The Shape of the 21st Century Library, by Howard Besser (1996): Notes, Quotes & What-Not, Part 1 (Other Insitutions Are Changing: The Rise of Large Stores and Chains)

LINK to 1996 article.

Other Institutions Are Changing: the rise of large stores and chains

Excerpt:  Social institutions look vastly different than they did 20 years ago.  A variety of forces, most specifically economic changes and technological developments, have reshaped and redefined our notions of what constitute a bank, a service station, or a bookstore.

Groceries

Excerpt:  The replacement of "mom-and-pop" grocery stores by chain supermarkets over the past several decades has been supplanted by a movement to even larger superstore markets and warehouses.

 Oshkosh Grocery Store Locations.  “Mom-and-pop” groceries.  As you see from this crudely illustrated map, "mom-and-pop" groceries were still the norm in 1950.  By the mid-1980s, there was just one survivors.  For this project, I compared the "grocery" listings in the business sections of the 1950 and 1984 Oshkosh city directories.

Chain supermarkets • A&P

 ↓
Superstores

Drug stores

Local pharmacies.  Gaughn’s, in Warren, Pennsylvania, bills itself as "a real drug store".   Note the use of the present tense; it's still in business.  • Ad from Times-Mirror ↓

Warren Times Mirror and Observer 

January 11, 1967

Chains • Rexall• Walgreen’s • Osco • CVS

Where Walgreen's stores are located on the west side of Madison and environs.

Movies

• Single-screen theaters in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1948 (downtown and neighborhood locations)

• Multiplexes (one of the Springfield area's largest)

• Independent, neighborhood video stores   (Bongo Video)

• Chain video stores:  Blockbuster “A Store in Every Neighborhood” 

• Redbox
RG's Neighborhood Kiosk

• Beyond bricks and mortar 

Books 

• Local independent bookstore. . (Johnson's Bookstore, downtown Springifield, Mass.  Closed in 1998.  Spent many a lunch hour browsing here, particularly among the used books on the 2nd floor,  when working at Merriam-Webster in 1976-78.)
• Chains, such as Waldenbooks
• Superstores (Barnes & Noble and Borders) 

• Still to come in 1996: online (book)sellers featuring the Amazon behemoth

Our whole social landscape is changing.

And so far, libraries are managing to adapt to these changes quite effectively.

Libraries continually adapt to changing technology.  ("Finding the Future", a newsletter of the George F. Johnson Memorial Library, Endicott, NY, Spring/Summer 2012)
Libraries adapt, change with advances in technology.  (Louisburg [KS] Herald, 5/11/2012)
Libraries adapt to meet demands of Internet age.  (Reuters, 6/23/2011)

Other "Notes, Quotes & What-All" posts:
Library hospitality.  (10/18/2012)