A Weary Head to Economics and Commerce

I have lived in Easthampton, Ma around 5 years. It's an old industrial town that has been left to flounder on its own for a while.

Once upon a time there were a lot of buttons made here. There have been some improvements the last few years and some old factories have been reborn as condo's and art spaces. Every once in a while a new business will sprout up along the narrow strip of downtown.

Easthampton is still a working class town made up of an aging Polish-American population. Lately, there has been an influx of affluent young couples buying houses, which are less costly than neighboring Northampton.

Sadly with a swelling of citizens comes interested businesses. Stop and Shop supermarket chain has high hopes to build a store in Easthampton. All that is left for Stop and Shop to build is an ok by the planning board, which is holding a meeting on September 23. If built, the tax money generated will be good for the town, which has had trouble funding the school system of late.

Unfortunetly it will be in with Stop and Shop and out with the Tasty Top, a tradition in town. Also closing will be the Easthampton Driving range located behind the soft serve ice cream shop.

This isn't the first time these businesses have been rumored to close. Signs on the Tasty Top still say they will be back next season, but this time feels different.

The tasty top is a shack, the building is nothing special. However eating their ice cream while admiring the view is. The view from the Tasty Top is beautiful; Mt. Tom, Easthampton's Atlas framed against the sky.

There are already 4 grocery stores in a 5 mile radius of my apartment. It is already too much. A 5th store is unnecessary, but a probable conclusion. Another factor in this situation is the Big E's grocery store just a half mile from the proposed Stop and Shop. It is the only Big E's in existence. Another local business perhaps with it's own eminent fate awaiting.

I had a sundae the day before the Tasty Top closed. Vanilla ice cream drowning in butterscotch with a dollop of whipped cream. Halfway through the gooey delight, it made me sick to my stomach just as it always does. And just like always I finished it smiling as my plastic spoon stood upright, unflinching in the coating of butterscotch at the bottom of the Styrofoam bowl like a flag pole in cement. I wiped my sticky face and gave one last look at the mountain without an obstructed view.