Speed Bump by Dave Coverly for December 09, 2011

It had nothing to do with the Walmart up the street.

Last minute clearance: One way ticket on a guilt trip, half price.

This echos an actual event in my town. There was a hardware business which one family took over from another family. They fired all the employees and replaced them with their own family members. The new manager drove off all the customers with his surliness. The above are close to his parting words.

Ahh…what a great candidate for a firebombing…

Like the local pharmacy that was driven out of business when Rite Aid opened down the street. The local drug store had been there for 50 years.

Another victim of big box retail and/or Amazon’s new Price Check app for the iPhone. It is hard to compete with discounting. People say they love service, but service has a price tag.

Chains become chains because their original mom-&-pop location had a better business model, thus making their customers happier and more likely to keep coming back, than the other mom-&-pop stores that never managed to grow into a chain.

Remember, even Walmart started out as just one store.

It must have been a Italian Deli probably run by my parents…

Wal-Mart and Target took away their customers.

I do not like the idea that I have to patronize Walmart, but I can’t afford to shop anywhere else.