My grandfather was a farmer in Indiana. Two weeks before the start of The Great Depression, he auctioned off his farm implements and opened a grocery store and butcher shop in our little town.

He figured he could make more selling milk, eggs and meat directly to consumers than to a middleman. So he kept those parts of the farm and leased out the fields to other farmers.

In Grandpa’s day, there were at least five established grocery stores operating at any one time.

Though Grandpa retired and closed the store a few years before I was born, I’ve always had a fondness for those small, mom-and-pop grocery stores. They can be the lifeblood of a community.

But it’s not an easy way to make a living in today’s competitive retail environment. Which brings us to our cover story.

There are a lot of places in rural Oregon where small, locally-owned stores are just barely hanging on. At the same time, Dollar General and other discount chain stores are finding opportunities in small towns across the state.

Dollar General has opened more than 85 stores in Oregon since 2015, providing inexpensive food and household items to low-income consumers, often in small towns with few retail options.

While the stores fill a niche and are popular with many shoppers, the chain’s entry into rural communities has often been met with opposition from critics who say the stores change the character of their towns.

It’s a tough issue.

I asked my Dad why he didn’t take over Grandpa’s store. He had other interests, but even in 1957 the economics of the retail trade were obvious. To compete, we would have had to have gotten bigger or found a way to survive in a niche.

The evolution in small town retail is inevitable, but nonetheless bittersweet.