Mom-and-pop

Mom-and-pop bakeries were overwhelmed by supermarkets.

Mom-and-pop stores will turn a profit in the new fiscal year.

Mom-and-pop diners are disappearing from American streets and being replaced by bland corporate giants.

That’s how we discovered New England: back roads, Mom-and-Pop diners, historic markers and all.

At first glance, Lincoln seemed caught in a time warp—a place of 1930s tourist cabins and Mom-and-Pop diners where one could get honest-to-goodness milk shakes, made in a blender with real ice cream.

But put a Target, JC Penney or Wal-Mart in an existing downtown, and you draw even more traffic to the merchants occupying the adjacent streets. Then, instead of killing Mom-and-Pop stores, they’d present the Mom and Pops with enlarged opportunities for profit.

The new retail marketing companies, being highly profit-oriented, will be interested in the “cream” of the marketplace. The “cream” will not be the Mom-and-Pops and corner service stations of rural Chesterfield County.

Eventually, it actually happened as the neighborhood improved, rents got jacked-up and the Mom-and-Pops and importer/exporters gave way to restaurants, bars and coffee shops. The “hood” had now become hip.

Wall Street was making a market in footwear but Main St. was seeing stores close. First, the Mom-and-Pops. They said the overhead was eating them up.