If the savings from dealing with the large chains over the Mom and Pop stores means nothing to you, then I can understand why you feel as you do. However, one cannot stop the world from turning. This is not the 20th Century, and as much as we might like to keep the old ways, there is little way one can stop it.

Martin offers some good advice. If you don't like the new stores, don't patronize them.

As to the snide remarks about Wal-Mart, I say, horse pucky. Wal-Mart is probably the largest employer in the U. S. next to the federal government. The people employed there need those jobs every bit as much as those earning six figure annual salaries. Also Wal-Mart contributes millions of dollars to local charities. It has become "fashionable" to bash Wal-Mart because, I suppose, they are so large and represent to the lefties all that is bad about corporations. They do far more good than harm in the communities they serve, as far as I am concerned, and they offer their customers good prices.

DougR