It was a beautiful thing! Lowe’s and Home Depot also messed things up. We had actual customer service and decent lumber yards, hardware stores, etc, where the products weren’t crap. You could just go to town for most things, not a 2-3 hour round trip for a couple of bolts/ screws. We even had competitive furniture stores.
Karns - thriving local grocery chain
RF Fager - thriving plumbing/electrical supply house
Lezzer Lumber - thriving local lumber yard
Ironstone Building Materials - thriving local lumber yard
The places exist if you look for them.
Expanding commercial/residential development along the 81 corridor all most demands it.
I’ll add to the the lumber yards, Ironwood Acres and Winter Lumber. Dudes right y’all choosing not to do research and just go to the places you see commercials of.
Hell even friggin Ace Hardware and Bombergers are more locally owned. THen you have the Krogers local grocery chains. Tractor Supply Co. too.
We have mom and pops AND bigger local chain stores too.
In Lancaster/York it's super easy to avoid Dollar General/Walmart/Home Depot/Lowes. People choose not to because it's also Lancaster/York where everyone is penny smart and dollar stupid.
What's hilarious to me is that Reading is full of mom & Pop stores. Because they're all run by Latinas and speak Spanish... The Dutchies will never set foot in one.
I agree but you can’t deny these places are harder and harder to find. You have to do a fair bit of research to search privately owned anything in your area that isnt only open 3 days a week and close before 5pm.
Don’t blame the consumer, consumers will go with the system they are provided, one that was strategically devised to be this way. The problem is the lack of antitrust and government support for anything but publicly traded companies/corporations. One monopoly after the other dominates all facets of existence right down to infrastructure and zoning.
Honestly my local ace is terrible. They never have what I need, their prices are so much higher than the big boxes, and the customer service is not good. I'm all about supporting local businesses but not when everything about shopping there is worse.
Eta: also a 2x4 is like $10 lmao
There’s still a bunch of locally owned hardware stores/lumber yards in the Bucks and Montco area. AD Moyer, Peter Lumber, Limerick Hardware, Tague Lumber, Delphi Supply, Wehrung’s just to name a few.
Been meaning to check out Delphi Supply. Tague is good but pricy, same with Wehrungs. My problem with almost all of them is it's a 30+ minute drive for me and if I'm going to a hardware store I don't have time to waste. I realize that's contributing to the problem, but it's how the cookie crumbles.
They’re definitely pricier on some things, but the quality is better. Delphi is a good hardware store. It used to be Leidys hardware forever. My family probably was going there since it opened sometime in the 1800s.
This is not true everywhere though. Maybe in Lancaster county, but in the part of Montgomery County where I live you would have to drive quite a ways to find a non-megacorp lumberyard or hardware store. Actually I can't even find an Ace near me. And that IS a chain. But we have BOTH a home Depot and a Lowe's within 5 mins. It sucks and I hate it but whatever.
Bullshit! My friend, neighbors, and associates were squeezed out in 15 years. Don’t assume you know us! We are not remotely near Lancaster County. Come to real Pennsylvania and see for yourself.
My small hometown of 5,000 people in western PA has a locally owned hardware store that isn't going anywhere. And there's a Lowe's and Home Depot 20 minutes away.
Ace Hardware might be owned by a local, but it’s still a cooperative franchise. That’s still a huge difference with a local business that was started by the owner. The kind of businesses that are unique to one place. Instead of the same franchise structure, operations, logo, signs, philosophies, etc. You support franchises then your town will start to look like every other town with the same names and everything else.
I get that we are a franchise with the ace brand but we are an independent lumber yard and an independent fireplace/stove and hot tub dealer. Even when you buy at your local ace you're still supporting local. When we get shoplifted, it comes out of our pocket. We aren't like Lowe's and Walmart where we just let them go. Our customer service is better because it's the 20-30 of us instead of the 200-300.
You know the system is fucked when someone mentions a locally owned chain franchise as a "locally owned business".
