Are there really any mom and pop grocery stores left after the stupid covid shutdown of entire states? I suppose there are some in remote rural and small towns, but the big chains would have opened stores there if they saw a profit. There aren't enough buyers in those remote towns. It's the cities and suburbs that the chains target.
I know nothing of the grocery business, but I do know that big chain expansion looks at demographics and area growth and potential net profit. I read almost daily about big chains closing stores, and not all because of increased crime. I'm not sure where I stand on this merger. So why am I commenting at all? Because I remember in my youth a friendly mom/pop store being 2 blocks away.
“Are there really any mom and pop grocery stores left after the stupid covid shutdown of entire states?”
A good question that I can’t accurately answer.
I remember IGAs nearby when I was a kid. The one 2 blocks from the family homestead (Florida) closed up YEARS ago. However, there are a few independent types not too far away from me here in central Indiana. There’s one about a 25 minute drive that’s always had terrific meats. Still go there sometimes, even though the meat manager has moved on to further his career in the industry.
Dollar General has filled in that gap for a lot of folks who need something close by, but I don’t know how much fresh food they have. In certain places, I know they do, as that’s all the community has.
The little town in the midwest, where my wife grew up still has one gas station with snacks and cold drinks open, one bar with evening meals and a cafe open for breakfast and lunch Monday~Friday and zero churches still open.
12 miles away, there is a shopping center with a grocery store and a few other stores in a small but steady population a mile away.
There is a Costco and a Walmart about 15 miles away.
Their food comes from the one grocery store, Costco or Walmart or Amazon deliveries.
One of her brothers still lives in that town and another brother lives in a similar situation about 120 miles away.
They meet for lunch or brunch twice a month in a cross road complex 60 miles from each of them. They bring dinner home for their wives from where they eat lunch or brunch.
They use their cell phones to talk, text and send emails to keep in touch. One wife tried to retire from her job as an office manager, and her company put a modern office into their home. She goes in Fridays for half a day and to sign papers and to keep the human touch going and a good lunch.
One of my siblings lives in the SW, and she and her husband have cousins as well as siblings of her husband within a hundred mile or less distance. They do the same thing re contact.
Last, but not least, like our relatives in the MW a lot of their food, consumables and useables are delivered when needed.
As they have aged, online visits, texting, phone calls and zooms are often the daily/weekly means of communicating with each other. Shopping in stores is a rarity for both groups.
No Mom or Pop’s stores are left in those areas.
Basically, no one in our families, now, goes just shopping to shop and maybe have to lunch with friends or a friend. Covid basically “killed” that in our families here on the coast, in the MW and SW. We don’t wear masks, nor are we afraid of Covid. We just are out of the go out for lunch or to shop. High gas prices are also an issue with many of us.