Today, we tap on our smartphones and whatever we want is brought to our front door. Usually the next day.

Takes a lot of the hassle out of doing business. It also takes a lot of the people out of doing business.

Relationships are key in building a business. I have no relationships with anyone at Amazon. I’m guessing that you don’t either. But growing up in Ashdown, Arkansas, everyone had relationships with everyone else. All towns revolved around personal relationships.

Mr. Welch owned the men’s store. Fine quality suits, ties, and hats were available there.

Every man wore a hat in those days. But Welch’s was more than just a haberdashery. It was a place for you to tailor how you wanted to look.

Mr. Welch always remembered who you were and what you liked. And he always kept some of it in stock. That comes from relationships.

My grandfather was a dapper dresser. That was in great part due to Mr. Welch. My grandfather knew how he wanted to look, but the folks at Welch’s knew how to get him there.

Across the street from the men’s store was the women’s dress shop, Rephan’s.

It’s surprising that women now order a lot of their clothes online. It wasn’t so long ago that the ladies wouldn’t dream of buying anything they couldn’t try on. And that’s what the folks at Rephan’s helped accommodate.

Even if the shopper never bought a thing.

Many an event where the ladies were modeling new clothes, such as a fashion show or a gathering that warranted the latest fashions, was sponsored by Rephan’s. The ladies didn’t have to buy the clothes; Rephan’s let them borrow them.

And like Welch’s, the staff at the store knew the look they wanted. Each and every one of them.

Back across the street and to the east sat the hardware store. Almost as old as the town itself, the sundries available there built the infrastructure of the homes that comprised Ashdown.

When someone had a wedding shower, people went to the hardware store to buy the couple a gift. And Mr. Bryant and his family knew what they needed.

Before online shopping was an option, people window shopped. This absolutely meant that folks walked up and down the street and looked at stores’ window displays, but it also meant that people went inside and just looked.

This is how Mr. Bryant knew what people would like as a wedding gift. When someone repeatedly eyes or comments on a store item, it’s a safe bet they’d like to have it.

Before Amazon, the hardware store  was Amazon. Somehow, the hardware store seemed to carry everything. They stocked the nails, screws, and lumber you needed to build a home, and the other items you needed to go inside that home.

When I got married, they knew my new bride was eyeing a particular wooden bread box. It said, “Bread” in large black letters across the front of the sliding door.

A sliding door that members of our family have opened many times to grab the loaves that we used to make the sandwiches our children loved.

On the corner across from the hardware was the shoe store. Blue Ribbon Shoes was also locally owned, and staffed by folks who knew what you wanted and needed.

Some customers, mainly men, always wanted the same thing. Especially if they just needed another pair of steel-toed boots.

But the ladies had specific, yet changing tastes. One year, narrow high heels might be the trend, and the next year, platform shoes were the preference.

The staff at the shoe store knew both. The customer’s likes, and the latest tends and they knew how the likes and trends were probably going to merge.

That’s something that comes from knowing your clients.

Across the street from the shoe store was the savings and loan. The people of the town kept their hard-earned money there for protection, and when the same folks needed more than they had in their account, they could borrow from the S&L.

The board of the savings and loan would vote each month on loan applications. Credit scores weren’t what was used, it was what they knew about the people. And what they knew came from relationships with them.

Not only did the businesses know what people liked and needed, they knew the people personally. We went to church together, raised money for the band trips together, and organized the Christmas parade together.

Technology has made things convenient. It’s nice to sit in your recliner and punch buttons on your phone so that someone in a big, brown truck will bring what you order to your front door.

But there’s more than a price for that item that you pay. There’s a relationship price. One that is costing us far more than we realize.

 

©2025 John Moore

John’s books, Puns for Groan People and Write of Passage: A Southerner’s View of Then and Now Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, are available on his website TheCountryWriter.com, where you can also send him a message.