Monday, July 11, 2005

Good-bye Ladd's

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This post has nothing to do with knitting except to say that the scarf I started is almost finished. It truly can be knit in a weekend. I will probably finish it today.

What I want to talk about is our small town grocery store, Ladd's. After serving our community for 70+ years, it shut its doors on Friday. This may sound silly, but it makes me sad to think it's not around anymore. When we moved here 10 years ago, Ladd's still used the old fashioned cash registers. You know, the kind where you have to push the $10 button and the $5 button then pull the handle to ring up a $15 purchase. Eventually they had to replace these with more modern registers because they could no longer get parts to maintain the old ones. Even though they could not compete with large chain grocery stores on pricing, they offered much more than those stores ever could. Their store was always clean, the handbuilt shelves neatly organized, the shopping carts immaculately maintained and the service always friendly. You could still buy groceries on account and receive a monthly bill. And, as the sign suggests, they sold the best cuts of meat in this area. On July 23 the store will open again as Super S., a supermarket chain of 48 stores in rural communities of central and south Texas. While I know it will be nice, it will not be the same. Thanks Ladd's for your great service to our community!

FYI: Ladd's can be seen in the movie On the Road to Galveston.


2 comments:

  1. Anonymous3:11 PM

    Some days I really hate the 21st century. Sad to hear about the store closing!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous11:42 PM

    Great tribute, Mom. The journalism juices are still flowing :). I guess by now the Super S is open - snap. I just can't believe that I've eaten my last slice of Ladd's bread and butter.

    ReplyDelete

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~Tracy

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