Nicole sez: "I'm glad you have a choice. Lots of folks just don't any more; it's getting harder and harder." Yep, that was one point behind my story of the town I moved from. Some of the choices I used to have there don't exist there anymore, but not just because of discount superstores' "pandering to the desires of the masses to acquire more STUFF". Those businesses that closed could've been replaced by others, but when the post office and the commuter train service were pulled out of town, even though more people were moving out of the city to that community and swallowing up farmland for housing developments, the message was sent that the community had better start looking to some other centralized location besides the center of town for its needs. That location became the shopping-center-strip-mall-fast-food district outside town, since residents of the community had to drive to find services anyway.