Osler's Razor

I have been looking for a place like this all year! Can't wait to check it out. Thanks professor!
 

Love to frequent small independent businesses. When I was a kid in GP my Dad took us to see Gerhardt the German butcher every Saturday morning.
 

Ah....you have discovered Linden Hills! Good work!Have the Clancy folk make you a sandwich.Have you been to the bakery? How about breakfast at The Zumbro? Become a child again at Wild Rumpus bookstore (not to be missed.Full of whimsy and Animals! They once had a quail wandering about...name? Marilyn,of course.I can't even begin to describe it properly).The store, "Wonderment,"with its old fashioned toys.I could go on and on. Christine is right,small businesses are the best. I love to converse with the people who run the shop,who might very possibly become friends. My father owned a small grocery in Almaden in San Jose when I was a little girl. Never got over it. Glad you're back for Easter. Ask Neil about The Great Vigil on Saturday night. The most meaningful and stunning service of Easter. The champagne and chocolate which follow it aren't bad either! Sorry about the snow.
 

Champagne in church? I don't live in Waco no more.
 

Of course champagne in Church! Geez, you low church people really need to get out more often.
 

And yes, the Vigil is often the best service of the year at an Episcopal Church
 

Why is it that you find those kind of small shops mostly in big city neighborhoods and no longer as much in small town America? One would think it should be the opposite, where the big city is impersonal , sterile of small town mom and pop business mentality.
In Brooklyn they nearly had a riot when Walmart announced they wanted to open a store. So far Walmart has not yet succeeded to open in NYC, but they just might. They set their sights on East New York , the poorest and most dangerous neighborhood in the NY metropolitan area. In the end I guess, what small shops turn out to embody is a community spirit, even if that community spans just a number of big city blocks . On the other hand, if a community is alienated in any way then impersonal , sterile chain store businesses take over and turn mom and pop shops into nostalgic memories .
 

That's a great insight, Marta.
 

Two reasons Walmart does well in more rural communities:

1) Space - there is more of it. Hence more available, cheap land to build. Which is important if you want to open a store that covers more than an acre in territory.

2) Need - Walmart is a good business because it is cheap. It sells quality (not top, but not nearly bottom) goods at a discounted rate. Rural communities are generally populated by people that are not interested in paying top dollar, or really any more than they have to. The ugly truth about mom & pop stores is that they are more expensive. Thus, they are easier to keep in business in big cities where there is a higher end clientele that can afford to shop at those stores on a regular basis. Where I grew up, Sherman, Texas, if there was a butcher shop people would say, "why would I go buy meat there when I can get it cheaper at Walmart." And those people aren't stupid, nor have they succumbed to the forces of Walmart's evil marekting regime. They just place value in value.

And I've been to New York City, and I can promise you they don't have the market cornered on community. I've never felt so alienated and isolated in my entire life.

Mom & pop stores, like Osler's butcher shop, are a luxury.

Plus, I love Walmart.
 

RRL--

In NYC, you aren't a part of that community... no wonder you felt alienated, kind of like people fromt here when they go to Sherman.

(Austin is a different story-- they do fine there for some reason)
 

I love the small stores too!
 

Most of the mom and pop shops in NYC are in ethnic communities and they are most definitely not expensive. In fact the sausages, bacon and most baked goods are much cheaper (not to mention tastier) in Polish stores, the cheapest lamb chops at Arab shops, best fruits, vegetable and fresh fish at Chinese shops, best selection of fancy cheeses at much cheaper prices and bigger selection than both Walmart and Costco in Jewish deli shops, best fresh pasta at the Italian shops...I can go on and on. Thank god I love what I do for a living, because the salary one makes in academic research (when they are not the head of the department, which BTW I am not) is an embarrassment and after paying rent in NYC I most likely do not qualify even close to what many people shoping at Walmart make and most certainly not the people RRL lumped as newyorkers. Most newyorkers do not live on Park Avenue and most people on Park Avenue do not shop at any mom and pop shop. A place is only as alienating as the way one chooses to approach it.
My sister has a car (I don't) and I sometimes get a ride with her to Walmart in New Jersey and this I have to say: they have the cheapest hair dye, toothpaste and detergent EVER! So I stock up, but the other stuff, much cheaper at my mom and pop shops, both alien and local. Plus I love to shop in a place where I don't feel lost, especially the ethnic shops where I get to point at what I want and make conversation where nobody understood what the other one said but somehow everybody got out of it happy, satified and with a good penny in their respective pockets.
 

Not IN church,Mark...AFTER.Downstairs. Don't freak out on me,now. Very,very fun. And we're allowed...since Lent will be over.
 

You guys have a Costco? Cool!
 

There is a Costco- and a whole foods and Trader Joe's, so it's not like I have turned my back on chains.
 

Canby has some cool places like that... a little more goofy than yours probably and with livestock and corn cannons.. But there are a lot of things about small town living I really really like.
 

@ Lily of the Vally: We lived in ALmaden valley in San Jose for Six years! Also Willow Glen!
Where was the store? woudl love to know! :)
 

I still love COSTCO though. THere is nothing quite like being able to buy a 102 ounce can of tomates for less than $3.00
 

Here, here for Clancy's!! (I use to live right around the corner) It is the best sandwich in the city. And as Lily of the Valley points out, Wild Rumpus is not to be missed. They currently have chickens and cats roaming the store and the ruler of the roost is a fancy plume chicken named Elvis. Then on to get cayenne, cinnamon chocolate ice cream at Sebastian Joe's. Soon you will be enjoying the full force of Minneapolis summer...