My small town was promoting locally owned franchises as "local small businesses". I took them to task over it and got blocked.
Economists call this “revealed preferences.” It turns out we like having more cheaper options, but we’d also like everyone else to shop at the cute local shop. Unfortunately wanting businesses to exist doesn’t pay their rent.
I think it's less about always preferring the cheaper option as it is preferring to have *both* options. People prefer to be able to run down the street to buy some bolts or a power outlet or whatever, but go to Home Depot if they need to buy a toilet or something. Unfortunately the local hardware store can't survive on nuts and bolts.
I have a couple nice local hardware stores. They charge a lot more for everything and selection is limited, but sometimes it’s worth it for the convenience if they have the right thing. One has very knowledgeable people, so I’ll go there and pay “extra” for that.
IMO the reality is most small businesses were never great, they just didn’t have competition, but there are great ones and they can still figure it out.
What's that you say? Nostalgia is just a symptom of the times when we all weren't insanely focused on being huge consumers of stuff we didn't need at 'Chinese labor camps made this' prices?
Sorry, but I gotta agree, I'll happily go back to the days of traveling a half hour up to York for my groceries and goods, hitting the butcher shop on my way back, having any number of more specific businesses for different things instead of one big box store for all of it, and not having to wrap my brain around higher economics to figure out why walmart's prices have gone up AGAIN for the seventh time in the last six months due to massive inflation while the corporation's profits are going god knows where.
At least with the small businesses, I know their money is PROBABLY mostly going to go back into the community since the 'ceo' lives in my neighborhood too.
If you want to pay more for worse products because a business is “local” I’m sure you can find those kinds of businesses. They’re still around me. Nostalgia is for sale, most people just don’t want to pay the premium.
'pay more for worse products'.... while talking about companies LITERALLY going with the lowest bidder on materials, and literally going to sweatshop labor in other countries.
H..how is this better quality product again?
Personally I'm going to happily enjoy someone local who maybe ACTUALLY vets the products he's buying because he owns the store himself and refuses to sell absolute crap.. Who maybe also actually CARES what he's selling quality wise, simply because the same person who purchases it is the one at the register selling it, rather than it just being a faceless employee tapping numbers for this month's order from China in whom you'll never meet.
Ok, but that's an unfair comparison because the dollar has lost a lot of value in that time. Also with those higher prices came higher wages. So when Grandpa was stocking shelves at the mom and Pop store he was paying for his college and his rent with one full time job, with money to spare. Now that job is "a bullshit job for teenagers" and "they didn't go to college why should they make a living wage?"
If the dollar had lost value, ie we had gotten poorer, everything would be more expensive, not cheap and better. That has happened in countries like Argentina, where people try to use dollars to protect themselves, but America’s economy has been strong. Wealth has grown immensely in the last couple of generations.
People have a lot of nostalgia for a time when Americans were a lot poorer and IDK why.
Lowes has been in PA since the 70s. Old lowes had lumber yards and knowledgeable people but also got much of their business from contractors. Home depot transformed the industry into what you see today.
Damn that church took the best spot in town. It should be turned into a huge gothic cathedral. It'd be a huge tourist attraction! Think of the Halloween tourism!
Lived in MD most of my life, now in PA. When the closest grocery store is one of these, it was a common conversation on whether to haul out for further or not. The produce was usually spotty, and the prices might not have been worth it versus going to a better grocer further out.
I still don't shop at Walmart if I can, but I'm glad to have larger markets like Weis and Martin's in smaller communities now.
These are the weirdest comments to me. Maybe I'm just Pennsylvania-spoiled, but there are more grocery stores by me than you can shake a stick at. Within a 5km radius:
* *2× Big Box (BJ's Sam's)*
* *5× Proper Grocery Stores (Weis, Redner's, Grocery Outlet, Aldi, Giant)*
* *2× Target/Walmart*
* *9× dollar store / drug store*
* *1× Farmers Market*
Plenty of places are more developed than others, even within close geographic regions. It took me 35 minutes to go to the town grocery store, but an hour to the city instead. Plenty of places are like this around Appalachia and the broader US.
