[1]: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=234+Snelling+Ave+N,+St+Paul,+MN+55104&hl=en&ll=44.948198,-93.166895&spn=0.002027,0.005375&t=h&om=1
[2]: http://www.kpmartin.com/?p=69
[3]: http://www.spcballet.org/

I was out with all the kids, shuttling Anna to her ballet class, and since I’d overslept, I didn’t have time to make the morning coffee. I decided to swing into [Java Drive][1], mentioned before in my [post][2] lamenting Caribou Coffee’s poor decision in changing their mocha recipe.

Anyway, The very nice girl there always knows what I want: a cheerful “the usual?” Yep, big mocha. Today, however, I pulled up to ask if she took plastic as I had no cash. No, she only took cash and check. “But if you just want to pay me next time you’re by, I’d trust you.”

Funny how such a little thing can make my day. It felt like stepping back from the contrived barriers of corporate policy into a time which perhaps never actually existed where business was something that simply happened between people.

The old, long-time hardware store below Anna’s [ballet school][3] which closed down a few months ago has reopened under new management. I went in a bought a few things I marginally needed to support the local, non-big-box shop.

The old one went under because it opened a branch in a mall near Mendota Heights, but it couldn’t support itself and leached money from the successful Saint Paul location until, apparently, things got too bad. It was sad to see it close. It’s nice to have it back.

I appreciate and use the services of huge corporations who, because of their resources, have the ability to develop products of vast scope. But I sure do like small businesses where you’re just that much closer to the people who had the passion to start the business in the first place.