The Store Next Door

Once upon a time, before freeways, and Safeways. Before Thriftways and Haggens, Fred Meyers and Walmarts, when boys wore Brylcreem and girls wore skirts with Bobby socks and saddle shoes, there were neighborhood grocery stores.

Oh, these were not large buildings with parking for 50 cars. No, these stores could accommodate three cars at the most, but you didn’t need a car to get to these stores for they were just down the street. As a matter of fact, in town, most houses were within five blocks of the closest market.

Mom would say. “Elmer, run down to the store and get me a carton of eggs and a bottle of milk please, and tell Mrs. Hawkins I will be in next week to pay the account.”

Elmer would either begrudgingly stomp out the back door and walk to the market or hop on his one-speed Schwinn and ride as fast as he could.

“And don’t put any candy or pop on the tab. It’s almost dinner time,” she reminded.

The corner store had a unique payment method, if you lived locally, your family had an account. When Elmer or Susie went to the store for mom, the cashier would write on the running tab, everything that was purchased from the store. There was no cash involved. At the end of the month, when dad got paid, he would stop by the store and pay off the balance.

A mutual understanding had to be agreed upon with the members of the household as to when a family member could use the account and for what purpose. I’m sure that each home encountered the same shock at some point to find out someone had put pop, candy, and ice cream bars on the tab for him and his friends.

I would imagine that each store owner gave kids bringing candy to the counter the same interrogation, “Does your mother know that you are charging this? I’m going to call her to make sure.”

Which brings me to the thing I most remember about the corner store: the penny candy. It was the first place we would go on Saturday after getting paid our dime for faithfully doing our chores for the week. It seemed that every corner store owner knew to keep his shop well supplied with candy for the local kids.

There was Bazooka bubble gum, Tootsie Rolls, Tootsie Pops and a variety of other individually wrapped candies, all only a penny each. The larger candies and chocolate bars might have cost as high as twenty-five cents, which was also the cost of a can of Orange Crush. A small amount of change went a long way at the corner store.

The corner store, of course, also stocked other food and staple items for the nearby homeowners. The shelves held all the necessary supplies that a Safeway would have except only a fraction of the amount and with limited choices. Only two bags of flour, two containers of salt. All the essentials on a limited shelf space.

Some corner stores had specialties which others didn’t have. Hardware for instance. They might have enough space to sell screws, nails, some tools, and Presto Logs. The Lake Erie store, which was the corner store of my youth, carried quite an assortment of fishing gear for its fishermen clients.

Some stores had gas pumps out in front and the shop owner would come out from behind the counter to fill your tank and clean your windshield.

Some stores had a butcher who would cut your meat to order. Chickens were wrapped in the coolers, and sausages hung in long strands from hooks which enticed the customer to buy for the next day’s breakfast.

Before the days of chest freezers, when the only household freezer was a small unit over the refrigerator, some of the markets provided rental freezing lockers. For a small amount each month, you could rent a three-foot square locker back in the cooler. It had a hinged plywood door on which you would attach your own personal padlock. Inside you would store your frozen fruits, vegetables, and meats until you were ready to use them for a meal.

What was common with almost every corner grocery store, was the living quarters which were built onto the store. Roughly one third of the total building was used as the home with 2/3s serving as the store. Being that a family member always needed to be present to care for the customers, a walkway or door went from the store into the home. A bell or buzzer was attached to the main customer door which rang inside the house letting the store owner know they needed to come out and man the counter.

But times changed.

7-11s, gas station convenient stores, and Dollar Generals started popping up at major intersections. Safeways, Thriftways, Albertsons, Haggens, Fred Meyers, Costcos, and Walmarts all started building their mega stores with mega parking lots, and they used their bulk buying ability to sell at bargain prices. The corner stores could not compete. There was no need for the little store next door.

Oh, they are still there, the odd residential grocery store, but now they have mostly been made into homes. As you drive through any older neighborhood in any city, every ten blocks you will see a house that used to be, the store next door. And people under the age of 60 will look at those buildings and never understand what they were or why they are part of our history.

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