Mom and Pop Stores In Detail

Let's look in depth what really is a mom and pop store. In Canada and North America, Mom and Pop stores are local stores, not franchises. Donut shops like Tim Horton's use to be Mom and Pop before they sold out to a bigger company. It was originally Canadian. 

Usually family run businesses are considered Mom and Pop. Those restaurants you would find in rural areas, or a store which is only found in that location, it's a Mom and Pop. These businesses are handed down usually to children so they can run it with their families.

Let's look at a list of places which are considered Mom and Pop.

As you can see, these types of stores drive the Canadian economy. From what I've seen in Eastern Europe, people are use to working for someone. You will see stores which belong to a big network that usually have connections to a big wheel in government. That's how they exist in the first place. How places like Tim Horton's got so popular was just through expansion. It usually starts with one store..

Let's look at the opposite of Mom and Pop stores, Brick and Mortar Stores and fast food.

Even lesser known brand names in Canada are still considered brick and mortar stores because they're huge. Maybe if they were still family owned, and they kept things local, it would have the same local culture.

For example, Canadian Tire which is Canadian owned outsourced most of it's I.T back-end to a EPAM, a foreign company. For Canadians, that's no so Canadian. So, the next time you use your Canadian Tire Credit Card, you'll know the code which made it happened, was not made in Canada, Yikes.