Are you in need of a new toothbrush? How about a quart of oil for your car? Numerous years ago, there were multitudinous small five-and-dime stores that could easily fill this need expeditiously. The entire square footage of most of these small, local variety stores was approximately 1,500 square feet. However, a local variety store was just that: a store wherein an unbelievable variety of wares were marketed. Nevertheless, Baby Boomers grew from childhood familiar with the marketing techniques of local variety stores; if one needed a bottle of shampoo, a quick stop was all it took. Furthermore, consumers could find myriad wares within these merchants walls: artificial foliage, toys, candy, electronics, hardware, gardening tools, under garments, and minimal grocery items lined the walls. Furthermore, middle-aged to aged store clerks would follow potential customers around as they perused these local variety store wares. There were no computer-aided anti-theft chips placed in or on the merchandise as there are today. Fast forward to the 21st century; where super giant discount stores have edged out most of the orthodox local variety stores. This is unfortunate because local variety stores harbored an ambiance not conducive to large discount stores. It is ironic that there are many handicapped parking spaces for these super giant vendors, and wheelchair shopping carts are omnipresent, since a consumer must practically be in superb physiological condition just to enter to buy a common item such as duct tape. Local variety stores may have demanded a higher price for the same roll of duct tape, but it would usually come more easily: parking spaces were usually closer, the stores were smaller, and the checkout lines were shorter.
