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Little towns (Read 735 times)

    Hi all, I am currently visiting my brother and his fiancee in a tiny, tiny town - it only has about 15-20,000 people, max! It is so cute! And a great place to be based for a much needed week of doing nothing and catching up on relaxing! All the stores close around 6:00 and are all closed on Sunday. Having lived in larger towns for most of my life, I am used to supermarkets which are open until at least 9 or 10, if not 24/7, not to mention most other stores (like clothing and whatnot) being open on Sunday. (Except Nashville - only malls are open on Sunday, and I find that weird and inconvenient!) My question: where you live or have visited, what hours and days are things open? Is this required by law? What about other countries you have visited? And how do you get groceries if you work during the week???
    zoom-zoom


    rectumdamnnearkilledem

      15-20k is tiny? Hmmm...I live in a town with 2k and grew up in a town with less than 500 people, so it's all relative, I guess! Wink Most things are closed Sundays around here. Part of that is due to the county south of us--they are even dry on Sundays, which I think is utterly ridiculous. The bigger stores and chains are all open 7 days/week, so it's never an issue buying groceries. I love Meijer--open 24/7! Big grin k

      Getting the wind knocked out of you is the only way to

      remind your lungs how much they like the taste of air.    

           ~ Sarah Kay

        I've lived all over the states (mainland and off mainland) and Panama. Never had problems getting groceries cause my job was taking care of my kids at home. Guess if I worked out of the home during the week I'd do my grocery shopping on Saturday.

        Your toughness is made up of equal parts persistence and experience. You don't so much outrun your opponents as outlast and outsmart them, and the toughest opponent of all is the one inside your head." - Joe Henderson

        jEfFgObLuE


        I've got a fever...

          I grew up in a town of about 15k people. Small, but large enough to get most things we needed. Seemed like most things were open on Sunday. Smile Not too much traffic. Very easy to run in. Lived in Northern California for about a dozen years. Just about everything was open 7 days a week, and 24-hour grocery stores were common. And the grocery stores sell hard liquor, which was nice b/c you didn't have to go to any seedy liquor stores to get yer booze. Big grin Now I'm in northern Alabama. Seems like frickin' everything is closed on Sunday but the grocery store. Even a lot of restaurants (including Chick-Fil-A, which would be devastating, but as a Jiggly Jogger on the 5% plan, I'm skipping it anyways) are closed. And booze -- fuhget about it. Gotta go to a special "beverage store", and they aren't open on Sunday as my wife and I found out last weekend when we were looking to get some fun drinks at Sonic and spike 'em up with rum. Angry Not that my life revolves around hard liquor. There's also running...

          On your deathbed, you won't wish that you'd spent more time at the office.  But you will wish that you'd spent more time running.  Because if you had, you wouldn't be on your deathbed.

          shyrunner07


            15-20k is tiny? Hmmm...I live in a town with 2k and grew up in a town with less than 500 people, so it's all relative, I guess! Wink Most things are closed Sundays around here. Part of that is due to the county south of us--they are even dry on Sundays, which I think is utterly ridiculous. The bigger stores and chains are all open 7 days/week, so it's never an issue buying groceries. I love Meijer--open 24/7! Big grin k
            dry county resident! Big grin It really feels weird if we go out to eat on a sunday in a different county...i feel like just by even contemplating the drink menu, the 5-0 are gonna come out and bust my arse! Tongue The only time i ever really noticed an issue when it came to shopping was when i used to work 3rd shift.....since i would generally attempt to sleep right after work, by the time i would be up and ready to start my day, most everything was already closed.
            jEfFgObLuE


            I've got a fever...

              dry county resident! Big grin It really feels weird if we go out to eat on a sunday in a different county...i feel like just by even contemplating the drink menu, the 5-0 are gonna come out
              Wait a minute. There are dry counties in Michigan? I take back that thread where I said that zoom-zoom couldn't refer to area residents as rednecks...

              On your deathbed, you won't wish that you'd spent more time at the office.  But you will wish that you'd spent more time running.  Because if you had, you wouldn't be on your deathbed.

              Scout7


                I grew up just outside of Reading, PA. There was a time when sores were open on Sundays 12-5 only. The grocery store had longer hours, I think, but we generally did grocery shopping on Saturday, so it was a non-issue. Generally, unless the store was in the mall, it was closed relatively early. I lived in State College, PA, as well, and except for restaurants, bars, and convenience stores, downtown was shut down after about 6. I spent 6 months in Germany. Lemme tell ya, there ain't much shopping, or much of anything, on Sundays. Most stores close relatively early, and are not open on Sunday. In the big cities that can be different, though.


                Now that was a bath...