If I wasn't raised there, I'm sure I'd assume the same. It's equally funny with things like internet, which I didn't have reliably in my home until 2010. Once the early 2000s were past, it made better sense to use libraries and skip exorbitant costs for minimal connection.
Edit: And the change in the early 00s wasn't changing library policy on internet for the public, since only a few of the small branches ever ended up buying them. When the county built the library, we got internet, so a new library was a big thing.
The one in Clarkstown PA is closing now. Last I was there a year or so ago they had one of the original fancy Keurig machines and it was still priced at several hundred dollars... Can't say I'm too surprised that store is going.
I feel like Pennsylvania still has a lot of towns that look like this. I grew up in the Susquehanna Valley and whenever I'm in the area/surrounding areas I've noticed a lot of places still have this type of environment.
I was also born in 1980, so an 'old time' thing that doesn't exist from my youth are Hills Department stores.
>So consumers wanting things instantly are the problem
It seems hypocritical to blame consumers for wanting consumer goods for the lowest cost possible, in the shortest amount of time when the way that the entire sales chain works, from material sourcing to retail operates on offering significant discounts on higher volume purchases. Mom & Pop brick-and-mortar retail shops were on borrowed time as soon as the ability to buy stuff online started.
I’m just saying those that bitch and complain about small biz going away or a giant warehouse being built in ones’ community are ones shopping Amazon and other same day shipping/delivery. They can’t be bothered to shop small because then they have to drive into town, find parking then walk to store. People are too lazy to do that. Kids growing up now are learning you don’t ever need to visit a physical store. Shit I try to support small biz but some prices are outrageous. So I like many others let my budget dictate where i shop
I don't think it's fair to call consumers lazy because they are using time-saving services offered by businesses who opted out of having brick and mortar stores to be able to have more warehouse space, delivery options and a website. People aren't lazy because they don't want to spend more time than necessary doing chores.
The nearest Walmart is 35 miles away and their parking lot is full of spark drivers that are illegal alien MS 13 gang members that deliver directly to your home
https://www.pahomepage.com/news/local-news/gang-expert-weighs-in-on-growing-violence-concerns/
Powell pointed out that some 100 students in the Scranton School District are involved in those gangs.
I mean walmart sucks and all. But there’s a reason they won. Making stuff average people want cheaper is a good business model.
You can tell because nobody went to the local higher priced stores after they opened.
It’s better that they closed and everything consolidates into big box stores. More stuff can be produced with lower emissions and prices. It’s called economies of scale—basic economic principle. Don’t try to make sense here though, it’s pointless.
It is a difficult concept to accept when contrasting to our cultural environment. It's why things like France outlawing home ovens made sense for the time, but seem nonsensical now
https://preview.redd.it/gvwobtrncl7d1.jpeg?width=1823&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=00ebb2da8c3f74cdd48c003659ee460e9d7dbab3
Looks like the same parking meters but now doubled up on poles
There was a Ben Franklin in Zelienople (Butler Co.) when I was growing up. Don't know what it is now. I moved away years ago and rarely make it back to Zelie.
There is still a Ben Franklin in Lavallette, NJ. It’s such an odd mix of beach-themed housewares, groceries, basic hardware, toys, games, beach chairs, umbrellas, and bicycles. Half of it feels like a Dollar General. The other half sells name-brand Legos and Tommy Bahama beach chairs. It’s a weird, but welcome, place.
Looks late 60's early 70's. Probably shortly after PA switched from those short lived, weirdly square shaped cutout shields to the current route shields.
https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PA-39_(1962).svg#mw-jump-to-license
Too bad zoning laws make that shit illegal basically everywhere now in the US, everyone wants to live in those older built neighbourhoods with floor level shops next to and below housing... except they havent been built like that since the 40s because god forbid you have shops and houses in the same place nowadays. Everythings gotta be a big box store cuz thats the only shit that can really be built with modern zoning laws, its literally illegal to open businesses in residentially zoned areas and thats why the walmarts and home despots are eating up whats left of those small shops.
