It’s a bummer.

Like, all around.

When I was a kid, going to town was an event. We’d head down to the local hardware store which stocked NES and SNES games for us kids, had a section for toys and everything. Nothing fancy, just water guns and action figures. My mom actually talked the guy into stocking Nintendo games so we didn’t have to travel two towns over to get them. We’d leave there and my mom would take us to Speedy’s for a haircut. (They recently tore his old building down. I hated to see it). Then we’d walk down to the fabric shop so my mom could buy some stuff to make curtains and things. Once we were done there we’d go down to the little grocery store, the owner always gave me and my brother a lollipop and a dollar bill. Then we’d go from place to place browsing and window shopping.

Walmart ended all of that when it came to my town. People fought it for a long time and finally compromised and let them build on the highway.

I liked capitalism before it got like this. When people owned their towns and local businesses.