This morning before our departure, Sandy took advantage of the hair salon in Walmart and I visited with a local that came out to Walmart to ride his bicycle. He was a local banker, so we were able to get a good opinion of Walmart's impact on the community. In a nut shell, very few businesses failed. But a number of businesses changed their business model so that they could serve the customers where Walmart wasn't. His almost off hand comment was that while the business community did not want Walmart, most of the citizens silently wanted Walmart and have supported the store.
The store is located on the very edge of the community, in a river bottom and along what used to be an old railroad track that has been turned into a Rails to Trails right-away. The trail is about 20 miles long and runs through significant Amish country. Thus, the trail is heavily used by the Amish (in buggies or bicycles), keeping them off of the narrow highways. The Walmart parking lot has 15 stalls just for Amish buggies, complete with a roof and three sides.
After we settled in at the park today, we drove into Sugarcreek to learn the lay of the land. In a nutshell, it was very quiet. As one fellow said, "Come back on Monday because most of the stores depend upon the Amish and they don't shop on Sunday." So I guess we'll go back on Monday.
Last time I commented about the tail wind that helped us along. Today that tail wind brought in some cold Canadian air. It was 55 at 6 AM and it never got above 65 all day. It was cold. Fall is definitely here!
Gene
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