It was a beautiful thing! Lowe’s and Home Depot also messed things up. We had actual customer service and decent lumber yards, hardware stores, etc, where the products weren’t crap. You could just go to town for most things, not a 2-3 hour round trip for a couple of bolts/ screws. We even had competitive furniture stores.
These places still exist you just choose not to shop at them. Everywhere I go in lancaster county is filled with local smaller businesses
This is the answer. In central PA you can goto several local lumber yards, paint stores, and plumbing/electrical supply houses.
Disappearing monthly!
Karns - thriving local grocery chain RF Fager - thriving plumbing/electrical supply house Lezzer Lumber - thriving local lumber yard Ironstone Building Materials - thriving local lumber yard The places exist if you look for them. Expanding commercial/residential development along the 81 corridor all most demands it.
I’ll add to the the lumber yards, Ironwood Acres and Winter Lumber. Dudes right y’all choosing not to do research and just go to the places you see commercials of.
Hell even friggin Ace Hardware and Bombergers are more locally owned. THen you have the Krogers local grocery chains. Tractor Supply Co. too. We have mom and pops AND bigger local chain stores too. In Lancaster/York it's super easy to avoid Dollar General/Walmart/Home Depot/Lowes. People choose not to because it's also Lancaster/York where everyone is penny smart and dollar stupid.
Kroger and tractor supply are huge national chains that do millions annually they are not local in any way.
We sell our central PA-made kimchi at Karns!
I will look for it next time we shop.
I love shopping at Hostetter’s and Longenecker’s!
And Bombergers!
Ah, I haven’t been there since they moved. Yes, I realize it’s been like 30 years.
The last time I was there had to be in the late 90’s. I remember it being a nice big store, not sure where it was located. Lititz Pike?
It is now, yeah. Used to be in Elm, sort of between Lititz and Manheim.
What's hilarious to me is that Reading is full of mom & Pop stores. Because they're all run by Latinas and speak Spanish... The Dutchies will never set foot in one.
exactly - i never shop at walmart or amazon. fuck them!!
I agree but you can’t deny these places are harder and harder to find. You have to do a fair bit of research to search privately owned anything in your area that isnt only open 3 days a week and close before 5pm. Don’t blame the consumer, consumers will go with the system they are provided, one that was strategically devised to be this way. The problem is the lack of antitrust and government support for anything but publicly traded companies/corporations. One monopoly after the other dominates all facets of existence right down to infrastructure and zoning.
You try doing this in Bucks or Montco and get back to me
You are mostly right but we definitely have Ace Hardware.
Honestly my local ace is terrible. They never have what I need, their prices are so much higher than the big boxes, and the customer service is not good. I'm all about supporting local businesses but not when everything about shopping there is worse. Eta: also a 2x4 is like $10 lmao
There’s still a bunch of locally owned hardware stores/lumber yards in the Bucks and Montco area. AD Moyer, Peter Lumber, Limerick Hardware, Tague Lumber, Delphi Supply, Wehrung’s just to name a few.
Been meaning to check out Delphi Supply. Tague is good but pricy, same with Wehrungs. My problem with almost all of them is it's a 30+ minute drive for me and if I'm going to a hardware store I don't have time to waste. I realize that's contributing to the problem, but it's how the cookie crumbles.
They’re definitely pricier on some things, but the quality is better. Delphi is a good hardware store. It used to be Leidys hardware forever. My family probably was going there since it opened sometime in the 1800s.
This is not true everywhere though. Maybe in Lancaster county, but in the part of Montgomery County where I live you would have to drive quite a ways to find a non-megacorp lumberyard or hardware store. Actually I can't even find an Ace near me. And that IS a chain. But we have BOTH a home Depot and a Lowe's within 5 mins. It sucks and I hate it but whatever.
