One of the Last Mom & Pop Stores Closes ..

Kornblut's in Latta To Close On February 5th For Good ......

You kids are gonna think I'm BS'ing you, but there once was a time on Planet Earth when WalMart didn't exist. Or Mega-Malls. Or even strip malls. I'll give you a minute to catch your breath from the sudden jolt. This is something your parents should have told you years ago, but I guess we care more about you then they do....

Anywho, no matter what you needed back in the old days, you went down to Main Street and got it - even in little towns like Latta, South Carolina. If you lived in Latta and needed clothes, for the past 105 years, there was only one place to go - Kornblut's. According to WBTW and The Morning News, that will all end on February 5th.....

While it's always a sad story to see a family-owned business go down, it's not as sad as most of them go. You see, Moses Kornblut ran the store from 1966 until he passed away this past year. His son, Harold, took over the business upon Moses' passing, but Harold is a fulltime CPA, and there just wasn't enough time to run two businesses. Rather than sell it, and then see it go down, they decided to just close it while they were still doing okay.

I used to work Main Street in Latta when I ran the Enterprise office in Mullins, and I'd pass Kornblut's while stopping at the couple insurance agents on the block. My first thought was, 'how do these guys stay in business?', but after the first 90 years, you stop asking. They ran their business like the old times, where you word meant something, and credit was interest free.... I have a feeling that it'll be a while before anything goes in that spot, but maybe they'll do just as well. The times, they are a-changing ....

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