General store
A general merchant store (also known as general merchandise store, general dealer, village shop, or country store) is a rural or small-town
General stores often sell staple food items such as milk and bread, and various household goods such as hardware and electrical supplies. The concept of the general store is very old, and although some still exist, there are far fewer than there once were, due to
History
General dealers were established in the 18th and 19th centuries in many remote populated places where mobility was limited and a single shop was sufficient to service the entire community. Due to its close connection and confinement to its customers, general dealers often adjusted their sales offerings to the specific preferences of their community.[3]
General dealers existed, apart from mainland Europe and Asia, in all European colonies and generally in areas where colonists encroached upon communities that previously did not trade with money.[4] In the colonies, trading or bartering in local produce had existed long before official shops were opened. The growing need for imported goods, both from European settlers and the indigenous population, led to the establishment of a network of merchants, and subsequently to the creation of a money economy.[5]
By country
Australia
While a large number of general stores still exist in Australia, as in other parts of the world their numbers were greatly reduced by the advent of supermarkets.
Canada
The oldest continually run general store in Canada is Trousdale's, located in Sydenham, Ontario, which has been operated by the Trousdale family since 1836. Sociability has always been a feature, as locals come to chat as well as buy.[6] Gray Creek Store in Gray Creek, Kootenay Bay, Canada is the largest and oldest general dealer in the Kootenay Lake region[7] Enniskillen General Store in Clarington, Ontario has been in operation since 1840 and still continues today. Robinson's General Store in Dorset, Ontario, voted "Canada's Best Country Store", has been owned and operated by the same family since 1921.
Dominican Republic
In the Dominican Republic, a colmado is the country's equivalent of a general store. Colmado literal translation is 'full to the brim'[8] implying its great density of goods in a small space. The colmado is much more than just a general store, for it offers a social gathering point for the residents of the town or neighborhood. The colmado is an important institution in the Dominican Republic serving as an economic, social and political center for every small community. It is common for colmados to have loud Dominican music such as merengue, bachata, or salsa playing. A common pastime for Dominican men is to play dominoes and drink a beer at their local colmado on Sundays. Another particularity of the colmado is that they provide delivery service of their products directly to the customer's dwelling. Products range from beer, snacks, toilet paper to flashlights and canned food.
Egypt
The Greek merchants in Egypt were called bakal.[9]
Finland
General stores (sekatavarakauppa) first appeared in Finland in 1859 when fixed shop retailers were allowed to set up shops in rural towns for the first time. Prior to that, authorised trade in rural products other than those produced in the same region depended on city travel, open-air markets and fairs.[10] A related type of store is the village store (kyläkauppa), typically located in sparsely populated towns, which still performs many similar functions to general stores. As in many other countries, their numbers were greatly reduced with the advent of supermarkets, from over 3400 such shops in 1980 to 241 in 2017.[11]
India
In India, a tapri is a regional version of a general store. It stores all home, personal, medical, and hygienic daily-use products. Many Kirana shops sell products other than food, such as clothing or household items, stationery, toys, tools, and medicines. Small Kirana stores, which are generally located on the corner of streets and generally known as katta or tapri, sell cigarettes, tobacco, and tea.[12]
Recently, there has been a notable integration of Aadhaar-enabled Payment System (AePS) services in Kirana or general stores across India. AePS allows customers to conduct basic banking transactions such as cash withdrawal, balance inquiry, and fund transfer using their Aadhaar number and biometric authentication. This integration has enabled Kirana stores to serve as financial service points, offering convenient banking services to local communities.
Namibia
Due to its sparse population, there are still a number of general dealers in
Puerto Rico
In Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, several general stores ("colmado") have proliferated since the 1970s.
