From the awesome Sweet Juniper, a beautiful story about a local gem.
An excerpt:
"While I wait with my notebook, Roy opens the door for a man in a wheelchair who needs a key made. An elderly woman needs a new rubber stopper for one leg of her walker (75 cents) and Ted treats her like she's a Hollywood starlet in a Rodeo Drive boutique. She puts down a few more dollars in layaway towards the crock pot they're holding for her behind the counter.
Another woman comes in to exchange some jigsaw puzzles from the big pile right by the door. These people know and care about their customers. Some regulars remember shopping there with parents and grandparents, and many have fond memories of the owners' parents who ran the store before them. Busy Bee is a bulwark against the forces threatening to destroy this community. It is a place where everyone who walks in the door is treated with the respect that a human being deserves."
Places like this were the rule 30-40 years ago. Now they are as rare as the vintage hardware they stock, and the world is a less magical place because of it.
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The march could be reversed, I think.
If you rolled back some of the globalization policies of the government, and raised wages sufficiently, the two pillars of big box megastores- low minimum wage and cheaply produced goods- would be knocked away. They would lose ground to the small businesses that Americans have always had a knack for founding.
Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness
Don't forget the local tax breaks...
.... and the infrastructure.
First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win. -- Mahatma Gandhi