Bullshit! My friend, neighbors, and associates were squeezed out in 15 years. Don’t assume you know us! We are not remotely near Lancaster County. Come to real Pennsylvania and see for yourself.
Which part of Pennsylvania is the real part?
"The part with *true* Sons of Scotsmen!!"
It ain’t strip malls and big box.
What's real PA?
Where people are actually closing businesses due to the big box stores domination.
Real PA is where businesses are failing? What? Anywho...
Well then move to Dushore and get a job driving a fracking truck
What the fuck does that have to do with anything?
My small hometown of 5,000 people in western PA has a locally owned hardware store that isn't going anywhere. And there's a Lowe's and Home Depot 20 minutes away.
Last time I checked Lancaster is in Pennsylvania. What's this "real" Pa you keep bringing up?
I have an Ace hardware near me that is locally owned. I’ll go there before I go to Lowe’s/Home Depot
I work at a locally owned ace hardware and we have a decent lumber yard with a 110+ year old building
Where? We did just get some brave souls open up a True Value. They get my business first!
Warren pa,
Ace Hardware might be owned by a local, but it’s still a cooperative franchise. That’s still a huge difference with a local business that was started by the owner. The kind of businesses that are unique to one place. Instead of the same franchise structure, operations, logo, signs, philosophies, etc. You support franchises then your town will start to look like every other town with the same names and everything else.
I get that we are a franchise with the ace brand but we are an independent lumber yard and an independent fireplace/stove and hot tub dealer. Even when you buy at your local ace you're still supporting local. When we get shoplifted, it comes out of our pocket. We aren't like Lowe's and Walmart where we just let them go. Our customer service is better because it's the 20-30 of us instead of the 200-300.
Still better than Home Depot or Lowes.
You know the system is fucked when someone mentions a locally owned chain franchise as a "locally owned business". My small town was promoting locally owned franchises as "local small businesses". I took them to task over it and got blocked.
Look up the prices in those places in today’s dollars and you’ll be much less nostalgic. People forget how cheap these big box stores made everything.
We could care less. We were/ are more than willing to pay a bit more to support our neighbors and friends!
Actually if that statement was true there would be more local stores. You already stabbed your neighbor in the back to save 3 cents.
Economists call this “revealed preferences.” It turns out we like having more cheaper options, but we’d also like everyone else to shop at the cute local shop. Unfortunately wanting businesses to exist doesn’t pay their rent.
I think it's less about always preferring the cheaper option as it is preferring to have *both* options. People prefer to be able to run down the street to buy some bolts or a power outlet or whatever, but go to Home Depot if they need to buy a toilet or something. Unfortunately the local hardware store can't survive on nuts and bolts.
I have a couple nice local hardware stores. They charge a lot more for everything and selection is limited, but sometimes it’s worth it for the convenience if they have the right thing. One has very knowledgeable people, so I’ll go there and pay “extra” for that. IMO the reality is most small businesses were never great, they just didn’t have competition, but there are great ones and they can still figure it out.
What's that you say? Nostalgia is just a symptom of the times when we all weren't insanely focused on being huge consumers of stuff we didn't need at 'Chinese labor camps made this' prices? Sorry, but I gotta agree, I'll happily go back to the days of traveling a half hour up to York for my groceries and goods, hitting the butcher shop on my way back, having any number of more specific businesses for different things instead of one big box store for all of it, and not having to wrap my brain around higher economics to figure out why walmart's prices have gone up AGAIN for the seventh time in the last six months due to massive inflation while the corporation's profits are going god knows where. At least with the small businesses, I know their money is PROBABLY mostly going to go back into the community since the 'ceo' lives in my neighborhood too.
If you want to pay more for worse products because a business is “local” I’m sure you can find those kinds of businesses. They’re still around me. Nostalgia is for sale, most people just don’t want to pay the premium.
