Small Business in the United States are struggling to survive_美文

Small Business in the United States are struggling to survive

Hugh Brown has owned the store for more than fifty years.

DENNIS KRAFT: "Hi, Mr. Brown. How are you?"

Everyone calls him Mr. Brown, even John Taylor, the store manager for fifteen years.

JOHN TAYLOR: "He's a great guy to work for. It's almost like working with your dad."

At eighty-three years old, Mr. Brown is the third generation to run this family business. It was founded by his grandfather in the late eighteen hundreds, then handed down to Mr. Brown's father.

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: The current store, built in the nineteen fifties, has kept its old gumball machines. And Mr. Brown still uses his grandfather's safe.

He thinks the store has been successful because the customers come first.

HUGH BROWN: "We try to take care of them when they come in. Try to have the merchandise that they want."

Bobbi Beck has been coming in for thirty years to buy items for her jewelry business called "Hard Wear."

BOBBI BECK: "The people who work here are like family to me."

Mr. Taylor says customers keep coming back because they trust Browns.

JOHN TAYLOR: "They know we won't sell them something that they don't need. Some people will come in and talk to us for twenty and thirty minutes after a sale if we're not busy. We have a good time."

FAITH LAPIDUS: Despite its success, this neighborhood landmark could disappear. Competition from large, national home improvement warehouses, known as big box stores, is driving many small hardware stores out of business. Browns' customers say they do not want that to happen here.