Remember when?

Do you remember when you could make a day of driving around and running into little mom & pop shops? You know, the little hole in the wall shops that you could always find something cool if you dug around enough, and bring home a prize!

Whether it was a vintage toy that reminds you of your childhood, or that cute little handmade trinket that will go perfectly on that shelf you have at home. Maybe even that home baked good that has no business whatsoever being in a little corner record store, but the owner just happens to be a darn fine baker and makes fudge to bring in, since everyone loves it. So you pick up a piece, taste it, close your eyes, and are instantly taken to a sunny field of daisies, dancing and playing around with a dozen puppies and kittens… Well, that sounded different in my head, but you get the point!

Well, if you dont remember any of this, then you are probably in your 20’s… This was a dying art before you got the chance to enjoy it, and you were conditioned to help tear it down.

Now before you get all snowflaky on me, hear me out… You probably dont even know it because society changed right around you. The internet! booga booga…

I am 43 years old and the internet was not a thing when I was young. We got an old 486dx computer when I was just getting into high school and that was a year before you started seeing 50 AOL discs scattered in your front yard giving you “3 FREE HOURS” of America Online Internet! WHAT?! All at blazin hot speeds of 14.4K! No way, I dont know what that means, but its got to be awesome, or there wouldn’t be a disc in my front yard, right?

Anyway, thats a talk for another time, but my generation didn’t grow up with a cell phone in their hand, a tablet on the table, and Napster / Limewire in their ear… (if you dont get that reference, you really are in your 20’s, its funny, ask your mom & dad).

The internet soon exploded and took over, just a generation after mine was already seeing the repercussions. Where I remember fondly going out with my dad on a hunt day, finding these little mom & pops and coming home with a bag or box of goodies each, and only spent $20 bucks! Now these fun adventures were being passed on to spend hours on The Myspace… (again ask your mom and dad) This is not the only issue, but it was the beginning…

“I know what I got, these sell on THE Ebay for $1000!”

Probably 30% of the items you would find in these great little shops came in through the door, the other 70% came in some form or fashion, from the owner out on the hunt. Digging through all manner of places to pick up the really unique things the average person might miss. Many times, they would pick up items that were in some form of disrepair or badly soiled and put in the work to restore it. This was soon to come to an end.

Ebay gave the perfect breeding ground for those that know nothing about a product, to think or at worst, act like they do. Soon, ridiculous reality shows came out like Pawn Stars, American Pickers, Storage Wars and more… All of these shows proven to be fake and staged later, but that didn’t seem to stop the train barreling down the tracks. These shows generally put the nail in the coffin of the mom & pop shops. Everyone thought they now knew everything so they would now expect 120% of Ebay when bringing an item in to sell or trade to a shop, no matter what condition their item was in. Usually its broken or had been sitting under a 5 gallon bucket of old motor oil in a barn for the past 30 years… Just because an item is listed for $1000.00, doesn’t mean it SOLD for that. There were 500 more of that item listed for $20.00 or less… On the obverse, customers would look up every item on the shelf, then pick one at $20.00 take it up to the front and say “I can get this on THE Ebay for $6.00” then just stare at the person behind the counter… Of course there is one on Ebay for $1000 that they would have quoted if they were selling it to the shop, and the one for $6.00 on THE Ebay is missing pieces, not working, and was pulled out of a lake after residing there for a decade. Then just leave it on the counter and huff off, after they could not get it for 70% off…

So, no longer were there realistic items coming through the door, well the same thing happened to sales. Long gone are the days of the sale with blanket priced items, or items with realistic prices on them. Everyone has a “smart” phone, and they scan everything, doesn’t matter what condition theirs is in compared to the item listed. Thats the price put on it. You dont have to know anything about anything! Just scan it. The problem is, you actually do need to know something, condition is everything. But the mentality remains to this day, if not worse.

With no product coming through the door that can be bought, and the hunt for unique items to carry in store dried up. Same for garage sales, yard sales, flea markets, estate sales and so on… Flea markets have become a really bad strip mall. Everyone is playing shop, many I have been to even have an Ebay print out stuck to the items! Hilarious! I saw an old action figure that looked like it had been dug out of the ground, missing an arm, and there was the Ebay price page taped to it… Problem is, the print out was for one brand new in package! This is where we are now… Alot of words to call it, but this is PG, so Ill just let it go.

The last few generations have buried the quaint mom & pop shops. With the blind uneducated ridiculousness of pricing off of Ebay and Amazon, it has quietly buried the garage sale, yard sale, estate sale, but it hasn’t stopped there, look at “thrift” shops (goodwill) which is for another day, but they ship anything that their employees phone scan in the back to the main warehouses, where they list them on their own auction site and put “tested works” if it powered on, or “untested” which means it was tested, it just didnt work.

One day it may calm down, and maybe the fun shops will trickle back into society, but it doesn’t seem likely. Sadly, this bygone time will be relived in movies and books, but improbable to become reality again. As with many great community entities, that you could walk in, the owner was behind the counter, and they knew your name, have closed down.

Now folks just sit behind a cold computer screen with a sad face, searching for the next person to rumble with from behind that computer screen, with a bag of Cool Ranch Doritos Puffs and a Code Red Mountain Dew… In between quick physical appearances at Gamestop to trade the game they bought last week for $59.99 in, for $8.12 toward another $59.99 game. But before you even leave, your $8.12 game is already being priced up “pre-owned” at $55.99… No Ebay quoting there, weird…