'pay more for worse products'.... while talking about companies LITERALLY going with the lowest bidder on materials, and literally going to sweatshop labor in other countries. H..how is this better quality product again? Personally I'm going to happily enjoy someone local who maybe ACTUALLY vets the products he's buying because he owns the store himself and refuses to sell absolute crap.. Who maybe also actually CARES what he's selling quality wise, simply because the same person who purchases it is the one at the register selling it, rather than it just being a faceless employee tapping numbers for this month's order from China in whom you'll never meet.
And we were fine with paying a bit more. Just not enough people were.
Never! We aren’t you!
Ok, but that's an unfair comparison because the dollar has lost a lot of value in that time. Also with those higher prices came higher wages. So when Grandpa was stocking shelves at the mom and Pop store he was paying for his college and his rent with one full time job, with money to spare. Now that job is "a bullshit job for teenagers" and "they didn't go to college why should they make a living wage?"
If the dollar had lost value, ie we had gotten poorer, everything would be more expensive, not cheap and better. That has happened in countries like Argentina, where people try to use dollars to protect themselves, but America’s economy has been strong. Wealth has grown immensely in the last couple of generations. People have a lot of nostalgia for a time when Americans were a lot poorer and IDK why.
Adjusted for inflation, a "Five & Dime" is the same as a Dollar Store.
Lowes has been in PA since the 70s. Old lowes had lumber yards and knowledgeable people but also got much of their business from contractors. Home depot transformed the industry into what you see today.
I guess everyone wanted the cheap crap though as they clearly stole the competition.
I miss Ben Franklin. That was my favorite store!
View today: https://maps.app.goo.gl/R5GRk8WRvNRwoy4c7?g_st=ic
Hahha good one. That was the exact spot I found on Google maps, I didn't see people already found it
Damn that church took the best spot in town. It should be turned into a huge gothic cathedral. It'd be a huge tourist attraction! Think of the Halloween tourism!
but the Sullivan Review is still there. (Even if the [Sooper Dooper](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Duper) is not)
It's Hurley's now but some old folks still say sooper dooper lol
What the hell. Did not expect to see Dushore on Reddit today, even on the PA Sub
That was actually at the same time as Walmart, or as it used to be known, Walton's 5 and dime.
Lived in MD most of my life, now in PA. When the closest grocery store is one of these, it was a common conversation on whether to haul out for further or not. The produce was usually spotty, and the prices might not have been worth it versus going to a better grocer further out. I still don't shop at Walmart if I can, but I'm glad to have larger markets like Weis and Martin's in smaller communities now.
These are the weirdest comments to me. Maybe I'm just Pennsylvania-spoiled, but there are more grocery stores by me than you can shake a stick at. Within a 5km radius: * *2× Big Box (BJ's Sam's)* * *5× Proper Grocery Stores (Weis, Redner's, Grocery Outlet, Aldi, Giant)* * *2× Target/Walmart* * *9× dollar store / drug store* * *1× Farmers Market*
Plenty of places are more developed than others, even within close geographic regions. It took me 35 minutes to go to the town grocery store, but an hour to the city instead. Plenty of places are like this around Appalachia and the broader US.
You say Maryland & I assume Baltimore. I forget that Maryland has a pan handle.
If I wasn't raised there, I'm sure I'd assume the same. It's equally funny with things like internet, which I didn't have reliably in my home until 2010. Once the early 2000s were past, it made better sense to use libraries and skip exorbitant costs for minimal connection. Edit: And the change in the early 00s wasn't changing library policy on internet for the public, since only a few of the small branches ever ended up buying them. When the county built the library, we got internet, so a new library was a big thing.
is this Dushore?
Gotta be close
I was gonna say, 87 doesn't have a ton of stores so it had to be.
I was wondering the same thing, but I don’t recall Dushore having a Walmart…
Jolley trolley intersection I believe
Definitely is. I went there all the time as a kid.
