I have been to Norton and SW VA 2x in the last couple of years. Just down the road in Appalachia - probably one of the coolest places in VA - this former coal town/city had just lost its last grocery store. There was nothing left - right at the beginning of the pandemic. I have no idea how the remaining citizens survive, but I am curious about the impact of the disappearance of basic necessities. How much need to go before a town must be abandoned? What about the people who are trapped there with no means to leave?
Wow. Just took a look at Appalachia on Google Street View. The last imagery is from 2008. Google never bothered to go back. After the Great Recession and COVID many of these places must be in very bad shape. It's such a shame that the form of these places is quaint classic small-town America, but their economic life is just hanging on by a thread.
I'm not sure. But I have seen these stores pop up in a lot of places where you used to have these smaller Walmart-style stores. I'm not sure what it means, exactly, but it seems like a story or some kind of trend.
You probably are not much of an Amazon shopper if you buy at Tractor Supply or Southern States. Feed, gardening supplies, mulch, your annual supply of chicks -- these are things you put in the back of your vehicle and which are not really something you would buy online. We have both stores in Charlottesville (and you can indeed order chicks from hatcheries through USPS). But I doubt many farmers or gardeners would buy equipment online, and usually you buy feed or mulch, which would be too expensive to ship (or jars for canning, or other items related to growing produce). Flats of new plants for the garden, hoses, watering cans - it's all bulky, and also you want to see or select it. We also have accounts at the stores. It's also a good place to see neighbors, and to ask questions of employees or fellow shoppers.
I had a very personal experience with rural retail. I grew up in Lowell, Indiana, a small town about 50 highway miles from Chicago. When my family moved there in 1989, the population was about 6,000, and the town had more video rental stores than stoplights! The major shopping center in the town, located across the street from the high school on the east side of town, and 1 of the 2 grocery stores, and also had a discount shopping center of the type you are describing. That store changed hands no less than three times between 1989 and 1999; it was a Harvey Mart when we first moved in, then became a G.L. Perry around 1995, before finally becoming an ALCO store. Reading the Wiki entry, it seems these stores were actually an off-shoot of Magic Mart: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ALCO_Stores. Today, the shopping center where the store was located has been drastically changed; the facade has been completely renovated, the old WILCO grocery store is now a Strack & Van Tils, and the space that ALCO use to occupy has been divided between a florist and a TruValue Hardware. So, not exactly a Tractor Supply, but close! Google Street View for interest: https://goo.gl/maps/6YadUegjY6rbMT7A7
Interesting. That's exactly the kind of store I'm talking about. They all had the same drop ceilings and long fluorescent lighting, and they had electronics and other departments that made them "true" department stores (versus something like Gabe's, or Ollie's, or even Big Lots.) The hardware store replacement is interesting. I also see there's a Dollar General in that strip. In a lot of ways Dollar General/Family Dollar are the closest thing still operating at scale to that older incarnation of discount department stores.
I also see ALCO originated from a variety store. K-Mart did as well, and so many others. There was sort of this mass evolution of variety stores into full-fledged discount department stores, like 70 year ago, and now back to dollar stores which effectively are variety stores!
Interestingly, if memory serves that Dollar General co-existed with ALCO in that strip for a number of years. I'll have to ask my Mom to be sure, I haven't lived in Lowell since I left for the Naval Academy back in 2001, and haven't even visited since 2012 or so. My Mom and Dad still live there, though.
I have family in super rural central Nebraska. Farmers no longer grow "food," not even for their own consumption. Instead, they grow commodity feedstock crops like wheat, corn, and soy. Then they drive 45 minutes to North Platte to buy food at Walmart. The old homesteads still have the remnants of root cellars and dairy cool houses next to the spring, but they're abandoned and in poor condition. All the local mom and pop shops that used to sell necessities are long gone. This is a process that began in the 1920s and has continued to accelerate.
