Mom & Pop stores.... what ones do you patron?

[shelbylovesmelby]

My il's love to patron a mom & pop pharmacy, they are very much against Walgreens & other chains espceially when the service goes down the cr@pper.

We go a few times a year to the mom & pop stores in our historic area to do some gift shopping. But there aren't any mom & pop stores that carry necessities, not even a pharmacy near by. Walgreens has pushed most of them out of business & then CVS just took over Osco Drug this summer. I wish there were

[cindilee]

We have a small drugstore here with the old soda fountain. We go every now and then for an ice cream soda etc, I honestly dont know how they have managed to stay open though.

[kealina]

we have a small asian food store that we buy the best boiled peanuts from every once in awhile...
when i was a kid, my little brother frequented this candy store that was a 10 minute walk away and it's still there and still run by the same lady 10+ yrs later...

[PRICEPLUS]

It all depends on the item I am going to buy. I will buy from the little guy if the spread on price is reasonable.

[tinapbeana]

i don't know if they'd qualify as 'mom&pop' stores, but i do shop at local businesses or regional chains.

local coffee shop (2 locations), natural foods store (1 location), bloom K&G and old time pottery are all regional chains i believe.

oh, and my pop owns a cigar store and my mom is a shareholder, which i guess makes it a mom&pop store they have lots of loyal customers, and it's the service (well, with my dad i guess it's disservice!) that keeps them coming back.

with that said, big cigar retails like j.r. thompson catalogs sell their cigars for less than my dad can purchase them wholesale, even on brands that supposedly won't sell that low to any retailer. thompson is the walmart of cigars, basically. what the catch? their cigars aren't kept properly in the warehouse and their quality is low as a result, whereas my dad has a 225 sf walk-in humidor. smaller scale but much better quality.

[disneysteve]

The first answer that came to mind is restaurants. We very rarely go to chain restaurants. I think the food quality is uniformly low - made for the masses. When we go out to eat, we go to "real" restaurants which are mostly family owned and operated. We don't go to McDonald's and Chili's and Applebee's and such.

At my office, we do a great deal of business with an independent pharmacy located across the street. Most of our patients go there and we order a lot of our supplies through him. If not for our practice, he would probably go out of business.

[MonkeyMama]

I was thinking restaurants too.

Veterinarian, mechanic...

We used to frequent the mom & pop video store when I Was a kid - beats Blockbuster by a mile!!!

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

Yes, mainly restaurants and ethnic groceries. Occasionally smokehouses, farmer's stands, a cheesemaker which unfortuanately closed down but will be re-opened soon by Kraft Foods. A couple of bait shops, a boat mechanic, river marina (recent ice storm totalled the covered docks, fortunately our boat was not in the water.) A winery, a professional woodwinds instrument testor, several potters. How about the roofers, siders, gutter guys, tuck pointers? Am in the market for a stone mason. Used a plumber who ,oddly, is now in the combination business of kitchen remodelling and cell phones. He was a good plumber, too. Our neighborhood hardware store, though I find them rude-- at least they still will sell little screws and bolts by onsies and twosies and they have a lot of things my 100 year old house needs that the box stores don't carry. Got a custom lampshade from a small shop, but searched for what I wanted in all the chain stores for years first. The tool rental business I use is famly owned and run. Oh, bike shop, ice cream shop, and flavored ice ("snowball") shop.....

But overwhelmingly our dollars are spent at national chains. I hardly even know how to find locals who carry some things I might need. Like, for example, where is there a truly local mom'n'pop shoe store, or where could I buy a mom'n'pop toaster? Even if I could find them, they'd probably sell the same imports as everyone else.

[poundwise]

Ditto on the locally owned video store. The major chains are nutso with their pricing.

[simpleyme]

i work at a mom and pop store ,its funny as locals do not really seem to shop there,

its mostly people who work near by or those passing through but its funny I refused a check from a lady and she yells at me" I have lived here all my life",funny I have worked 10 hour shifts for 5 years and never seen her ;-)

locals come in when they are trying to raise money ,sell something,or find a missing dog,or have time to Kill and just want to sit inside where it is warm ;-)

i once read somewhere that that is the norm that locals sing the praises of local shop but seldom shop them ,but always go on and on about them when it comes times to sell their house.