South Africa
There are still many general dealers in
United Kingdom
Village shops are becoming less common in the densely populated parts of the country, although they remain common in remote
Their rarity in England is due to several factors, such as the rise in car ownership, competition from large chain
Of those villages in England who still have shops, these days they are often a combination of services under one roof to increase the likelihood of profit and survival. Extra services may include a
Community shops have become popular in some villages, often jointly owned and run by many villagers as a
Corner shops are usually so-called because they are located on the corner plot or street end of a row of
In popular culture
Many British television and radio series, especially
The band
United States
General stores and itinerant peddlers dominated in rural America until the coming of the automobile after 1910. Farmers and ranchers depended on general stores that had a limited stock and slow turnover; they made enough profit to stay in operation by selling at high prices. Often farmers would barter butter, cheese, eggs, vegetables or other foods which the merchant would resell. Prices were not marked on each item; instead the customer negotiated a price. Men did most of the shopping, since the main criterion was credit rather than quality of goods. Indeed, most customers shopped on credit, paying later when crops or cattle were sold; the owner's ability to judge credit worthiness was vital to his success. The store was often a gathering point for local men to chat, pass around the weekly newspaper, and talk politics.[18][19][page needed]
In the South, the general store was especially important after the Civil War, as the merchant was one of the few sources of credit available until the cash crops (usually cotton or tobacco) came in.[19][page needed] There were few towns and very few cities, so rural general stores and itinerant peddlers were the main sources of supply.[20][21][22]
During the first half of the 20th century, general stores were displaced in many areas of the United States by many different types of specialized retailers in trading towns and small cities. But from the 1960s through the present, many small specialized retailers have in turn been crushed by the so-called "
However, the convenience inherent in the general store has been revived in the form of the modern convenience store. A few variety stores draw upon the concept of having a broad variety of goods servicing small communities where big-box retailers are absent; Dollar General Stores, in particular, draws its name from both the "dollar store" concept of having items at a fixed price point and the general store.
List of general stores
This is a select list of historical general stores in the United States, listed in alphabetical order.
- A. D. Strickland Store (c.1878–1972), Dalton, Georgia[25]
- Barker General Store (c. 1847–?), Beecher Hollow, Saratoga County, New York[26]
- E. J. Caire Store (1860–mid-1970s), Edgard, Louisiana
- Felt Cobblestone General Store (1835–?), Victor, New York
- F. H. Gillingham & Sons (1886–Present), Woodstock, Vermont
- Goodwill's General Store (1880s–1890s), Minden, Louisiana
- Gray's General Store (1788–2012), Adamsville, Rhode Island[23]
- Harkin's General Store (1867–1901), West Newton, Minnesota
- Hussey's General Store (1923–1954), Windsor, Maine
- Jorgensen's General Store, Grant-Valkaria, Florida
- Lost River General Store (1898–?), Lost River, Hardy County, West Virginia
- Ferndale, Sullivan County, New York
- Mast General Store (1887–?), Valle Crucis, North Carolina
- McClellan's General Store, New London, Iowa
- Traunik, Michigan
- Rabbit Hash General Store (1831-Present), Rabbit Hash, Kentucky
- Ruddell General Store, Glenville, West Virginia
- Simons General Store, Ancram, New York
- Saint James, New York
- Schreiner's General Store (later Department Store)
- Tioga Centre General Store, Tioga, New York
- Vorous General Store, Fish Creek, Wisconsin
- Welty's General Store, Dubois, Wyoming
-
The Oldwick General Store in Tewksbury Township, New Jersey
-
Grays General Store (1788) in Adamsville, Rhode Island
-
Country Store, Spuyten Duyvil, Bronx, early 20th century
See also
- Department store
- Hyper market
- Types of retail outlets
- Super market
- Super store
Footnotes
- ^ "North American Industry Classification (NAICS) 2002, "452 General Merchandise Stores (US)"". Archived from the original on 2008-06-16. Retrieved 2008-07-29.
- ^ "America's top stores". Consumer Reports June 2010, p. 17.
- ^ Lang, John Dunmore (1834). An historical and statistical account of New South Wales: both as a penal settlement and as a British colony. Vol. 1. Cochrane and M'Crone. pp. 236, 237.
