By Bob Ilisevich

“What can I do for you today, Mrs. Gottschalk?” asked the teen behind the counter.

“You can get me a half pound bologna, a loaf of rye, two pounds of those tomatoes on sale, and six bottles of Iron City. I totaled it up and it comes to ’bout a dollar seventy-five.”

This was a typical order I used to fill when I worked in a mom and pop store — Sam’s — many years ago in Pittsburgh. Don’t be shocked by the estimated total, for prices are always relative. A wonderful family owned and operated the store in my neighborhood. I didn’t make much money (twenty-five cents per hour) but I eventually made enough to purchase my first bike.

Sam’s provided more than food and drink. It had a backroom where customers and families often gathered after work or in the evening to enjoy themselves. A steelworker named Pat came in nearly every day, flipped me a half dollar and, without saying a word, walked into the backroom and sat at one of the tables. I knew what he wanted. After I had brought him three bottles of his favorite ale and a nickel in change, he’d look up and say, “Keep the change, son.”

Mom and pop stores are generally family owned with few or no employees other than family members. They operate in a single location and for generations have provided household goods and foodstuffs. What they offer to the consumer is the choice to deal with local businesses whose owners are established members of the community.

These stores evolved from stores merchants had set up in colonial times to accommodate settlers or transients moving to a new home. Samuel Torbett and Joseph Hackney, for example, ran businesses in Crawford County’s beginnings. Their ledgers, along with those of other merchants, suggest a wide variety of goods sold or traded. Often the merchant used barter because of the shortage of cash on the frontier. As modern communities grew, ethnic neighborhoods developed with churches, schools and stores. The stores carried specialty items identified with the particular nationality or racial group. In time, pizzerias, delis, bagel houses and ethnic restaurants became popular in these neighborhoods.

The social function of these stores cannot be understated. Long before cell phones, neighbors often met here, shopped and exchanged the latest gossip. In some respects the store represented the pulse of the community, both in the city and rural America. Its cracker-barrel setting suggested the geniality and informality customers enjoyed. Up from Sam’s, a grocery had a pot-bellied stove surrounded by a half-dozen chairs and a table covered with newspapers, magazines and children’s books. In a relaxed mood, husbands sat and yakked about everything as their wives tended to the groceries.

What these stores marketed varied considerably. The typical grocery store carried an assortment of canned goods, fresh fruits and vegetables, dairy products, bread and homemade pastries. To have an idea of what goods crossed the counter, just imagine having to pack lunches in the morning or clean the house and you’re comfortable knowing that the general store down the street will have all you need. The wider the selection, the more general the store. Larger ones carried items mentioned above along with dry goods, fabric, gifts, greeting cards, garden needs, small tools, porch furniture, etc. A miniature Wal-Mart, so to speak.

Specialty stores included such family businesses as drugstores, hardware stores, furniture stores and confectioneries. There were many others, including banks. The drugstore with its pharmacy, also sold patent medicines, toiletries and boasted of its soda fountain, where neighbors and teens gathered to enjoy fountain favorites and listen to jukebox music. The owner of the hardware could advise you on how to fix any household problem and what paint you should put in the bathroom to match the colored tile.



Sweet memories

Homemade holiday candies could be found at the local confectionery, where the rich chocolate aroma would greet you as you entered the shop. And if you needed a good piece of furniture, you trusted the judgment of the retailer whose family had been selling furniture for three generations.

We can argue what exactly caused the end to the dinosaurs or what health care bill Congress should adopt, but a public consensus identifies the bogeyman behind the progressive decline of the mom and pop store. Because economics is not an exact science, we may not find supporting evidence for the decline by taking Econ 101. We do have statistics, which can always be questioned, that strongly suggest family-owned stores have been dying in recent decades with the arrival of national chains. These “big box” stores have reduced much of the consumer market for small stores in the county and elsewhere.

Let us look at the local scene. I have selected only grocery stores and retailers of meat and have used Meadville directories, for business owners generally wanted recognition. The 1941 directory shows 71 grocers and 36 retailers of meat. A few businesses appear in both listings; Kroger and A&P; are among those listed. In 1971, grocery and meat retailers combined total just 19. By 1992, the list has 12 grocers, including four Country Fair stores, and two retailers of meat. By then, there are more chain stores. I could have started before ’41 to make a stronger case.

This decline cannot be solely attributed to the chains. Small businesses sometimes end in bankruptcy due to undercapitalization or an inability to cope with tax increases, energy costs, rent, liability and health insurance costs. Then there is globalization. Textbooks on this knotty subject are still being written. How has the riddle of exports and imports impacted local merchants? With the current fiscal crisis and a lingering depressed economy, these questions may best be answered in a class in microeconomics, but don’t count on it. Economists are as divided as Congress is on health care.

Nationwide many small stores still exist. Some are actually doing well as they buck the negative trends in the marketplace. On the downside, as my statistical study suggests, mom and pop stores have taken a beating in recent decades. Still, strong local support is keeping remaining ones alive, while continuing to encourage the start of new ones. In Meadville, a number of them have started since the middle of last year when the financial crisis shook the world. A good sign, indeed.



Government assist

Along with neighborhood support, other incentives include government help (tax breaks and parking concessions) and tourism. Many towns do what they can to attract tourist dollars. Tourism remains as one of Pennsylvania’s leading industries. When I had commented on the number of tour buses parked in his small New York town, a merchant told me, “Believe me, the tourists have kept me and other store owners from turning belly up.”

Small businesses traditionally have been the guts of the nation’s economy. With their demise, can their towns be far behind? America has ghost towns aplenty — thousands of them — a situation caused by a number of reasons. The loss of businesses is obviously one of them. Can mom and pop stores withstand the pressures of our changing economy, or are we to witness in this new century continued closures and the sheriff in more towns watching the last citizens leave?

No article of any length can do justice to the many hundreds of small stores the county has had over the past two centuries. Thus, I have avoided mentioning any. All of us have our favorite stores. I’m sure most of them enjoy a history that should be told. Perhaps we can look at some of them at another time.



A Meadville resident, Ilisevich was a professor of history at the former Alliance College in Cambridge Springs, worked for years as librarian for Crawford County Historical Society and has authored several books on local history. He can be contacted at rdi504@zoominternet.net.