First, the BIG BOX STORE

Have you noticed when things in your life and business is humming along, that's when It strikes?

It can be anything: illness, death, natural disaster, economy, mood shift, market crunch, competition - pick one and it can devastate or otherwise ruin a happy, seemingly secure family business.

It came.

It came in three's this time.

First came the Big Box Store (which will be called BBS from now on). Everyone knows what I'm talking about (without mentioning any names) what the BBS means for small, privately owned business: drop in business for some, financial ruin for others.

The BBS made their announcement that they would be coming into the town which was located about 10 miles to the north of Sarah's town.

At first, her family was not ... too .... concerned. After all, there were a couple of other floor covering stores in the other small towns and each of those served those customers in their own surrounding developments and rural homes. There was a difference however in that the other businesses were the same as her family's business; long time family owned business. There was a friendly competition involved but each business had sort of a invisible boundary line, an unspoken rule that said "We won't put our nose in your business area and you don't put your nose in mine."

However, the Big Box Store's do not know nor do they follow that rule. They have no rules. They build where they want to and they undercut and over sell products and services. They receive huge tax breaks on land that they can afford purchase because of their power and push. Yes, they do have a huge inventory of items that most smaller stores can't keep on stock but customer service is usually lost in the process.