Salvage grocery stores, aka “bent ‘n’ dent” shops, are common in Amish communities. They’re popular among Amish with many mouths to feed, and English bargain hunters as well. Â I’ve bought from them a number of times (hot sauce and other goodies). I just came across a 2008Â article on Amish salvage stores (no longer online). Â By the author’s tone, she seems to want to cast suspicion…
Amish America reader Pete Ventura shares the following, about a visit to an Amish bicycle business: Recently I returned home from Holmes County. While I was up there I stopped in at a local bicycle shop located about a half mile north east of Charm, out in the middle of nowhere. I bought 97 dollars worth of equipment. When I went to pay, the owner…
Recently, while in Lancaster County, I visited one of the most unusual Plain businesses I’ve come across. Two enterprising brothers have created a business destination that one would hardly expect to see in an Amish community. But with the increasing openness of Amish to technological solutions, I suppose it was just a matter of time until a shop supplying the Apple iPhone and iPod, and other…
“When the English get something, it’ll come to us somewhere down the line.” So says an Amish old-timer in a recent article on Amish businesses in Daviess County, Indiana, entitled “For the Amish, primary currency is hard work” (http://www.courierpress.com/news/2010/mar/06/for-the-amish-primary-currency-is-hard-work/). Taken by itself, he could be talking about technology or, say, the common cold. But in this case, the Amishman is referring to the economy. How…
Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia is a century-old institution in the heart of the city. There has been an Amish presence in the market for nearly three decades. I write about Reading Terminal in my book, as well as in a post last year on Amish markets. In a recent article, Summer Beckley of The Temple News gives a brief but interesting history of the market,…