Growing up I lived in the city, but still had a yard and yet could walk to the grocery store (and a drug store, a book store - now closed, and quite a few banks). My mother went to the grocery store almost daily. She would do big shopping trips - although sometimes we went to the bigger stores that were a little farther away for that - but on average, let's say six days out of seven, my mother stopped in at the store. We kids also went, particularly once we were old enough to be sent off with a few dollars to pick up a forgotten item. Originally it was an A&P and then later it turned into a Super Fresh. For a brief period, my dad had a job in the adjacent building, furthering the sense that much of our lives centered around that side of the block. Neighbor kids and I rode bikes there (and other places, we weren't that lazy). When I was old enough to have things like checks and debit cards that I would use there, cashiers would ask me about my mom as soon as they saw my name. And, while there was a more extensive liquor store literally around the corner, they had beer and wine. (Later I would discover that not every grocery store in the US does this, Maryland is weird.)
The store was, not surprisingly, a favorite of AU students (due to proximity) and led to my once watching a student attempt to convince the cashier to accept her out of state ID despite it's bearing no resemblance to the official ID's listed in the booklet the cashier had. (The story ends with the student's friend, who had a different ID purchasing the alcohol.)
So, I am a little sad to hear it's up for sale and hope the neighborhood - even though I no longer live there - gets a good store in there.
