A long time Ago.

“I watched my country turn into a coast-to-coast strip mall, and I cried out in a song. If we could do all this in thirty years then please, please tell me ya’ll, why does good change take so long?” Greg Brown, The Poet Game

A long time ago, as one of the joys of traveling across the United States and in different parts of the world, I got to see and experience many great places, enjoying the faces of the people I came across. I particularly remember crossing state lines and noticing how things changed at lot sometimes and how sometimes they seemed the same.

Each town looked different in some way. Restaurants and small stores looked what I experienced in the places I called home. It was kind of amazing just how different these businesses could be though I could always find things that reminded me of places I was fond of.

Going to a small town store could become something slightly different or it could be a real adventure. I loved finding brands of goods I had never heard of before. And I was pretty surprised to see that even the smallest often had products from elsewhere in the world, so it felt to me again like I was traveling to other countries without leaving these new small places. It even felt like I was in a good size town and I could get pretty much whatever I needed.

I actually think this was one of the reasons many of these small town conveyed a sense of community—what they offered made the place feel alive and like a place I could pretty much count on for giving me what I needed.

Over the last few years since I’ve settled in a small town, my thoughts have changed a bit. Before I opened my store I commuted from Benicia to Oakland daily, passing through places like Walnut Creek, Berkeley, Albany. Each one of those had their own local stores that I very much liked, but they were already losing their special pleasures because of signs for the WalMarts, Targets, Kohls and the larger numbers of McDonalds, Burger Kinds and even Starbuck.

As much as they offer something, are these what are really needed in our little towns?

I know that small town stores like ours don’t have every single thing people are looking for but they really do add something above and beyond that we can be proud of. I’m convinced that if we can make the best of these hard times because of customers who stick with us, we’ll all find a return to the days when it won’t be as challenging to get what we need from our local shopping experiences.

My idea of creating Plan B project came from this. And we have confidence it will be something for everyone as it grows.