Customer Reviews

The Mom & Pop Store: How the Unsung Heroes of the American Economy Are Surviving and Thriving

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"The Mom and Pop Store" has something for everyone. It is: a passionate defense of small family businesses; a history of the retail merchant from ancient times to the present; a trip down memory lane; a celebration of the contributions of new immigrants to the melting pot that is the USA; and - most interesting of all - an exploration of how a variety of small businesses have contrived to adapt to a changing environment that includes big box stores, the Internet, gentrified neighborhoods, and more.

Any reader looking for a calm and rational analysis of the place of small family businesses in our economy will be disappointed. This book is highly anecdotal. Robert Spector begins with his youth in the family butcher shop in Perth Amboy, New Jersey and ends with a walk through his current Seattle neighborhood. In between, he profiles a myriad of small stores around the country - and the world - pausing occasionally to dredge up a bit of retail history or to reminisce about some aspect of his grandfather's shop.

It's true, the author does ramble a bit. But that's part of the charm. Concise? Well, no. Analytical? Uh, no, not that either. But fascinating, charming, and totally convincing? Absolutely yes!

This book is about love, make no mistake about that. Retail guru Robert Spector reveals his lifelong affection for the Mom `n' Pop store, a seemingly endangered institution. Raised in such a store--a butcher shop in Perth Amboy, N.J,--Spector has spent his life researching and advising the retail universe, and it is his thesis here that retailing is all a version of the Mom `n' Pop store, and that success is achieved in the same way for such venerated giants a Nordstrom as it is for the little grocery on the corner.

The book is a great read. Spector takes us through the history of retailing--which all began with little family stores--in all places of the world, from medieval fairs to eastern bazaars. He threads through his narrative abiding memories from his own life, including many of his contacts in cozy neighborhood establishments across America. He cites the reality that most U.S. stores were imbedded in the immigrant experience--the store was a way to relate to and provide for the community, and ultimately provided people like Spector with a way out into the larger world.

Reading it causes one to reflect on what it was we loved about the little hardware store where all the guys used to hang out, the corner drugstore where the soda jerk knew what you were going to order, the man slicing the meat at the butcher shop with one of those fascinating slicing machines. It taps into a well of nostalgia, while at the same time reviewing dozens of up-to-date stores based on the principles of the original mom-'n'-pops. Spector is unabashedly sentimental about his subject while at the same time imparting a wealth of information and inspiration to enterprising entrepreneurs.

He may be the one voice in retailing today who preaches love above techniques taught at business schools. It's a refreshing approach, totally authentic, and it's time we took a look at the obvious through such a book.

Book review by Richard L. Weaver II, Ph.D.

Let me begin by telling you what this book is not. First, it is not a history nor a background study of mom and pop stores. One reviewer at Amazon.com commented on precisely this aspect: "If you're looking for a book to give you some background, data and understanding of small businesses, how they operate and how they fit in and affect the US economy, unfortunately this is not it. It will not tell you, as its title suggests, how mom & pops are `surviving and thriving.'"

Second, it is not at all concise. Rather, it rambles a bit.

Third, it is not the least bit analytical. He has no interest in writing a rational, logical, or organized approach to the topic. He has, instead, put together a love story (or love stories) that reveal the passion, creativity, and tenacity small business owners demonstrate -- in the Studs Terkel tradition -- in order to survive.

One reviewer at Amazon.com, A. Westerman, writes, "Robert Spector has written a homage to the small, family-owned business -- the type rooted in the American psyche and as iconic as a Norman Rockwell illustration. Spector hopes to combat the notion that the family store is, much like The Saturday Evening Post, fading from the contemporary scene.

"The book, part memoir of the author's childhood at the family butchershop, part tribute to others family-owned businesses, Spector seeks to make the case that family shops aren't leaving the retail landscape. He does this with varying degrees of success: the profiles of business owners and their family members are heart-warming and interesting, but he also makes claims that are not supported by evidence. I can't say he's wrong when he talks about the unique characteristics family-owned businesses, such as old-fashioned values of hard work and community. Yet he doesn't have any other evidence but anecdotes to support him."

This 291-page book includes five pages of notes, two-and-one-half pages of "selected bibliography," and a 12-page index. However, the book is a series of stories (including his own at the family's butcher shop in Perth Amboy, New Jersey) -- anecdotal in nature -- that tends to meander (a bit) as he pieces together a portrait of mom and pop stores in the U.S. today. I found it somewhat interesting but tedious.

"Small businesses account for about 50% of the private GDP of the US and create, on average, about two thirds of new jobs annually."

Robert Spector interviews perhaps 50 owners of mom & pop stores and draws heavily from his own experiences as a third generation family store owner. Story after story paint a picture of the small business owner as self-reliant, hard-working, independent, passionate and inventive. The aim of this book is not to 'take on' big box retailers but simply to show how mom & pop stores get in your blood.

Will mom & pop stores maintain their place in the community? Peter Drucker suggests we predict the future by creating it. Darwin suggests that survival depends on our ability to adapt to change. Small business forces it's owners to be creative and thereby gives them the foresight to adapt to changes in the economic road ahead of them. Sounds like a winning plan.

Robert Spector has written a homage to the small, family-owned business -- the type rooted in the American psyche and as iconic as a Norman Rockwell illustration. Spector hopes to combat the notion that the family store is, much like The Saturay Evening Post, fading from the contemporary scene.

The book, part memoir of the author's childhood at the family butchershop, part tribute to others family-owned businesses, Spector seeks to make the case that family shops aren't leaving the retail landscape. He does this with varying degrees of success: the profiles of business owners and their family members are heart-warming and interesting, but he also makes claims that are not supported by evidence. I can't say he's wrong when he talks about the unique characteristics family-owned businesses, such as old-fashioned values of hard work and community. Yet he doesn't have any other evidence but anecdotes to support him.

These negatives could be more easily dismissed if Spector were a better writer. He's not a hack, by any means, and his background as a journalist shows. However, the prose bridging profiles can sound forced.

Still, I enjoyed reading the stories of Mom and Pop stores around the country and Spector chose businesses from a broad spectrum of types. I'd recommened this book to those interested in business. However, readers should not expect hard data or dazzling prose. What they will get are engaging stories told in a straightforward style.

If you're looking for a book to give you some background, data and understanding of small businesses, how they operate and how they fit in and affect the US economy, unfortunately this is not it. It will not tell you, as its title suggests, how mom & pops are "surviving and thriving." Some aspects of the author's family / personal story told through the pages are interesting and moving, but I found the book not as well written as The Nordstrom Way (also written by the same author) and, perhaps, even somewhat tedious.