What Would Be On The Shelves Of An Old West General Store?

Native tribes had been doing it for centuries. The arrival of Europeans meant the introduction of things like iron, and steel, and implements. Also blue beads. Trade. Cooking utensils. Weapons. Iron bands from barrels made nifty arrowheads. A steel knife lasted longer than one made of bone, or stone.

Not everyone was willing to get along wearing the same set of buckskins for as long as they lasted. In a very real sense, commerce represented culture, and prestige, and civilization. It meant access to a former life, in a society of relative safety and security.

The General Store was exactly that: general. It's hard to imagine today, though there are online companies that mimic the array of goods. Not that long ago someone might say, "If Sears doesn't have it, we don't need it," but those stores, part of growing communities of greater or lesser permanence, tried very hard to have a little bit of everything. How did they know? Demand. Supply. The usual. As Sherry Monahan, author of Taste of Tombstone, wrote for True West Magazine, "Most carried produce, canned goods, dried foods, spices, coffee, flour and anything food-related. Many sold gunpowder, coal oil and dynamite right alongside onions and oysters."

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