These were guys who knew what hunters and fishermen needed to buy, and through their experienced wisdom, they kept us supplied with only what we needed. The kid at the sporting goods counter of the mega store has one of those electronic scanning guns at the ready. His name is on a tag clipped to his mega-store vest. He's never stood in the Big Muddy River, never held a 70-pound catfish by the mouth on a rope. Customers who can't wait in line at the front of the store bring him laundry soap and cold medicine from aisle 19.
Merchandise is merchandise.
Across town there is an empty building where there once stood a sporting goods store. Nobody expects real answers or catfish stories from the kid behind the counter at the mega store. Money, after all, means something. Everything is scanned the same. A few weeks ago I stopped in a store where a dog stood in the aisle.