Small Business

Over the past few months in Takoma Park, some changes have been made. The most notable of these changes is that both Summer Delights, the local ice cream shop, and Video Americain, the video rental store, have closed down.

These stores have been around in Takoma Park for over a decade, and I personally have passed a lot of hours in them.

The loss of some childhood memories and a cool place to get ice cream and rent R-rated movies isn't all bad. On the bright side, they're being replaced by a big restaurant owned by a man named Jeff Green. Maybe he won't be a bully to teenagers like the Summer Delights owner was, but we'll have to see.

The real newspeg of these stores closing is the growing abundance of chain restaurants and the decay of small business and privately owned stores. Someday, places like Summer Delights and Video Americain won't exist anywhere, and they will all be replaced by Baskin Robbins and Netflix. As a kid that's soon gonna enter the job market, this worries me. I've always thought of myself as an entrepreneur with potential to create my own business or store. However, this is becoming harder and harder to do as big business dominates the field entirely.

Every town needs to support their local business. Walk up to the video store instead of streaming netflix on your computer. Go to that cute little Italian restaurant up the street instead of ordering Dominos pizza online for the third night in a row.

RIP Old Town Takoma Park