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General store facts for kids

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Smiths Gully General Store
Smiths Gully General Store in Smiths Gully, Australia.

A general store, (also called a 'general merchandise store', 'general dealer' or 'village shop') is a rural or small town store that carries a very general selection of merchandise. The store is often a small space. It is where people from the town and surrounding rural areas come to purchase staple food items such as milk and bread. Also the various other goods, dry goods and hardware homes and farms might need. It sometimes served as a village or town meeting place where neighbors exchanged news and gossip. The concept of the general store is very old, and although some still exist, there are far fewer than there once were, due to urbanization, urban sprawl, and the relatively recent phenomenon of big-box stores.

Images for kids

  • General store interior Alabama USA

    Interior of a Moundville, Alabama, USA general store, 1936

  • Narracan General Store, Old Gippstown

    The former Narracan General Store, now located at Old Gippstown in Moe, Australia

  • Colmado

    Woman buying from a colmado in the Dominican Republic

  • Men in shalwar kameez on the road to Kalash, Pakistan

    General Store on the road to Kalash valleys, Chitral, Pakistan

  • Kokkilan Uusi sekatavarakauppa

    General store in Angelniemi, 1930.

  • Yttilän kyläkauppa

    A village store (Sepon kauppa; or "Seppo's shop") in Yttilä, Säkylä, in August 2011. This particular store was closed in 2014.

  • Tappri

    Tapri on Mumbai streets

  • Best One British Corner Shop

    A Best-One corner shop in the United Kingdom, 2008

  • Group of men standing in front of Karch & Heberer store at Fairplay in the late 1800s - DPLA - 450f67cd5cf1861d1c246320ca2ee32a (cropped)

    Karch & Harper General Store in Fairplay, Colorado, late 1800s

  • Drawing of a country store by Marguerite Martyn

    Fanciful drawing by Marguerite Martyn in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch of October 21, 1906, headed "Passing of the Country Store in the Southwest"

  • Oldwick General Store

    The Oldwick General Store in Tewksbury Township, New Jersey

  • Grays General Store in Little Compton Rhode Island

    Grays General Store (1788) in Adamsville, Rhode Island

  • General store, Deaf Smith County Museum, Hereford, TX IMG 4858

    General store exhibit at the Deaf Smith County Historical Museum in Hereford, Texas

  • Country Store- interior, Ewen Avenue, Spuyten Duyvil, Bronx (NYPL b13668355-482797)

    Country Store, Spuyten Duyvil, Bronx, early 20th century

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