                  I grew up in a village called Longwell Green in SW England (which was originally a mining village and had about 30 houses) but had gotten much bigger by the time I lived there when the built the big nasty housing estate where my parents lived. Don't know the population, but all it had were two pubs, a post office, a really bad hair dressers and a chip shop. There was nothing to do so the local kids got into trouble lots. There is a village nearby that has a bus into town on a Wednesday but it doesn't come back until Friday. After 5:30 the only thing you can buy is alcohol and on Sunday the only thing they sold all day was alcohol as evrything but the pub closed. No wonder I was a drunk by 14! Actually, I think I just made it sound like heaven to lot's of you! It's now expanded. It has a pharmacy and two real estate agents as well. Obviously, property in this haven of alcoholism buried in the arse of a sprawling village suburbia is now a popular location to settle!
                • jlynnbob "HTFU, Kookie's distal tibia"
                • Where's my closet? I need to get back in it.
                  shyrunner07


                    Wait a minute. There are dry counties in Michigan? I take back that thread where I said that zoom-zoom couldn't refer to area residents as rednecks...
                    yep, Ottawa for sure is one....there's got to be a couple others too, i would imagine. Ottawa goes dry from 2am sunday morning until 7am on monday- you can't buy alcohol in the stores, although you can order a drink in a restaurant (not all beverages though...i think hard stuff is okay, but beer/wine is not?). Also, the city of Zeeland was totally dry- you couldn't purchase the good stuff at all, regardless of the day. However, that law was overturned in last November's election (i think it is still being contested though....the Dutch aren't very receptive to all things drinking, i guess!). Looking forward to the day when the liquor flows freely through that town...i want to be first in line to help "sully" their pristine reputation! lol
                    zoom-zoom


                    rectumdamnnearkilledem

                      Looking forward to the day when the liquor flows freely through that town...i want to be first in line to help "sully" their pristine reputation! lol
                      I think that would be a great time to go streaking through Zeeland, too. God, I hate that assbackwards, pious, holier-than-though, hypocritical town. I get major heebs driving through there. k

                      Getting the wind knocked out of you is the only way to

                      remind your lungs how much they like the taste of air.    

                           ~ Sarah Kay

                        15-20k is tiny? Hmmm...I live in a town with 2k and grew up in a town with less than 500 people, so it's all relative, I guess!
                        Given that they are coming from Boston/NYC, and I live in what I consider to be a really small city/large town, yeah, 20K is tiny! The town is right out of a story-book, sitting on a gorgeous lake overlooking mountains, cobble-stone roads built into the hills, kids riding bikes, younger kids eating ice cream or riding in strollers, and complete with Train Station Avenue, Main Square, Main Avenue, Lake-Front Avenue, School Street, etc. I think they are the only people to lock their apartment and car. (Oh, and most people dont have cars because the train is really convenient!) Everything is closed on Sunday except restaurants - even gas stations and big supermarkets. (Except the supermarket in the near-by medium-sized city at the train station.) There arent any big shopping centers in the town (I doubt there is a mall around!), but all the stores keep the same hours - close at 6 PM Mon-Weds, open "late" until 7 PM on Thursday - thats in the city, they all close an hour earlier in the town. They spend Sat morning grocery shopping. I would go nuts since I always do my shopping in the evenings (around 8 or 9 at night), though sometimes I break down and go on a Sunday afternoon. I guess when I am next planning to move, I need to check the supermarket hours. And also wake up to the fact that not every city has a 24-hour grocery store! :-)
                          I've moved around a lot in my life and most of the towns were decent sized. The smallest town I lived in was Lewistown, PA. I lived there when I was really young. I still have family there and we make the three hour drive to visit from time to time. Lewistown was where I first heard soda referred to as "pop". The saying "You're gonna get a licking" for when the kids misbehaved, still cracks me up.

                          Michelle



                          Scout7


                            Yeah, Lewistown is part of Pennsyl-tucky. Hey, if anyone wants to move to a more populated area, I'm selling my house.....Lovely twin.
                              Now I'm in northern Alabama. Seems like frickin' everything is closed on Sunday but the grocery store. Even a lot of restaurants (including Chick-Fil-A, which would be devastating, but as a Jiggly Jogger on the 5% plan, I'm skipping it anyways) are closed.
                              Chick-Fil-A has always been closed on Sundays. When I was taking one of my business classes there was an article in the book and they asked the owner if they regretted not being open on Sunday because of lost revenue. The reply was "We do as much business in six days as competitors do in seven" Jim
                                My 5 year old twins wrote an email to Chik-Fi-A to find out why they weren't open on Sunday and to request that they start opening on Sunday lol.

                                Your toughness is made up of equal parts persistence and experience. You don't so much outrun your opponents as outlast and outsmart them, and the toughest opponent of all is the one inside your head." - Joe Henderson

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