Small retail establishments serving urban neighborhoods, these “corner” stores offer groceries and sundries, services and sociability as well as occasional credit, for those beyond downtown commercialism. The nickname underscores the convergence of family and business in ownership, residence and self-exploitation, as spouses and children work long hours for limited profits. Nonetheless, these have been a respected step in economic mobility (as in Dobie Gillis, CBS, 1958–63).

As white flight altered urban neighborhoods, these establishments were trapped. Those who did not close sometimes found themselves isolated by race or language. While new neighbors saw their higher prices as indications of exploitation rather than commercial marginalization, aging owners worried about crime and hatred. This tension has remained when new immigrants buy out these family stakeholds (e.g. Korean shopkeepers and African Americans in Los Angeles, CA). Spike Lee portrays both the old and new stores in Do the Right Thing (1989).