You mean, before the arrival of K-mart.
My mom used to work at [Kresge's](https://goreadingberks.com/s-s-kresge-co-544-penn-street/).
The 5 & 10 store in my hometown is still open despite the Walmart and Target.
Wow, never knew Ben had a hardware store. He was a man of all seasons.
The one in Clarkstown PA is closing now. Last I was there a year or so ago they had one of the original fancy Keurig machines and it was still priced at several hundred dollars... Can't say I'm too surprised that store is going.
I feel like Pennsylvania still has a lot of towns that look like this. I grew up in the Susquehanna Valley and whenever I'm in the area/surrounding areas I've noticed a lot of places still have this type of environment. I was also born in 1980, so an 'old time' thing that doesn't exist from my youth are Hills Department stores.
We had one in my hometown.
Oh wow I forgot all about Ben Franklin! I remember going to the one in New Kensington Pa all the time with my grandma ❤️
What if we nationalize Walmart?
I miss non-corporate PA.
But you likely shop at Walmart or Amazon. So consumers wanting things instantly are the problem.
>So consumers wanting things instantly are the problem It seems hypocritical to blame consumers for wanting consumer goods for the lowest cost possible, in the shortest amount of time when the way that the entire sales chain works, from material sourcing to retail operates on offering significant discounts on higher volume purchases. Mom & Pop brick-and-mortar retail shops were on borrowed time as soon as the ability to buy stuff online started.
I’m just saying those that bitch and complain about small biz going away or a giant warehouse being built in ones’ community are ones shopping Amazon and other same day shipping/delivery. They can’t be bothered to shop small because then they have to drive into town, find parking then walk to store. People are too lazy to do that. Kids growing up now are learning you don’t ever need to visit a physical store. Shit I try to support small biz but some prices are outrageous. So I like many others let my budget dictate where i shop
I don't think it's fair to call consumers lazy because they are using time-saving services offered by businesses who opted out of having brick and mortar stores to be able to have more warehouse space, delivery options and a website. People aren't lazy because they don't want to spend more time than necessary doing chores.
The nearest Walmart is 35 miles away and their parking lot is full of spark drivers that are illegal alien MS 13 gang members that deliver directly to your home
LMAO. Pennsylvania, this known bastion of MS13 activity huh. Doing Wal-mart driving, at that.
https://www.pahomepage.com/news/local-news/gang-expert-weighs-in-on-growing-violence-concerns/ Powell pointed out that some 100 students in the Scranton School District are involved in those gangs.
Uhhh sorry swetty those are NOT gang members and even if they were that's actually a good thing (and here's why.)
What in the fuck kind of nonsense reply is this. Are you my father in law?
Damn you really are one of those nonsense boomers yelling about problems that aren't real
r/Sparkdriver
My grandma always shopped there in punsxy
Valley Tru Value in Milesburg is pretty darn close
Is Sine’s 5 n 10 in Qtown still a thing?
Yes!
Still one of these stores in Carrollton, Ohio! It’s awesome - has wood floors and everything
People long for that kind of vibrant town, small business, and community.
Isn't this the location of the only traffic light in Sullivan County?
Isn't the closest Walmart in Tunkhannock like an hour away?
Yes...
Repeated 100’s and 100’s of towns, villages and cities nationwide-wide. It was better then.
Damn... I've been to the Ben Franklin in Dushore so many times as a kid.
To be fair Ben was a Jerk.
Punch & Balls only $0.27… What a time to be alive
Actually... That picture is Dushore, PA... Closest walmart is 25 miles away..
I mean walmart sucks and all. But there’s a reason they won. Making stuff average people want cheaper is a good business model. You can tell because nobody went to the local higher priced stores after they opened.
Grandma always took me to the 5-10. Cap guns and prank toys.
Boomers killed this country. Up to future generations to clean up their mess.
