General Store Wars

In the beginning, there was one general store on the island and it belonged to my Uncle Norman and Aunt Jenny. It was a long, low building in the town square and was as much a gathering place as a general store. Nana bought her staples there - bread, milk, soda, small housewares. Vegetables came from Lilly Small's garden up island and meat came from the meat truck that made it's rounds once a week from the mainland but candy, matches, cleaners and the like, all came from Norman's Store.

When McIntyre's opened not but a hundred feet away, there was mild chaos. The family bought a three story old building and converted it into a fancy two story store with their living quarters on the third floor and two gas pumps in front. You could buy rope, magazines, shovels, chain saws, slickers, sweet rolls. There were two pop cases just the right height to open and dip your hand into the freezing water and pull out an Orange Crush. There were stacks of lightbulbs, paper goods, seeds, cigarettes and tobaccco, car parts, venison steaks, shampoos and soaps, penny candy. Benches were installed around the counters so the old men could gather and smoke and swap tall tales. The war of the general stores was in full swing.

Norman and Jenny had no choice but to try and compete, so the old, low building was abandoned and a bright, new store was built in front of their house. Polished wood floors, spotless new glass display cases, painted benches and nearly everything that McIntyres carried was put in. A gravel parking lot was created in front and steps were added the width of the building. They set out rocking chairs and iron pots filled with sand for cigarette butts and on warm afternoons you could often see Uncle Norman sitting alone and smoking, a tattered newspaper in his lap
and his old cat alseep at his feet.

In a different environment, one or the other might have won but the small island community opted for a system of free enterprise and both stores survived in their own ways. What had begun as a war turned into an almost friendly competition with both stores mildy trying to outdo each other and both respecting their separate ways.
Nana said there was something we could all learn from this small drama - she called it peaceful coexistence.