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Smiths Gully General Store in Smiths Gully, Australia.

A general store, general merchandise store, or village shop is a rural or small town store that carries a general line of merchandise.^[1] It carries a broad selection of merchandise, sometimes in a small space, where people from the town and surrounding rural areas come to purchase all their general goods. The store carries routine stock and obtains special orders from warehouses. It differs from a convenience store or corner shop in that it will be the main shop for the community rather than a convenient supplement.

Bodeguita comes from the Spanish language as a diminutive of bodega which means "small store" or "small warehouse". Traditionally, Bodeguita existed selling general merchandise, then they were replaced slowly by the chain store, the same way large US chains have practically eliminated the "mom and pop" store.

General stores often sell staple food items such as milk and bread, and various household goods such as hardware and electrical supplies. 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.

The term "general merchandise store" is also used to describe a hybrid of a department store, with a wide selection of goods, and a discount store, with low prices. Examples include that there are no more existing.^[2]

By country[link]

Interior of a Moundville, Alabama general store, 1936.

A Best One corner shop in Britain.

Canada[link]

In Canada the French term dépanneur is used for a general store in the province of Quebec. The oldest continually run general store in Canada is Trousdale's, located in Sydenham, Ontario, which has been operated by the Trousdale family since 1836.

United Kingdom[link]

Village shops have become increasingly rare in the densely populated parts of England, although they remain common in remote rural areas of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland along with some lesser populated areas of England such as North Yorkshire, Northumberland and The Lake District.

Their rarity in England is due to several factors, such as the rise in car ownership, competition from large chain supermarkets, the rising cost of village properties, and the increasing trend of the wealthy to own holiday homes in picturesque villages, consequently houses which used to be occupied full-time are often vacant for long periods.

Of those villages in England who still have shops, these days they are often a combination of services under one roof to increase the likelihood of profit and survival. Extra services may include a post office, private business services such as tearooms, cafes, and bed and breakfast accommodation; or state services such as libraries and General Practitioner (GP) or Dental clinics; and charity partners such as Women's Institute (WI) coffee mornings held on the day most elderly villagers might collect their weekly pensions.

Some villages now have neither shop nor post office, but the village pub has largely survived (although recent economic downturns and changed drinking laws have begun to impact upon and change the survival of even this village stalwart^{[original research?]}) and these often function as small shops or post offices as well. Many village pubs have become notable dining experiences, attracting trade from their villagers, tourists and nearby town dwellers with their trendy chefs or local produce/organic menus. In village areas close to Towns and Cities with a modern, mixed ethnic picture, out of town dining experiences of an ethnic kind have become popular in former pub premises. Most notable are large Indian and Chinese restaurants in areas such as Leicestershire, in the English East Midlands.

Community shops have become popular in some villages, often jointly owned and run by many villagers as a co-operative. The Village Retail Services Association ([1]) promotes the role and function of the village shop in the UK. Many modern village shops choose to stock items which draw in customers from neighbouring areas who are seeking locally sourced, organic and specialist produce such as local cuts of meat, local cheeses, wines etc.

In towns and cities, the corner shop has largely survived by dominating the local and light night convenience market.

The 1970s saw the death of the traditional grocery shop, which would have once dominated in the kind of buildings most corner shops operate from today, such old traditional family grocery stores began to face competition on two fronts: on the one hand from immigrant-owned corner shops, trading longer hours (typically British Asian families), and on the other from the rise of the supermarket, which amalgamated many specialist retailers such as butchers, bakers, and grocers under one roof at increasingly cheaper prices and with room for a greater choice of products. With the gradual loss of the traditional grocers came the loss of many aspects of old British shopping culture such as grocery deliveries and being enabled to have a "Tic" account with the grocer, a form of unofficial advanced credit. The cornershop is now much more the local convenience shop than the family grocer of days gone by.

Cornershops are usually so called because they are located on the corner plot or street end of a row of terraced housing, often Victorian or Edwardian factory workers' houses. The doorway into the shop was usually on the corner of the plot to maximise shop floor space within, this also offered two display windows onto two opposing streets. Many have now altered the original shop front layout in favour of a mini-supermarket style. Although it is common that cornershops found in the UK were former grocer shops, other specialist retailers also occupied such slots and have suffered the same fate of being largely replaced by super and hypermarkets, such retailers as greengrocers, bakers, butchers and fishmongers.

In popular culture[link]

Many British TV and Radio series, especially soap operas, feature corner shops or village shops as cornerstones for community gatherings and happenings. Prominent examples are the Village shop in Ambridge, the fictional village in the BBC Radio 4 series, The Archers, (1950–present day). Or the ITV1 soap opera Coronation Street (1960–present day) featuring a cornershop; it was owned, until recently, by Alf Roberts the grocer and after his death in the late 1990s was bought by Dev Alahan, reflecting this common change in British culture. The dying days and changing culture of the traditional British grocer was explored to great effect in the BBC TV comedy series Open All Hours (1976–1985), set in the real suburb of Balby in Doncaster, the shop front used for the street scenes in the series does actually exist in the area and is a hair salon in reality. The BBC Scotland comedy series Still Game has a corner shop as a recurring location where characters can meet and gossip; the actor who plays its owner, Navid Harris (Sanjeev Kohli), plays a similar role as Ramesh in the Radio 4 comedy series Fags, Mags and Bags which is set entirely in Ramesh's shop.

