This Town is Closed

Okay...so the town isn't really closed, but sometimes it feels like it is slowly closing up shop one store at a time. I decided to do a little pictorial layout of some of the closed stores in town. It's amazing how many businesses go in and out every year. Of course, every once and a while, there is a new business that manages to make it past the first year or so. Ironically, someone built a new strip mall (with only four shopping spaces) on the outskirts of town and Subway moved right in. I'm hoping it will stick around...Blimpie didn't. I'm not sure why a store would move in to the new buildings when no one wants to set up shop in the other buildings.

By the way...I took these pictures as I was driving down main street, so they aren't the best quality, but you get the picture.

A guy I went to high school with tried to sell used cars here, but nobody bought them.

Yet another old gas station/auto garage. Every once in awhile there will be someone new open this place up, but it never lasts.

This corner store has been a lot of things. Video store (moved to new location), coffee house (failed), pizza parlor (moved to new location) and most recently a bakery that didn't make it through the first year.

I can't even remember what business this building most recently held.

This is a clothing store that just went out of business last winter after being around for as long as I can remember. I only went in there once, and I don't think many people shopped there. They are using it for storage right now. They still have another store in a neighboring town.

This was a gas station once and has also been an auto garage at various times.

This once was the main convenience store in town. Most people got their gas there and it was the only place to get a soda, etc. It started dying out after a chain convenience store (Casey's) came to town.

This was built to be the offices of the motel behind it, but most recently it was a tanning place. It closed up after the owner was found out to be an embezzler and went to jail. Not sure where I'm going to tan this year...

The space on the left held a barber shop forever, but they moved across the street to a larger building. The space on the right has been several things, but I mostly remember it as a realty place. I don't think anything has been in it for quite some time.

This is what happens to a town when the local business owners won't let a Wal-Mart come into town because they are afraid of it hurting business. As if everyone in town doesn't just drive the 20 miles to the next town that accepted the Wal-Mart. Our town was right off the junction of two major highways, but yet we are one of the smallest towns around due to bad choices by the people who used to be in charge. Our town had the potential to be the large town where everyone went to shop, but now that town is 25 miles down the road. And now look what's happening.

For more small town stories, check out On The Front Porch.