed out they would have to take 1/2 a day off to shop there. About the only businesses to survive were the one that were open extended hours like the bars. Even the mom and pop cafes that served breakfast and lunch are gone. Most of our locals now have to drive 30 miles to work. So they are leaving town at 7AM and the get home at 6PM. What's open at 7AM? The convenience store. And that's open at 6PM? The convenience store and the bar. Here you can add a small grocery store that's open to 8 and does good business. When the small farms died so did the businesses in town like the COOPs, feed store and elevators. Lot of the meat lockers and small creameries died too. All those employees? They had to get new jobs. Out of town new jobs. No more taking a few minutes to stop in the hardware store and buy that new plug for the bathtub.
I have no sympathy for the mom and pops that failed. Here most didn't fail because of Walmart. The ones that survived the farm crisis also survived Walmart too and but were gone 15 years later when Home Depot and Menards moved in. What they didn't survive was the new owner after mom and pop retired. Heck, another factor most don't look at was the old farmers. They were far to busy to go 30 miles into town when they could get it 5 miles away. Especially when they had crops to plant or hay down. Those 100's of small farmers are gone too and plus they have cars that get 35 MPG.
Whole combination of things killed the mom and pops. But it really wasn't the box stores. Times and things change.
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Today's Featured Article - A Cautionary Tale - by Ian Minshull. In the early 1950s my father bought an Allis Chalmers B and I used it for all the row crop work with the mangolds and potatoes, rolling and the haymaking on our farm. The farm and the Allis were sold and I have spent a lifetime working on farms throughout the country. I promised myself that one day I would own an Allis. That time event
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