ITEM PHOTO BY OWEN O’ROURKE
Laura Ippoliti, owner of Ippi’s Bait and Tackle shop in Lynn, stands in her now empty store.
Here’s hoping the days of sole proprietorship are not headed the way of the phone booth or the cassette tape. Lynn and surrounding communities have their share of one-man and one-woman businesses, but major forces at work in the economy are not making it easy for the smallest of small businesses to stay afloat.
Appliance store owner Richard Covert survives in Wyoma Square by drawing loyal customers to a store that hearkens back to the days when most Americans bought appliances and all other goods from small businesses.
But across the square on Parkland Avenue, Ippi’s Bait and Tackle is an empty shell, silently bearing witness to the Internet and the box store’s ability to attract customers who once visited a small shop like the one Laura Ippoliti ran, and where they could talk fishing while they looked over reels or checked out waders and hooks.
Ron Trapasso is perhaps the classic example of a one-man shop with his Essex Street store full of antiques in various stages of repair and constructions. Trapasso’s Atwill Furniture proudly carries on the legacy of since-deceased local cabinet makers and crafters, and supplements furniture construction with antique repairs.
He admits he faces a challenge finding young apprentices interested in carrying on his trade but isn’t ready to speculate on when he might build his last chair. Covert has yet to sell his last washing machine but his commitment to personal service is a big reason why customers still walk into his store.
The local pharmacy industry has seen the biggest local decline in the smallest of small businesses with pharmacists who survived for decades shifting their prescription clientele to chain pharmacies.
Customers get the benefit of modern medication-filling services but a little bit of the personal touch is lost in the process. The responsibility for keeping small businesses afloat ultimately lies with the customer, and the consumer is responsible for frequenting small businesses and helping them to survive.
Dick Covert and Ron Trapasso will eventually retire but here’s hoping the next generation of solo entrepreneurs is ready to follow in their footsteps.