Skip to main content

Hometown Sad

As I went past the Rittman Shopping Center this afternoon, I saw some green fluorescent posterboard in the windows of the IGA. I did my business at the credit union and returned to see what was on the signs. It was, as we have all been sort of expecting, but hoping wouldn't happen, a notice that the IGA was closing, and store hours as of this coming Sunday would be 9:00am to 6:00pm.

This store had been in trouble for quite a while, as have been many independents. Two years ago this past June a good part of Rittman was under several inches of flood water. All stores in the shopping center had to close for several days to dry out. The IGA was hurt the worst, as they lost most of their inventory, either from water damage or spoilage when the power was off.
They came back from that, but not totally. The end of October that year saw the Wadsworth Wal-Mart Supercenter grand opening, which some people saw as the beginning of the end for the Rittman IGA.

The Rittman edition of The Trading Post, as the paper was known as then, ran a series of articles about Seville and Doylestown losing their independent grocery stores, hoping that the people of Rittman would get behind their independent. There were even yard signs distributed that people put on their treelawns that said "Support your local IGA" The City government got behind the business, but I feared that it was too little too late.

More to come...

Part 2; Some History of Rittman IGA

Part 3; Where will we go now?

Part 4; We Need Dreamers

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Post 800: Time to chat

Hi Guys, It's hard to believe that this is post number 800 for this blog. I started this blog out of my desire to communicate. Since radio and television is becoming more and more automated and less and less personal, I'm glad I made the decision to go in this direction as it has given me many blessings. When I first decided to write my musings, a friend from the radio and television boards who goes by the name of newsnomore, told me not to be discouraged if I didn't get any readers. The fact that I did in the early going made me surprised and grateful that anyone was enjoying what I wrote. I've had people tell me that maybe it wasn't meant for me to ever be in radio, that maybe my calling was blogging. Nowadays I think blogging makes for better two way conversation than terrestrial radio, especially the way I do it, non confrontational. The closest I come from any confrontation is the innocent digs that Pat and I shoot at each other. On an average day I get betwee
12 comments
Read more

Lawson's Chip Dip

On a couple of occasions I have written posts dedicated to Lawson's, a convenience store chain that was located in Ohio for close to 50 years. In the late 1980's the chain was bought out by Dairy Mart, of Engfield Ct. Dairy Mart was then purchased by Alimentation Couche-Tard, and most stored were rebranded Circle K. Something that has survived the years since Lawson's has left the landscape is Lawson's Chip Dip. I get many hits on this blog from people out of Ohio, I'm thinking former Buckeyes, looking for availability of this chip dip. I had gotten an email from a former resident of Cleveland looking for it. I emailed Circle K about this sometime ago asking if it was possible to send the dip out to those out of state, they said because of quality issues that it was not possible. My only suggestion would be to get in touch with Circle K in your home area and ask them to start stocking this very popular item that seems to make every get-together complete. Now we wil
28 comments
Read more

Sometimes Sports are Just Sports

 This may or may not make the final cut of my book. I was writing about some events this weekend and what had started as a joyous Friday night at my home school district became a weekend of heartbreak in the area after what happened at another school. Sometimes We Need to Realize That Sports are Just Games   Friday nights in late summer and early fall are sometimes a big deal for high school students and their families. As the long-time band announcer for my local high school, it is a time of year I always look forward to. This past Friday night was originally supposed to be the homecoming game for the local high school. The schedule had to be changed a bit because of the uncertainty of the opponents being able to field a team. There was talk around the league that they may have had to forfeit this game, so homecoming for the local school was rescheduled. The opponents, which are rivals of my local school district, were able to field a team and the game was played. The game was
Post a Comment
Read more