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Do You Ever Get Kind Of Sad & Nostalgic When A Long-Time Small Locally-Owned Business Closes Up?

I do and more so as I age. The last one is a pet store in Oklahoma City where I bought Kiwi as a mate for my male bird. I was buying bulk seeds for my canaries, some accessories, and the large flight cage for the canaries. I would go in the back room and talk to the African Gray parrot that belonged to the pet store owner. I would always go and watch the parakeets, doves, and finches too. The owner would give me advice if I mentioned a problem, very helpful.

And my favorite local health food store closed up last fall. I had been a customer since the 70’s, it was opened up in 1968 by Mrs. Dodson and her husband. She passed away a few years ago and Mr. Dodson and his grandchildren helped run the store. They had the best customer service of any health food store. When I would come into the store and start browsing around one of the staff, especially Mr. Dodson, would walk up and asked if I needed help finding something. Sometimes he would make suggestions on brands or say that a health professional had put patients on certain items like chlorophyll supplements when I told him I needed iron because I was anemic. He got in bad health and sold everything. Saw him in a local grocery store a week ago.

And this one I know sounds strange. There was a tire shop that repaired flats and would put tires on wheels for customers etc. They also sold new tires but would work with ones you bought elsewhere. Didn’t charge an arm & a leg either, reasonable prices and they were quick. When I was working at the used car lot they got a lot of our business and also fixed my tires when I needed them too. The owner died about a year and a half ango and the new owners hiked up the prices a great deal.
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DrWatson · 70-79, M
Yes. It saddens me when small, locally-owned businesses close. I hate the fact that almost everything is owned by a large corporation whose headquarters is miles away, and that all the customers, workers, and even the products are nothing more than a source of "return on investment".

And I get that last one. We had an auto repair shop just a few blocks from where I live, so I could drop the car off and walk home. It was very reasonably priced, and sometimes the guy wouldn't even charge me at all! But it is gone now.
HobNoblin · 36-40, M
This stuff depresses me. My favorite restaurant closed long ago. The owner was very old and probably passed away. I don't live in that town but I would go threw their often. She played the piano and had a whole book of songs she wrote. She used to be involved with the USO and would dance, sing, play music etc. I wish I could put those songs in a museum somewhere so people could see them online. I bet AI could play and sing them for me if I could show an AI the music sheets.
4meAndyou · F
I got over that long ago. I grew up in Massachusetts for half of every year, near a shopping dragway that was called the "Miracle Mile". I remember that Hebert's Candy shop went first. Then the pharmacy on the corner of Speen St and Rte 9...and then like dominoes...one small store after another. They built a mall...but apparently it wasn't big enough...and they tore it down and built another one even larger with 3 levels!

I stopped mourning the changes. Change is constant...and of us, nothing will remain.
cherokeepatti · 61-69, F
@4meAndyou I don’t mind change. Probably wouldn’t bother me if 80% of the businesses we have now went out and something else replaced them. It’s the ones that had really good customer service and good products that I would miss. The one-of-a-kind places I guess.
4meAndyou · F
@cherokeepatti That was how I regretted the passing of Hebert's candies. 😢
Yes , A family owned restaurant I've been going to for years closed up , it didn't fail, the owners retired and their kids didn't want to take it over,
cherokeepatti · 61-69, F
@FreeSpirit1 There was a cafe here that was really popular. It was started by a single woman and she had built up a loyal customer base who dined there regularly. When the city started to build the railroad overpass near the restaurant they bought it up, the 7-11, a local greenhouse, and an old A & W drive-in restaurant that we would go to in the 60’s. That lady said she looked all over town and couldn’t find a location that she could afford to rent. So she moved to the next city on the south side about 10 miles from here & opened up another cafe, it is still in business. Anyway every time I drove past that area after the overpass was completed I would look around, nothing replaced her business or the 7–11, they both had been torn down. And where the landscape greenhouse and A & W had been they built a very large 7-11 convenience store but two small stores to rent. For about a year each time I would drive past there my heart rate would speed up and I’d get nostalgic. It just chapped me that the only business that was built was a major corporation. I had never eaten in that cafe but it bothered me greatly that two local small businesses were put under and replaced by a corporate store.
Livingwell · 61-69, M
Yes. Several good eatery's have shuttered over the years. An they are not replaceable.
WillaKissing · 56-60, M
Yes, I hate to see those type of stores close and it seems that no one wants to take up the business, so they are lost forever.
cherokeepatti · 61-69, F
@WillaKissing I think a yoga place went into that building, not a health food store. We have two corporate health food stores and a tiny one near the campus now. The void will likely not be filled in my lifetime. The lady who founded it got her foot in the door in 1968 when people were getting interested in new ways of healing and the old traditional natural medicines from the previous century.
Adrift · 61-69, F
Yes, most of the local places in my area have closed down too.
The local pet shop where I used to go get all my critters when I was growing up is now a liquor store.
All the local restaurants where my mother and I used to go, are now gone.
FreddieUK · 70-79, M
It's not just nostalgic, but as if a part of your life disappears as each part of the community you're a part of closes down.
cherokeepatti · 61-69, F
@FreddieUK For most of these businesses the owners are invested in their communities in some way or another, they are very knowledgable about what they are selling, too and are so helpful in finding what you need. Some of them will even special order things if you really want them that bad. Others, like the Dodson’s would tell me that they would check out things I asked for and didn’t carry. Like when I went there one day almost 20 years ago and inquired if they sold black seed oil supplements. Mr. Dodson said he had never heard of it but would check it out. He said they were coming out with so many new things that it was hard to keep up with them all. About a year later I noticed he was stocking black seed supplements in his store, he had read up on it and decided it was a good thing to sell. I had told him that I did online research on it and was looking for things to help someone who distrusted traditional medicine and she had severe psoriasis, wanted something natural. And it was very effective.
FreddieUK · 70-79, M
@cherokeepatti Sounds like a really good relationship. No wonder you're going to miss going there.
cherokeepatti · 61-69, F
@FreddieUK I have missed several locally-owned businesses throughout the 55 years I have lived here.
AbbeyRhode · F
All the time. There is nothing left of the little town I grew up in, or the surrounding towns. Everywhere I go, all I see are new buildings, mostly ugly apartment complexes, and I remember the little houses, Mom and Pop businesses, or wooded land that used to be there. 😔
Thinkerbell · 41-45, F
"No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manner of thine own
Or of thine friend's were.
Each man's death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee."


— John Donne
tenente · 36-40, M
local business made my neighbourhood feel like a community. I knew the people behind the counter, we would share stories about ourselves and what's happening around town. there's this feeling of belong to something bigger. they're mostly gone and it feels more temporary and transient
cherokeepatti · 61-69, F
@tenente Yes they do that. I remember the mom & pop stores. You knew the owners very well. The little general store in the village a couple of miles from our farm was owned by a married couple. If we needed something like some type of OTC medicine on a Sunday we could call them and the lady would walk to the store and open it up especially for us to purchase what we needed. That type of thing.
cherokeepatti · 61-69, F
Oh yeah and the small country gas stations. There was one here that was privately owned, not a corporate gas station and it was a couple miles from here in a rural area. Sometimes after I dropped the boy off at his private school I would drive over there and fill my car with gas. The man who worked there would be alone and would strike up conversations with me. We’d have interesting talks about the government or when he was in the military for a long time & found out how corrupt it was.
Tumbleweed · F
Yes I do 🥺

 
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