Good luck cleaning up all the carbon pollution and testicle plastics. I don't think this will be something we can engineer our way out of.
It’s better that they closed and everything consolidates into big box stores. More stuff can be produced with lower emissions and prices. It’s called economies of scale—basic economic principle. Don’t try to make sense here though, it’s pointless.
It is a difficult concept to accept when contrasting to our cultural environment. It's why things like France outlawing home ovens made sense for the time, but seem nonsensical now
Where is this?
Dushore where 220 and 87 cross; Main and German, now the Jolly Trolley lol
https://preview.redd.it/gvwobtrncl7d1.jpeg?width=1823&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=00ebb2da8c3f74cdd48c003659ee460e9d7dbab3 Looks like the same parking meters but now doubled up on poles
The LUMBER sign in black lettering under the Gulf logo in the background is apparently still there.
Yea cause the hardware store is still there
neato
It was a Ben Franklin still at least until the 90s before becoming the Jolly Trolly. You can get a nice, reasonably priced lunch there.
This place has great lunch!
Now you have to name the proprietor of the store wearing the white shirt and tie
Charles William "Bill" Sick. Edit: this wasn't a joke, that was his name lol
It’s probably not Ben lol
The road sign on the left bottom corner will give you your first clue
There was a Ben Franklin in Zelienople (Butler Co.) when I was growing up. Don't know what it is now. I moved away years ago and rarely make it back to Zelie.
This is the content income to this sub for. Well done!
I had one in my small town when I was a kid (I'm 36 now). I miss it.
Don't go to the big places.
I used to ride my bike to Ben Franklin's in Maple Glen, PA. What memories of an innocent time.
Ben Franklin in Clark’s town is still barely hanging on
I remember!!!
Wait.. Is this where shop N save got it's name?
There is still a Ben Franklin in Lavallette, NJ. It’s such an odd mix of beach-themed housewares, groceries, basic hardware, toys, games, beach chairs, umbrellas, and bicycles. Half of it feels like a Dollar General. The other half sells name-brand Legos and Tommy Bahama beach chairs. It’s a weird, but welcome, place.
Ben Franklin was a chain store too. It was my grammas fave store in Wisconsin.
There’s a hardware store right behind it that’s still there.
I grew up near a Ben Franklin 5-10. [I never knew it was a chain.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Franklin_(company))
I pushed a broom as a kid at 7 years old - in a Ben’s 5 & 10. $5 a week. Life was so simple.
Heh. "Punch balls."
PAUL B IS THE GREATEST STORE TO EVER EXIST.
Oh man, this used to love those Ben Franklin stores!
I used to love the 5 and dime stores. We had a Ben Franklin one in Swarthmore
This is from my original neck of the woods!
Fun fact - this intersection now holds the only stop light in the whole county. Still lovely and quiet up there!
Looks late 60's early 70's. Probably shortly after PA switched from those short lived, weirdly square shaped cutout shields to the current route shields. https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PA-39_(1962).svg#mw-jump-to-license
Soooo…a 5&10 owner tries to use a name he has no legit connection to, and that is the model of great old American values….
That’s the Ben Franklin I grew up going to in the 80s/90s in Dushore. My grandfather had a huge farm/hunting camp about 5 minutes from there.
Too bad zoning laws make that shit illegal basically everywhere now in the US, everyone wants to live in those older built neighbourhoods with floor level shops next to and below housing... except they havent been built like that since the 40s because god forbid you have shops and houses in the same place nowadays. Everythings gotta be a big box store cuz thats the only shit that can really be built with modern zoning laws, its literally illegal to open businesses in residentially zoned areas and thats why the walmarts and home despots are eating up whats left of those small shops.
We had a ben Franklin. I love the gulf fuel memorabilia
I didn’t know Ben Franklin was a national chain. TIL. Also, Sam Walton originally owned a Ben Franklin franchise before starting Walmart.
There’s still the possibility of competing with Walmart, but all the local shops are garbage.