Idaho Falls

54 IDAHO FALLS MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 2019 A long time ago in a galaxy far far away, before there was Amazon Prime or even Walmart Supercenters, there were neighborhood markets. Some were tiny mom-and-pop places and others were small independent grocers, but they all catered to the needs of the local people they served and not what some board of directors somewhere else thought would make more money. I wasn't fortunate enough to grow up in Idaho Falls. I was born in Chicago and grew up in the suburbs. But even then, in the mid-'60s when I would go to visit my grand- parents in the city, my grandfather would give me money to run down the block to the corner market to buy him a pack of Wolf Brothers Rum Soaked Cigars. Without a single question they let a lone five-year- old buy a pack of cigars! They knew who I belonged to and knew if I was there with 50 cents, they had better give me what I was sent for. In today's world that would have violated so many laws that it would surely have ended up on East Idaho News or even gone national on the Drudge Report. While small children may not ever have been able to purchase tobacco products here in Idaho Falls, the town was dotted with all types of small corner markets and local grocery stores. My wife grew up here and used to go to Don Wilson's Drugstore that was across from what is now the YMCA. Even as a kid they would let her buy ice cream and run up a tab! When we moved here in the mid-nineties the last local hold outs were blinking out. Back then, what is now the Collectors Museum on John Adams Parkway was a dying local grocery store. It was being choked out by the what was then considered to be the huge Smith's Food Store down on Woodruff. We only had a regular non- grocery Walmart on 17th that would be bought, knocked down, and rebuilt into a Lowe's and then two huge Walmart super- Whatever The Market Will Bear centers were built on the edges of town. If you cruise around town you can still find buildings that once upon a time were local corner markets. A building that always intrigues me is at the corner of Fourth and Lee. It has probably been a private resi- dence for over half a century, but I would love to know more about when it served the families in the neighborhood and what per- sonal touches were lost when it became a victim to the new larger supermarkets that exploded in the '50s and '60s. What is now the latest iteration of Doctor Slaughters House of Horror on First Street was a small supermarket back in the '90s. The Saving Center downtown on Memorial Parkway put up a valiant fight, but in the end, progress too mowed it down to make way for new offices and restaurants. Local variety stores like Kings are now nothing but fond memories. They were more than places to simply buy things, they were part of what made up the local community. The only small, local markets that have survived are those that have been able to service specific populations. Who would have ever guessed that a store like Natural Grocers would have been able to find enough customers in a town like Idaho Falls to be successful? Who knows, maybe someday we'll even get a Trader Joes here. It could happen! After all, Idaho Falls is get- ting a Costco after a little gerrymandering is done. I'm not knocking the ability to be able to go to one huge store and buy tires for my car, a case of 48 rolls of toilet paper, bananas and a 12 pack of toothpaste, but I bet they wouldn't sell a pack of cigars to a five-year-old for his grandpa. Sometimes progress is a funny thing. IF BY GREGG LOSINSKI

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