Stephan Bisaha reports for NPR from Kewanee, Mississippi, on the Alabama state line in Lauderdale County, population 80,000. Here's an excerpt:
STEPHAN BISAHA, BYLINE: The Simmons-Wright Company store in Kewanee, Miss., has two floors filled with baskets of cotton, cast-iron skillets and Mississippi-shaped magnets. And with inflation squeezing customer wallets, sales are down for nearly all of it.
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BISAHA: Even before dollar stores, there was Walmart, and many country stores had to shut down. Those that did survive have been the ones able to adapt with the times. Pickett expanded his restaurant business by delivering burgers to a truck line across the border in Alabama. But even the food side of Pickett's business is feeling the sting of this high inflation that we haven't seen in 40 years.
PICKETT: Well, the beef and the meat has almost doubled in price. And we've gone up just a little bit. We hadn't gone up the percentage we need to go up. I know we're going to have to go up. We just don't want to run everybody off, regular customers.
BISAHA: Other country store owners say the same thing. They're raising prices as little as they can because they're based in poor communities that just can't afford it. Before, Pickett wouldn't mind throwing some extra fries into the meals. But now, to keep prices down, Pickett's team measures everything. Even the hamburger patties get weighed before cooking. Yet concern about a possible recession means long-term survival could require more drastic changes. One idea he's considering is leaning into the store's nostalgia and making the place an event venue.
PICKETT: Like a wedding on the weekend - if you let them rent the cotton gin for a photo shoot and have a wedding up there, it'd be 10,000 bucks, you know, or more.
BISAHA: Country-like nostalgia is already a big part of the business. The old nutcrackers and antique soda bottles might not sell, but they draw in customers like 75-year-old Lewis Hankins (ph). He made the short drive here from Alabama, and he can't stop playing show and tell with the rusted farm equipment he pulls from the shelves.
Other posts about country stores are here and here, and one touching on rural nostalgia linked to farm instruments and other old paraphernalia is here. Also, don't forget there was a country store in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, the subject of this post.
1 comment:
Considering the fact that many rural areas have lower wage rates and more generally lower costs of living and significantly smaller incomes compared to those in urban environments highlights the pain recent inflation has had in rural communities. While it has been difficult for urbanites to adapt to raising prices, those in rural spaces where the minimum wage is usually right at the federal base are, as this blog points out, struggling to put food on the table, keep the lights on, and pay rent. This has led many to examine the importance of Wal-Mart stores and other larger franchises in the well-being and survival of rural communities. Wal-Mart and the fast food chains that make their way through rural areas often have lower prices compared to local shops and restaurants, which strains the local economy. And as noted, rising prices has led to many of those local establishments to struggle even more, resulting in the collapse of what makes many rural communities special. Not only can this lead to survival issues for low wage workers, it can lead to larger community unrest as establishments grow more and more vulnerable.
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