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Letter to Editor
ShareIs store closure symbol of small town soul lost?
November 28, 2008It may seem odd to lament the passing of a grocery store.
Duncan Save-On-Foods is, after all, just another business that couldn’t make it in the increasingly competitive marketplace where personable mom-and-pop operations fade into ghosts on the landscape.
Despite its corporate ownership, Save-On had a pulse, a staff-inspired soul that can’t be found in the malls and brightly lit aisles of the big boys on the block.
When they leave, another piece of the heart that beats in the valley will be gone.
It’s hard to imagine tears being shed — like they are over the Save-On closure — should any of the big box stores that dominate the marketplace turn off the lights for a last time.
We’re not suggesting these establishments aren’t fine places to shop, but most simply don’t share the heart-to-heart connection with the community like Save-On did, a relationship most businesses can only dream of achieving.
Cashiers and customers knew intimate details of each other’s lives and shared their joys and heartbreaks.
Many of Save-On’s good deeds garnered media attention, but much, much more was done behind the scenes.
Holding a fundraiser to help the family of a sick child? Need food and cooks for a dry grad or help feeding the less fortunate?
Manager Chris Gale would simply ask, “Tell me how we can help” and the store would follow up on that promise quietly and unheralded, just like a good pal would.
In this age of box stores and get ‘em moving, assembly line service, we’re not sure we’ll see the likes of them again.
If this closure is symbolic of a community poised to leave its small town feel behind then we should all join in the mourning.
