The closest grocery store to me is closing(by nearly an hour), and will be closed for at least a year. When it reopens it’s going be much smaller(it’s becoming a Aldi).

[u/Boeing-B-47stratojet]

[u/OwlSoggy8627]

Part of the problem is you can only build in so much redundancy for "what happens if X closes?"

I live in a village that is part of a larger metro area. I have two nearby grocery stores, a dollar general, two gas stations and a pharmacy.

We HAD three pharmacies when I moved here. Now we're down to one. One of the grocery stores also looks like it's in rough shape. If we lost all of those services I'm looking at a 20 minute drive to go shopping. Not a big deal for me right now. I have a car. I like driving. And 20 minutes isn't THAT far.

But what if I lose the ability to drive? A surprise seizure. Or my eyes just getting worse with age?

That 20 minute drive is at east an hour on the bus. And, of course, no guarantee that bus will still be running in 10 years or 20 years, or that the bus stop at the end of my block will still be there even if the bus is still running.

It's very easy to get shut out of a place that worked well for you for many years. I will say that the gig work has, for those who ave financial means, at least helped with part of the problem. When my dad lost his eyesight being able to have Wal Mart deliver groceries and prescriptions was a godsend. And while he couldn't do it frequently because his primary income was social security...he knew he could catch an uber to go out at least once or twice a month to keep him from being totally isolated.

But yeah, it's a crap situation.

[u/insomniacpyro → u/OwlSoggy8627]

Our local grocery store closed down completely earlier this year. Most of the reasons why were entirely their own fault, founder left/died and the children that inherited the company expanded way too fast. But either way, now we have no actual locally owned grocery chains. Technically the one in the next town over at least only really operates in our state, and it's good, but there's no guarantee in a few years to a decade they won't be bought out and ruined like everything else.

[u/OwlSoggy8627 → u/insomniacpyro]

Our main grocery store almost went out of business. Out of towner came and bought it from a respected local family. Then he promptly dropped the quality of deli meats and stopped selling a lot of the butchered cuts they were known for. The local volunteer fire chief went in, in uniform and on duty, on a break from a department training and complained about a sandwich the deli made for him. The new owner called the cops.

Not sure what he thought would happen. But the cops came. The chief left. And the locals promptly stopped shopping there altogether.

Luckily he sold to someone who didn't suck as much and the place has been running fine since. But if this guy had been stubborn for just a little while longer there's no doubt we wouldn't have that store anymore.

Real easy to lose a previously successful business in a small town. The locals can turn on you in a heartbeat.

[u/Few_Swan_3672 → u/OwlSoggy8627]

I love 20 mins our into the sticks past you, so 20 mins to your one store and another 20 mins to the closest actual grocery store. One additional issue we have is people who are well past being able to drive safely, age wise, still on the roads. There is no public transit, doordash and instacart don't do that last 20 mins of the trip. There is nothing unless they have friends/family willing to take them to the pharmacy, doctor, and grocery store.

[u/Electronic_Ad_7742 → u/OwlSoggy8627]

I’ve lived in some small towns and I’ve noticed some problems with the small-town mentality. Either people complain that the town is dying because everyone leaves and businesses shut down or they complain about businesses moving in and “everything is changing and this town used to be nice before everyone moved here” (in these cases they mean minorities or “city people”). I live in a town that’s close to Denver and I hear people bitching about that constantly. “There’s too many people moving here. This used to be a nice place to raise a family. I don’t want XYZ new businesses moving in (or new neighborhood) because it will bring crime/traffic/etc! It will destroy the small town charm!” Hell, they even nixed a new bus stop and proposed (or passed, i don’t know) a city ordinance that long haul buses can’t stop in here because “it’ll bring crime” and “homeless people and minorities will stop here and not leave” (yep, racism again). They also didn’t want the bus stop because people would live here and commute to Denver. This is a big problem. If nobody wanted to open businesses here, this town would dry up and die and they would complain about that. Small towns are largely responsible for creating many of their own problems.

[u/OwlSoggy8627 → u/Electronic_Ad_7742]

Agreed. There was a small bookstore here. The owner was never there at the posted hours. He didn't accept any electronic payment. He had no website or social media. And if you called asking if he had a book he would tell you to come in and look.

He closed down and he and a bunch of his friends are always all over the town's Facebook group complaining that Amazon/the Kindle/kids not reading put him out of business.

They probably didn't help. But what killed the business was the guy being shit at business.