Corner store upgrade
I’ve been going to this little store since I’ve been coming up to Hoton Lake. It’s a half mile down the road and for most of those years, mainly stocked a small assortment of grocks and sundries, beer and whine, donuts on the weekend, you get it. OH! And candy! Including penny candy. One of the first times I went there, we asked if they had olive oil and they had never heard of it! In all fairness, I was a heavy olive oil user by that time of my life but not too many years before I hadn’t heard of it either.
The store has had multiple owners over the years but has managed to hang on all this time. The latest change in ownership has come with a noticeable upgrade. Still a small inventory but carefully curated. No meat or produce, a small dairy case, LOTS of beer, whine, and pop. All kinds of non-perishables (I have bought garlic POWDER and Worchestershire there this week). A small selection of sundries (deoderant anyone?). And a LARGE selection of booze. They still have donuts, ice cream cones, and pizza.
I don’t know anything about keeping a store but I think they have a formula that works. Long Point, where the cFam cabin is, is a good-sized drive from any of the other grock stores in the area so if you went shopping and forgot a random item (like deoderant, duh, except I actually forgot to pack *that* from *home*), They are selling a lot of things (like Worchestershire) that you wouldn’t want to make a half-hour trip to get. And beer/booze? Another thing that could be a last minute thing. Not a lot of non-perishables so not a lot to throw out if they don’t sell quickly. I didn’t think to look for candy but probably there is a good selection. I don’t think anything costs a penny any more.
On one hand, Long Point, where the cFam cabin is, is kind of out in the boonies. Except that it isn’t really the boonies because the entire perimeter of Hoton Lake, including Long Point, is chock-a-block with “cottages”, many of them full-size, year-round houses these days, so there is often a lot of traffic everywhere. I’m thinking that back when the GG was a kid, a lot of moms may have been up here “alone” with their kids and sometimes without automotive vee-hickles so the corner store may have been a go-to grock store for some of them when they didn’t have a car at their disposal? That wouldn’t have been my mother-in-law. But I was a kid in Sault Ste. Siberia then so I have no clue. I do know that there were plenty of moms in the Sault without their own cars back then and there were lots of small full-service neighborhood stores.
At any rate, I was impressed by the upgrade!
April 17th, 2025 at 7:57 am
This post made me think of the enormous differences between life in the US in a very small town, far away from a big city, and life in large cities or metropolitan areas. My thoughts are unformed and vague but suddenly I feel like I understand better why the country is so divided right now. I won’t even try to explain my vague thoughts here, but I know my brain will toss this around a lot today, especially because in an hour I’ll join in a 4-hour training session at work (public library) on racial disparities in the workplace. Yes! a DEI effort no doubt that my great state of MD still stands behind. These days, I think of your husband often and how he would react if you, for example, were doing this today. You probably/possibly have in the past for work but right now seems an especially interesting time to have such training.
April 17th, 2025 at 11:33 am
I have a couple of convenience stores near me that I sometimes go to for just one item. (half and half for my mom was my last trip) There was one time many years ago that I found capers at the closest convenience store. To be fair, I also have a large grocery store not more than 10 minutes away. I’m just lazy and in a hurry.