Five & Dime

I remember riding on the Bus to shop at the Five & Dime. There wasn't much parking provided as most people walked or traveled by Bus. Walking with my Mother through the narrow hardwood aisles of our neighborhood Five & Dime Stores. Up and down the creaking floors looking for affordable values. Bread for a dime or a coke for a nickel. The wood floors waved under the immense weight of the merchandise. The store would be small compared to today's convenience store. Cameras weren't needed as the creaking was a dead give away to your location. It was advised to look down the aisle to see if it was occupied. If another patron was in the aisle passing was impossible in the limited width.

The national stores Murhys, Woolworths, Grants, SS Kresge were mixed in with local Mom and Pop enterprises. All focused on less cost to the consumer. The fact they were also convenient was overlooked in marketing strategy. Today we pay higher prices for convenience even though the products are similar. Price is not the business model for convenience shopping such as 7/11 stores. It generally accepted 7/11 denotes the opening hours not 7 or 11 cents of the past.

One would assume the Five & Dime went out with the steam engine. Not so. The Five & Dime concept has risen again like a Phoenix in marketing. The new stores are now known as Dollar Stores, Dollar General and Dollar Tree. The name change is due to the Economic Policies of the Federal Reserve. The policy of some inflation is preferred over the depression of deflation. Or what we paid a nickel for in 1950 now costs a dollar. Money in the bank evaporates like water in a mid day sun. The trick is to steal your money slowly to conceal the theft. The money stolen in 2008 will be paid back by devalued currency. We all pay in higher prices across the economic spectrum. You can't win if you don't make the rules. The Gilded Age has returned and the Depression they bring. We are traveling backwards in time to a dollar that's worth a dime.

The recent success of these stores has not gone unnoticed by the giant retailer Wallmart. It seems the cost of fuel to patronize County wide Wallmart is attracting consumers away from the Mega Box Stores of Wallmart. Wallmart tried unsuccessfully to purchase one of these dollar chains of Five & Dime ancestry. The unsuccessful bid prompted the giant retailer to open their own chain of smaller stores to compete with Dollar Chains.