[boefixepa]

I have a local butcher that I like to shop at. But I buy from him only a few times a year, as I don't eat that much meat, and buy alot when I do buy.

There is a local hardware store that has many items which have come in handy. But sometimes it is hit or miss. I needed to make a screen once, they had the mesh, but not the frames??? I ended up having to drive to the box store. I do like the fact they sell the screws, bolts, and the like in ones 7 twoies, instead of packets you'll never use the rest of.

Other then that I stick to the larger stores. It's a matter of conviences. I can kill two, three, or more birds with one stop. I try not to dilly dally, that ends up costing money, I go I get I leave. I'd say generally the wait is small at checkout, but I try to avoid peak times. If I choose to go at peak times, I expect the wait so it doesn't bother me.

[disneysteve]

Interesting note - We spent our summer vacation this year in Stowe, VT. One thing that amazed and pleased us was that there are NO chain stores in the town of Stowe. No chain restaurants. No Target or Wal-Mart. No chain video stores. No Home Depot. No national hotels. Nothing. All mom and pop stores and restaurants and bed and breakfast places. The only things that are chains are the gas stations and Shaw supermarkets. It was such a nice change of pace. Shopkeepers provided excellent, personal service because they owned the shops.

[PrincessPerky]

I wouldn't know where to find one!

Though I guess if you include restaurants I have found and eaten at a few.

[disneysteve]

We often shop at local shops for gifts, like for weddings and such. There are a few places that carry hand-crafted items - wood, pottery, glassware - from local artisans. We prefer that to going to the department store for Lenox or Mikasa stuff that everyone has all over.

[abowers]

Originally Posted by disneysteve

Interesting note - We spent our summer vacation this year in Stowe, VT. One thing that amazed and pleased us was that there are NO chain stores in the town of Stowe. No chain restaurants. No Target or Wal-Mart. No chain video stores. No Home Depot. No national hotels. Nothing. All mom and pop stores and restaurants and bed and breakfast places. The only things that are chains are the gas stations and Shaw supermarkets. It was such a nice change of pace. Shopkeepers provided excellent, personal service because they owned the shops.

I've been to Stowe twice! I love skiing there.

We went to Mom & Pop video store when I was younger.
Currently I go to local restaurants, coffee places, gift shops when I can.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

Yes, I forgot the coffee shop, but then I haven't gone for months. Tomorrow a friend from the next neighborhood over will go with me to a new bakery cafe that is midway between us. I hope I like it. I'd like to have a hangout. And the garden shop I go to most often is family owned, though they have two locations.

Also forgot the shoe repair shop. My husband gets little repairs to his athletic shoes and has had the man craft some simple straps for him. You should see this guy at work in his tiny shop at night with just one high intensity light on over his bench. Quaint as all get out! I can almost imagine the tiny elves scampering around to finish his work as he falls asleep with hammer in hand and shoenails at the ready in his lips. Hey, his shop is next door to Luigi the singing barber. My son goes to Luigi for a buzz cut about twice a year. Luigi sings decades old Italian pop songs and opera as he cuts. My husband gets one of those buzz cuts maybe once a year and he sings right along with Luigi if it is opera. (I wish I could be there.).... Sometimes the little places really do have character--- organic character, not stylish ambience concocted by interior designers and marketing specialists.

[tinapbeana]

oh, i forgot i go to a local stylist when i get my hair cut every year or two... he's a little pricey, but when you only go once every 50-100 weeks it's not a budget breaker

of course, if times are hard i can go to the stylist school half a mile a way. a wash and cut for $12 and they don't allow tips... woohoo! or my mom, who also cuts hair...

my favorite restaurant is a regional chain, but i'm gonna count it because i ate at their original location all the time when i was in college. now i've been to 3 locations in 3 states!

[Hez]

I often buy from a small bakery rather than purchase those items at the nearby chain grocery store.

I'll admit that I don't often go out of my way to support mom & pop stores, though.

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by Hez

I'll admit that I don't often go out of my way to support mom & pop stores, though.

Same here. I think this is largely due to location and convenience. The mom and pop stores tend to be scattered around town, maybe clustered on a main street/downtown area. Parking may be an issue. It is far easier to pull into a large parking lot and go to a store with one-stop shopping for a wide variety of items.

[Ima saver]

We eat every night at a mom and pop restaurant, I don't like chain restaurants either. We still have a 5 and 10 cent store downtown on the square.