I'm obviously not from the same era as some of you guys and I'm sure my Old Country Store experiences wouldn't make much of an impression on you, but I remember my Mom working for the local corner grocery for a year or so while our neighbor managed it.
It was a typical little shop with a couple gas pumps, an ice cream stand next door and best of all, an assortment of fishing gear. In those days I simply lived to fish and I'd save my pennies in anticipation of the next trip to the store so that I could add to my meager, but steadily growing lure selection. That store, Thomas's Grocery, even sponsored a T-ball team that my brother, the neighbor's son and I all played for. This was back in the mid-70's. It closed down shortly after my neighbor quit managing it and was turned into an arcade for a couple more years before it was razed. I was through that area a couple weeks ago and that corner lot is still empty.
There was another, even older general store, that we neighbor kids would ride bikes to on occasion with the goal of buying all the candy and soda we could afford with bottle return money. That little store, Olson's, used to have darned near everything. I remember seeing leg hold traps hanging from nails on the wall, army surplus, old gas pumps and more that I can't seem to recollect right now. Olson's was at the corner of 9 mile and Olson road about 9 miles West of Midland, MI and was such an old building and apparently a piece of history that the building was moved to nearby Sanford, MI to become part of an assembly of trains and buildings for a small museum of local history.
About 2 miles from where I sit right now there is/was a Mom and Pop hardware store in Topinabee, MI. The owner recently died and a story I'd never heard before came out about the operation of the store. It seems that the owners of the store had begun some years ago to winter in the South during the slow winter season. Instead of leaving the locals in the lurch regarding hardware odds and ends that they might need, the owner stashed a key and let the locals know where to find it. Then he arranged a credit ledger book to be left on the counter next to an inventory ledger. When a local came in and "purchased" something, they would write the amount in the credit ledger and the name and quantity of the purchased items in the inventory ledger.
Once a month a hardware supplier would come in and restock the shelves based on the inventory ledger and when the owner of the store got back from his winter hiatus, he'd settle up with the supplier and the customers would settle up with him.