I have been to Norton and SW VA 2x in the last couple of years. Just down the road in Appalachia - probably one of the coolest places in VA - this former coal town/city had just lost its last grocery store. There was nothing left - right at the beginning of the pandemic. I have no idea how the remaining citizens survive, but I am curious about the impact of the disappearance of basic necessities. How much need to go before a town must be abandoned? What about the people who are trapped there with no means to leave?
Wow. Just took a look at Appalachia on Google Street View. The last imagery is from 2008. Google never bothered to go back. After the Great Recession and COVID many of these places must be in very bad shape. It's such a shame that the form of these places is quaint classic small-town America, but their economic life is just hanging on by a thread.
I wrote about some of that way back here: https://www.theamericanconservative.com/urbs/americas-industrial-gold-rush-is-over/
It's interesting that Tractor Supply Co seems less affected by Amazon than more mainstream retail. Is that true, and if so, why?
I'm not sure. But I have seen these stores pop up in a lot of places where you used to have these smaller Walmart-style stores. I'm not sure what it means, exactly, but it seems like a story or some kind of trend.
You probably are not much of an Amazon shopper if you buy at Tractor Supply or Southern States. Feed, gardening supplies, mulch, your annual supply of chicks -- these are things you put in the back of your vehicle and which are not really something you would buy online. We have both stores in Charlottesville (and you can indeed order chicks from hatcheries through USPS). But I doubt many farmers or gardeners would buy equipment online, and usually you buy feed or mulch, which would be too expensive to ship (or jars for canning, or other items related to growing produce). Flats of new plants for the garden, hoses, watering cans - it's all bulky, and also you want to see or select it. We also have accounts at the stores. It's also a good place to see neighbors, and to ask questions of employees or fellow shoppers.
I had a very personal experience with rural retail. I grew up in Lowell, Indiana, a small town about 50 highway miles from Chicago. When my family moved there in 1989, the population was about 6,000, and the town had more video rental stores than stoplights! The major shopping center in the town, located across the street from the high school on the east side of town, and 1 of the 2 grocery stores, and also had a discount shopping center of the type you are describing. That store changed hands no less than three times between 1989 and 1999; it was a Harvey Mart when we first moved in, then became a G.L. Perry around 1995, before finally becoming an ALCO store. Reading the Wiki entry, it seems these stores were actually an off-shoot of Magic Mart: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ALCO_Stores. Today, the shopping center where the store was located has been drastically changed; the facade has been completely renovated, the old WILCO grocery store is now a Strack & Van Tils, and the space that ALCO use to occupy has been divided between a florist and a TruValue Hardware. So, not exactly a Tractor Supply, but close! Google Street View for interest: https://goo.gl/maps/6YadUegjY6rbMT7A7
Interesting. That's exactly the kind of store I'm talking about. They all had the same drop ceilings and long fluorescent lighting, and they had electronics and other departments that made them "true" department stores (versus something like Gabe's, or Ollie's, or even Big Lots.) The hardware store replacement is interesting. I also see there's a Dollar General in that strip. In a lot of ways Dollar General/Family Dollar are the closest thing still operating at scale to that older incarnation of discount department stores.
I also see ALCO originated from a variety store. K-Mart did as well, and so many others. There was sort of this mass evolution of variety stores into full-fledged discount department stores, like 70 year ago, and now back to dollar stores which effectively are variety stores!
Interestingly, if memory serves that Dollar General co-existed with ALCO in that strip for a number of years. I'll have to ask my Mom to be sure, I haven't lived in Lowell since I left for the Naval Academy back in 2001, and haven't even visited since 2012 or so. My Mom and Dad still live there, though.
Further reading on GL Perry that you might find interesting: http://rumored.com/tag/indiana/
I have family in super rural central Nebraska. Farmers no longer grow "food," not even for their own consumption. Instead, they grow commodity feedstock crops like wheat, corn, and soy. Then they drive 45 minutes to North Platte to buy food at Walmart. The old homesteads still have the remnants of root cellars and dairy cool houses next to the spring, but they're abandoned and in poor condition. All the local mom and pop shops that used to sell necessities are long gone. This is a process that began in the 1920s and has continued to accelerate.