- ^ "The Jewish Community". News history. Archived from the original on 11 June 2012. Retrieved 2 December 2011.
Through their trading activities these merchant capitalists accelerated the transition from a subsistence to a cash economy.
- ^ Wild, V (1992). "An Outline of African Business History in Colonial Zimbabwe" (PDF). Zambezia. 19 (1). Retrieved 9 June 2011.
- ^ Richard Bauman, "The La Have Island general store: Sociability and verbal art in a Nova Scotia community." Journal of American Folklore (1972): 330-343. in JSTOR
- ^ "Gray Creek". britishcolumbia.com. Archived from the original on 28 January 2015. Retrieved 25 January 2015.
- ^ "The Colmado in the Dominican Republic - JetSettlers Magazine". 10 November 2011.
- ISBN 9780415209069.
- ISBN 951-746-302-2.
- ^ Mainio, Tapio (24 November 2018). ""Kauppoja kuolee noin 30 kaupan vuosivauhdilla" – Mönkijät, jatsarit tai hifi-laitteet pitävät kyläkauppoja hengissä". Talouselämä (in Finnish). Retrieved 2020-02-24.
- ^ Piyali Ghosh, et al., "Customer expectations of store attributes: A study of organized retail outlets in India." Journal of Retail & Leisure Property 9.1 (2010): 75-87.
- ^ "Solitaire Country Lodge". The Cardboard Box travel shop. Retrieved 1 July 2014.
- ^ "Historic Town of Character". Sustainable Stellenbosch. Archived from the original on 17 December 2011. Retrieved 2 December 2011.
- ^ "Paternoster Service Guide". capewestcoastpeninsula.co.za. Archived from the original on 3 June 2015. Retrieved 1 July 2014.
- ^ "Catalog report - Other Material by Subject". South African Heritage Resources Agency. Archived from the original on 15 November 2010. Retrieved 29 October 2010.
John Olsen's dream for children to see how an old times general dealer's shop use to function has been created at the Goodwood Museum.
- ^ "Virsa.org". www.virsa.org.
- ^ Lewis E. Atherton, The Frontier Merchant in Mid-America (University of Missouri Press, 1971).
- ^ a b Thomas D. Clark, Pills, Petticoats, and Plows: The Southern Country Store (1944).
- ^ Jacqueline P. Bull, "The General Merchant in the Economic History of the New South." Journal of Southern History 18.1 (1952): 37-59. in JSTOR
- ^ Glenn N. Sisk, "Rural Merchandising in the Alabama Black Belt, 1875–1917." Journal of Farm Economics 37.4 (1955): 705-715.
- ^ Roger Ransom, and Richard Sutch. "Credit merchandising in the post-emancipation south: Structure, conduct, and performance." Explorations in Economic History 16.1 (1979): 64-89; heavily statistical online Archived 2015-09-23 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ a b "Rhode Island general store closes after 224 years of operation". Tampa Bay Times. Associated Press. July 31, 2012. Retrieved 2021-05-18.
- ^ "Gray's General Store in Adamsville re-opens". EastBayRI.com. 17 July 2013. Retrieved 2022-12-14.
- U.S. Department of the Interior.
- ^ Raymond W. Smith (January 2002). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: Barker General Store". New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. Retrieved 2010-12-12. See also: "Accompanying seven photos".
Further reading
- Dannhaeuser, Norbert. "The role of the neighborhood store in developing economies: the case of Dagupan City, Philippines." Journal of Developing Areas (1980): 157–174. in JSTOR
- English, Linda. By All Accounts: General Stores and Community Life in Texas and Indian Territory. (University of Oklahoma Press, 2013)
- Kaynak, Erdener, and S. Tamer Cavusgil. "The evolution of food retailing systems: contrasting the experience of developed and developing countries." Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science (1982) 10#3 pp: 249–268.
- Lejoyeux, Michel, et al. "Prevalence of compulsive buying among customers of a Parisian general store." Comprehensive Psychiatry (2007) 48#1 pp: 42–46.