Betty by Gary Delainey and Gerry Rasmussen for March 22, 2023

This is striking home, not because of the increasing number of small businesses closing their doors in my town, but the closing of all Canadian branches of retail giant Nordstrom’s. What gives me hope is how Amazon, etc. are laying off staff. I hope the results of Covid protections mean people are going to do more shopping at brick and mortar stores.

Looks like this entire street is becoming a ghost town.

Like anyone still expects,an indie bookstore to still be there?

And you, ladies, are why downtown is dead.

There was a time when every neighborhood had a little Ma and Pa grocery store and that was before the stationary shops and book stores. We don’t even have a music store, bookstore or card shop and definitely no Ma and Pa stores anymore. I remember when I was a teen we got the first big all purpose store called Shopper’s Fair.

One of the first Kmarts was built on our neighborhood play field. What a mind-blowing experience that was, so much merchandise under one roof. But I missed the field.

Let your fingers do the walking.. remember that jingle? And what we have now is the result of that. One can buy anything online and have it delivered to your door, all from the comfort of your lazy-boy. Cameras and emails will tell you when it’s delivered. What we need now is a robot to open the door and bring in the package.

Our downtown has gone through a restoration phase with lots of new businesses and so far things have turned around for the better. Our latest addition was a riverside metro park with an ice skating rink and and an ice skating path.

You can thank WalMart and Amazon for what is happening.

although I miss the specialty shops down town, those shops need to change to suit the needs of the customers. We don’t have blacksmiths in town. Radio Shack no longer needed to sell radio parts and then couldn’t compete with other tech suppliers. We got to supermarkets and not independent bakers, butchers and cheese shops. Towns need easy ways in, easy parking, safety, as well as shops that carry what we currently shop for.

Sears knew how to sell via mail-order, Radio Shack was once the leading purveyor of consumer tech, these are a few examples of how business leaders don’t keep up with the times and fall behind. And you describe the suburban ideal which drew us away from city centers and now it’s spoiled, too. sigh Happy trails!

You can go to Dollar Tree. Most cards are $0.50.

Looks like a TGIFriday’s awning (?)

Amazon: the death of small businesses, especially INDE book stores.