The band Cornershop in part base their image on the perception that many convenience stores are now owned by British Asian people. In terms of British popular culture these media representations give some idea of the importance attached to local shops in the national psyche and as a mainstay of community life.

United States[link]

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

During the first half of the 20th century, general stores were displaced in many areas of the United States by many different types of specialized retailers. But from the 1960s through present, many small specialized retailers are in turn crushed by the so-called "category killers", which are "big-box" wholesale-type retailers large enough to carry the majority of best-selling goods in a specific category like sporting goods or office supplies.

However, the convenience inherent in the general store has been revived in the form of the modern convenience store and the hypermarket, which can be seen as taking the general store or convenience store concept to its largest possible implementation.

See also[link]

• Convenience store

References[link]

Guy Fieri

Born	Guy Ferry [1]) (1968-01-22) January 22, 1968 (age 44) Columbus, Ohio, U.S.[2]
Education	University of Nevada, Las Vegas (BS)
Current restaurant(s) Johnny Garlic's California Pasta Grill Tex Wasabi's
Television show(s) Guy's Big Bite Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives Ultimate Recipe Showdown Guy Off the Hook Minute to Win It

Guy Fieri ( /ˈɡaɪ fiːˈɛri/; born January 22, 1968 as Guy Ferry^[1]) is a United States restaurateur, author, television personality, and game show host. He co-owns five restaurants in California^[3] and is widely known for his television series on the Food Network.

By mid-2010, the Food Network had made Fieri the "face of the network."^[4] In 2010, the New York Times reported that Fieri brought an "element of rowdy, mass-market culture to American food television," and that his "prime-time shows attract more male viewers than any others on the network."^[4]

Career[link]

Although Fieri has no training as a chef, he worked at various restaurants during high school, and then went on to manage and own restaurants.^[5] After graduation in 1987, he went to work for Stouffer's, developing restaurant concepts in Southern California ^[4] and managing their flagship restaurant in Long Beach, California. After three years, he became District Manager of Louise's Trattoria, managing six locations along with recruiting and training for the restaurants. Fieri attended the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Hotel Management in 1990.^[6]

In the fall of 1996, Fieri and business partner Steve Gruber opened Johnny Garlic's, an Italian restaurant in Santa Rosa, California. A second location opened in Windsor in 1999, a third in Petaluma in 2000 or 2001 (since closed), and a fourth in Roseville in late 2008. Subsequently they developed Tex Wasabi's (barbecue and sushi) in 2003 in Santa Rosa, adding a second location in Sacramento's Arden-Arcade area in 2007.^{[citation needed]} An additional Johnny Garlic's was opened in Dublin, CA in 2011.

Television[link]

After winning the second season of The Next Food Network Star ^[7] on April 23, 2006, Fieri was awarded a six-episode commitment for his own cooking show on Food Network. Guy's Big Bite premiered on June 25, 2006 and was renewed for a second season that began airing in early 2007. The show continues.

Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, his second series, premiered in April 2007 (a one-hour special aired in November 2006), with Fieri traveling the country visiting local eateries. The New York Times called the series "not a cooking show as much as a carefully engineered reality show."^[4] Ultimate Recipe Showdown, co-hosted with Marc Summers, debuted on February 17, 2008 and aired for three seasons. On September 14, 2008, Guy Off the Hook debuted on Food Network. This special studio audience show aired through the end of 2008, but the extra cost of staging an audience show did not result in a ratings bump and the concept was discontinued. For Thanksgiving 2008, Fieri hosted a one-hour special titled Guy's Family Feast. He used the "Guy Off the Hook" set for the special, which was broadcast live, on Friday, November 28, 2008.

Fieri has also appeared on other Food Network programs such as Dinner: Impossible in 2007 and 2009, Paula's Party, Ace of Cakes, and The Best Thing I Ever Ate.

In December 2009, NBC named Fieri as the host of the game show Minute to Win It, which premiered in March 2010 and aired for two seasons.^[8] On May 13, 2012, NBC announced that the game show will not be renewed for a third season, citing high production costs and low ratings.

In January 2012, Guy was one of the two team captains (along with Rachael Ray) in the Food Network reality series Rachael vs. Guy: Celebrity Cook-Off.^[9]

Advertising[link]

Fieri has appeared in promotions for Flowmaster, a California-based auto exhaust parts manufacturer. In 2008 and 2009, he was the spokesperson for T.G.I. Friday's.^[10] In 2010, he appeared in a commercial for Aflac named "Spicy."^[11]

Other projects[link]

In 2009, Fieri began touring with the Guy Fieri Roadshow, a multi-state food tour that featured some of his fellow Food Network personalities.^[12][13] He also appears in regional Food Network events, such as the Atlantic City Food and Wine Festival^[14] and the South Beach Food and Wine Festival.^[15]

Personal life[link]

Fieri lives in Northern California with his wife Lori, sons Hunter and Ryder, and his dog Rockstar. He collects classic cars and features his own red 1967 Chevy Camaro SS Convertible on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. Guy also owns a 1971 Chevy Chevelle, 1968 Pontiac Firebird, 1976 Jeep CJ-5, 1996 Chevy Impala SS, 2004 Cadillac Escalade and a 1967 Chevy C10 pickup[1].

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Guy Fieri

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Guy Fieri

• Official Website
• Guy Fieri's Biography at FoodNetwork.com
• Guy Fieri's profile and diary from The Next Food Network Star at FoodNetwork.com