It's always sad to see a "fixture" go by the wayside. What price progress?

In our town, it would become a BANK. We always have room for another one of those! We have no hardware store, a very small stationery store, one struggling book store, a bike shop, a 'normal' grocery, two 'upscale' groceries, two 'specialty' deli-groceries, a bakery, several restaurants, two fast-food places, two florists, some clothing boutiques, three jewelers, a Walgreens...and a *zillion* real estate offices and banks. If you need something other than food, drugs or greenbacks, you can't get it here!

In this age of Walmarts, and other big-box stores, it is almost impossible for a small town hardware store to compete. There are some exceptions, of course, mostly in small towns where the big stores are a ways away, but in big cities, they tend to go under in a hurry. I know, we owned a hardware store twenty years ago, was just making it and did have it for sale, with no takers. Sadly, we lost it to a fire, but it was a hard way to get out from under. And no, we didn't set the fire, but we were certainly under suspicion until the fire marshalls found the source of an electrical fire in the basement of the very old building. By the way, Walmart built a big store three miles away, so we would have probably gone under anyways.

I love the small hardware stores (the smaller ones around here are mostly Ace), because you can always find a salesperson who either knows what he/she is talking about or is honest enough to say "Let me get this other guy for you -- he knows a lot more about plumbing; I'm mostly electrical."

There's a Home Depot 2 blocks away, but I try to go to the Ace (15-20 minutes away) for another good reason: If I need a few nails for a project, I can get them by the piece instead of a box of 100 that will likely just sit around.

(The demise of the small mom-and-pop stores is quite sad. There are times that Target will do fine, but just last weekend, I need to find some replacement buttons for a sweater. Even Joann's didn't have the correct size/color...)

I hate it anytime a mom-and-pop neighborhood business closes. I'm watching a local pharmacy lose customers while I hear rumors of another gas station going up. Puh-lease! In the next town, we lost a bookstore and a bargain grocery store, and I hear the local movie house will be closing by year's end.

My friend and I were just talking about our neighbourhood hardware store last night that has been in Riverside since I was a kid. The small Home Hardware bought the store next to it and expanded and my friend said she didn't like it now. I asked her wasn't it better that they did that than move out of the neighbourhood and open up one of those bigger box stores. I am so glad they stayed.

We were also talking about how much Riverside has changed. The arena that we spent our childhood in has now closed, the Catholic church closed its doors and the neighbourhood Canadian Legion branch is closing soon. I was shocked last night when I saw that the Cenotaph had been taken down from in front of the arena and moved. My friend said she wanted to cry after seeing the changes. I still live in the area but she is across town. Definitely the end of an era.

Anne

It saddens me to see small businesses close but there's no choice when people won't shop there.

Last year, the little town of Noble, IL lost it last filling station. There was some talk by the town board to try to help someone start a station, but talk is cheap when it is not supported by action. After the station closed, the town woke up! It s post office and school buses had no place to buy fuel. They have to drive their vehicles 10 miles to the next town to get gasoline. Same story for the residents.

So what happened? This little town of 500 to 600 people did not generate enough sales to support a filling station. The little town has very little shopping opportunity - they let that slip away - so the residents go the larger town east once a week to make their main weekly purchases, and while there, fill the auto gas tank. Their own Mom N Pop stores failed after a Super Walmart opened in the town east of Noble.

So what do the local farmers do? They do the same as always. The bulk fuel station that serves farms is still there. The fuel truck make deliveries to the farms. Most farms have fuel storage tanks. In Illinois, road tax is excused for "tractor and farm truck gas". The farmers pay full taxes when the fuel is delivered and then gets a rebate from the state when they turn in their proof of purchase and declare the fuel as farm business fuel. Now, somehow, some of that fuel gets into the family auto tank. This practice further squeezes a small operator of a filling station. The major highway bypasses the town. If the station is not near the highway, it starves.

This only one example. There are many small towwn in southern IL that are dying the same way. The net result is their school boards finds shrinking revenue to run the school. They are in trouble.

Many of the little country churches have closed.

Yes, its a sad end of an era that I knew as a boy.