The village Grocer

 During the 1940’s, when I was in grammar school, I took many trips to the Grand Union grocery store located on Broadway and in the same building as Frank and Ally McGuire’s bar and restaurant. It was very small in comparison to today’s Grand Union supermarkets.

Its proprietor, Mr. Mike Smith had well stocked shelves and what seemed to be an enormous amount of fruits and vegetables that he kept in bushel baskets and various sizes of wooden barrels and boxes. These containers were placed around the interior of the store and in good weather on the front steps.

Being quite young and struggling to learn my multiplication tables that were being drilled into me by the good Sisters of Saint Patrick’s School, I was fascinated by Mike’s method of calculating my mother’s grocery bill.

Before placing the groceries in the brown paper bag he would take a pencil from behind his ear and list the price of each item on the bag. Then, while using the pencil as a guide, he would rapidly move his hand down the right column while adding the numbers in his head. He then recorded the result and the carryover number on the bag. Just as rapidly, he added the next column of numbers in his head, again recording the results on the paper bag. He continued this procedure until all of the columns were completed. After quickly checking his calculations, he bagged the groceries and my mother paid the bill.

I swear Mike could accurately add faster in his head then most store clerks using a present day calculator. At home my mother always re-checked Mike’s arithmetic, but I don’t recall a single instance when she found an error.

If mother choose not to go to a grocery store, the grocery store came to her.

There was Mike Rodack’s covered bus that was quite unique. Shelves replaced the side seats and a meat locker and butcher block replaced the long rear seat. His traveling grocery store provided a great service, particularly to shut-ins like my grandmother. She was grateful for his patience with her as she gave him her order and was delighted that he and his helper, Johnny Conti, always took time to chat with her.

In the good weather the big red truck of Paul Morabito provided dinner tables with fresh fruits and vegetables. Each day, in the early morning hours, he loaded his truck at the wholesale produce market on South Division Street in Peekskill, NY. At the end of the day, Mr. Morabito’s older children helped their father clean and prepare the truck for the following day’s run. When they came of age, each of Paul’s children became a willing employee of the family business. During the long hot summer months they each accompanied their father, serving an army of faithful customers that Mr. Morabito had cultivated over many years.

In the 1940’s and 1950’s small independently owned stores across the United States provided customers with a number of specialized services and conveniences. Free home delivery, filling specialized orders, cashing paychecks, or providing a financially strapped family with needed products or services until payday were common practices.

Located on streets that were occupied by homes, schools, and churches, these establishments became an intrinsic part of a town’s life and character. Today, many buildings that once housed these thriving stores are either abandoned or torn down.

Nowadays, people shop in sprawling malls and super stores. Inside these warehouse like structures frustrated customers push their carts up and down aisles in their search for particular items of merchandise. There is no knowledgeable owner proprietor to help them out. At best, they will stumble upon a part-time employee who knows little or nothing about the stores products. In fact the employee qualifies his inability to adequately respond to a customer’s question by stating, "I am only a part-time employee".

Experts predict that shopping malls and super stores of the twenty-first century will reside within the family home computer.

Gone forever is the vitality and spirit of warmth and unity that neighborhood stores once gave to small towns.