On Mon, Mar 25, 2019 at 11:44 AM Mateusz Konieczny <matkoni...@tutanota.com> wrote: > My conclusion is that this is an old shop type, currently getting rare but > there are still some valid uses > but many cases would benefit from retagging to more popular shop values > (where shop=convenience/supermarket/country_store describes it well).
General stores, while not as common as they once were, still exist in the rural communities that I visit - so please don't deprecate the tag! They often function as grocery stores, but also will generally offer tools and hardware, clothing, home goods, camping supplies, bait and tackle, dry goods, and paper goods - pretty much a little bit of everything, albeit with a more limited selection than you'd find at a store in a larger town. The wide offering of general merchandise distinguishes them from 'supermarket'. The small size and relatively limited selection distinguish them from supermarket (also, not all general stores sell perishable food). They're a lot more than a convenience_store; they're typically the main or only store in the village. They're surely not a variety_store, and are often overpriced because many nowadays cater to tourists. (The villagers might drive to the nearest sizable towm to shop.) A country_store is something I think of as usually being located outside a village because they need a lot more space. They'll offer feed, seed, fertilizer, garden tools, and similar supplies. They often have nurseries selling bedding plants and trees for planting. (Tractor Supply and Agway are common brands in the US.) https://www.hossscountrycorner.com/ is a modern example of a general store. On visits there, I've bought a belt, a shirt, a half-litre of methylated spirit, fifty feet of parachute cord, batteries for my head torch, a pen, an ice cream cone, a phial of insect repellent, rice, lentils, dried fruits and vegetables, dry sausage, tinned fish, toilet paper, and I'm sure I've forgotten other things that I got there. (Can you say, 'hiking resupply?') Oh yeah, a couple of zip ties, although the guy behind the counter was kind enough to just give those to me since I needed only a couple. The other general store in the same village (unusual for one village to support two, but Long Lake is a tourist town) might better fit shop=supermarket since it has a fuller line of groceries, but it still carries much more general merchandise than a typical supermarket. One of its signs proclaims it to be a general store, which would influence how I'd tag it. When this one https://www.acmiller-re.com/ShowProperty.php?ID=407 was still in business, I'd have dithered over whether it was general_store or convenience_store and eventually flipped a coin It had more general merchandise than shown in the pictures, which don't really show the second building's interior, but maybe the buildings are being sold separately. I'm certainly disappointed that the proprietor retired and nobody else wanted the business. The last time that I resupplied in that village, I had to mail myself a box at the post office because there was nowhere to buy provisions. (I don't like to depend on hitchhiking for resupply.) _______________________________________________ Tagging mailing list Tagging@openstreetmap.org https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/tagging
