Happy New Year Old timers visiting Allen often ask me “what has happened to downtown Allen?” They are referring of course to our missing stores downtown. They are gone and I don’t think they’ll be back. I wrote an article some years ago and the lead was this: “One by one, the lights are winking out in rural America.” I was referring to the hundreds of little towns in the USA that have mostly vanished.

Our missing business houses such as in Allen or Stonewall alarm all of us. As it probably should. We all depended on the taxes the stores brought in to help run our town government, our schools and churches. Are they coming back? No! Things have changed in retailing. Amazon? Walmart? It’s all different. The fact is if you simply doubled or tripled Allen’s population, you would still have the same problem. Main street would still be decimated. Businesses that not only paid a lot of school taxes and sales taxes but provided a lot of jobs and paid taxes to our schools and streets are not coming back.

Another thought comes to mind. Not too many places left to go Christmas shopping any more. Right here. The malls of Oklahoma City are far off, but that’s where we have to go. The aisles in my old drug store were always busy during December. Christmas shoppers. Allen’s True Value, OTASCO and the others for sure would be right there to take care of us; charge it on an open account and gift wrap it free. But no more.

What happened? Well, they didn’t go broke. The shop owners in small towns in America eventually grow old and want to retire. They are willing to make the sacrifices of being without the bonuses of working for a big corporation. Health care? Retirement? Nope. None of that. They were and are a group of by-gone capitalistic Americans — the heart of our America we could say.

They liked being their own bosses and enjoyed being a town’s leaders. Not so much anymore. Fewer and fewer Americans are willing to stand on their own. They want something different. Perhaps a secure job with someone who will provide health care, retirement, and do all their thinking for them.

So, as the owners of old they found there was no one to buy their stores. What to do? Just liquidate. More profitable tax wise than (if they can sell) selling out cheap. Just do what you can and get out with what money you can. The once vibrant landmark business then just vanishes. A business that supported its local schools and importantly, advertised in the town paper. Gone forever. Schools and other surviving businesses are thus damaged. It’s like a malignant rot.

Big chain conglomerates of retail assure the ultimate outcome of this change that has swept America. Surviving newspapers, a glue that held the community together, are mostly doomed. I looked around over at Ada recently and was again saddened at what I saw happening in our county seat. Many retail stores are gone. There isn’t one traditional downtown Pharmacy (Drug Store) left. One of the best daily newspapers in Oklahoma (founded by W.D Little) struggles with only a bit of its subscription base and employees left.

I will commend the Ada city fathers for doing what they think will help. New and improved little downtown parks along with new streets, signs and traffic lights perk up the looks of our County Seat. But bringing back our old shopping places and the financial heart of our counties as we knew them will be as unlilkely as bringing back the railroads.

As we finish up 2022 let me just say this. I appreciate all of you and wish you a Happy New Year. And yes, I do appreciate hearing from you, the readers. Remember too, Covid is still with us. No politics here. Just get your shots!

Wayne Bullard, DPh

cwaynebullard@gmail.com