Big R - the R stands for Ranch - is a branding that covers 70 or so independently owned stores…read morenationwide. I love Big R stores anywhere and in particular this one in Burns where I stop in half a dozen times a year to stretch my legs, use the loo and buy this or that in the store that I inevitably discover to be just what I was looking for and didn't know I needed. And while I'm not a nostalgic person, in general I think things are never as rosy-simple as they are remembered to be and the best days for everything are seen through the front window not the rear view mirror, I do wax a bit sweet-nostaglic every time I'm in a Big R and this one in particular for the "howdy neighbor" kind of friendly service provided by everyone working there in their Big R red vests.
Whether you're looking for ranch supplies, gardening tools, fishing gear or bait - in the help yourself fridge in the store, winter duds (and what a GREAT buy is to be had on children's warm coats in off season if you time it right), summer frocks, flannel shirts, dog food and toys, horse gear, hunting gear, beekeeping supplies, BBQs, kitchen tools and cookware, house tending supplies, automotive stuff, landscape gear like sprinkler parts, kids toys, Carhartt work clothes, military caps for each service branch and...well, the list is nearly endless for what you can find. Including some candy or crunchy snacks for the road along with a bottle of water or soda - if you must but "that stuff'll kill ya" as my grandfather used to say.
Every time I leave this store my heart aches a little to think how not just these stores but small farming and agricultural communities are fading away. But while I'm in it, I just immerse myself to enjoy the moment as in even the tunes on the sound system as I sing (quietly) along to all of them - "Soldier Boy", "Nights in White Satin", Herman's Hermits "Can't you hear my heartbeat" - and ponder how it is some memories fade but music lyrics are with us always once imprinted.
And this is the kind of store where people strike up conversations with each other. As in the couple who paused while I was taking the photo of the "Bait help yourself' sign on the front of the fridge. Turned out she is from Brooklyn originally - as my hubby - and wanted to know what would happen if she opened the fridge. So she did. This was her and her companion's - he from Portland like me - first visit into a Big R they said and they loved it. It has almost anything you could possibly think of to buy she said, and such friendly people too.
Exactly right. Thank you Big R.
