Big-box stores are great for stocking up on the basics, but they don’t always have that personal touch or nostalgia factor. These local shops have been around long enough to know just how to help – and chances are they provide a special service unknown to many.

Gauthier’s Shoes & Repair
West Bay Shopping Center was the first strip mall in Traverse City, and Tina Martin remembers coming to her family’s shop there for the first time in 1960.

Now the third-generation owner of Gauthier’s, Martin has more than 50 years of experience in shoe fitting and repair. She learned the trade from her father, John Gauthier, who owned the store before her. His father, Edmund, owned a shop in Lake Leelanau.

“Just watching my parents work was the greatest education,” Martin says. “I think we’re missing a bit of that today.”

Gauthier’s is the only shoe repair shop left in town, and Martin suspects many young people don’t realize their shoes can be fixed if they’ve never heard their parents talking about the service.

Still, Martin says, “you cannot believe what people want to save and fix.”

McGough’s, Inc.
McGough’s, Inc. is among the oldest businesses in Traverse City. Around 1890, Joseph H. McGough built a mill on the Boardman River property. In 1895, he bought out his partners in their grain, hay, and feed business and opened the store.

Tim Lampton moved to Traverse City from the Detroit area 40 years ago and today owns the store with his children. His daughter Lindsey recalls her first job as a preteen: scooping seeds at the bulk seed counter.

McGough’s used to be more oriented toward farmers, but today it caters to everyone from 4Hers to homeowners with gardens. Lampton says it’s a given that the employees help customers carry heavy bags of pet food or birdseed out to their cars.

Ben Franklin
This year, Ben Franklin on Eighth Street is celebrating its 60th anniversary. And Owner Cindy Taylor is celebrating her 40th year working there.

Ben Franklin is a franchise, but it’s independent from other stores. It used to be more of a variety store than it is today, but like many other Ben Franklins around the country, it still goes beyond craft supplies. Taylor, who became owner in 2012, says that the merchandise is mostly the same as it’s always been – from extensive yarn lines to old games – except for items that are now obsolete.

One change is the removal of the bulk candy counter. “If I ever can make that happen again, someday I would like to,” Taylor says. “People remember that.”

Ben Franklin offers a punch card deal for preferred customers, as well as “Cash Fridays”: If a customer pays with cash, he or she gets 20 percent off their purchase.

Tom’s Food Markets
Tom Deering opened the first Tom’s store in 1946, at the corner of 11th and Maple Streets in Traverse City. At the time, baggers delivered groceries to cars in vertically designed delivery carts.

In 1968, his son, Dan Deering, switched to a drive-up/pick-up system for shoppers. The carts were numbered, so when customers went through the checkout lane, their specific cart numbers were written on their receipts, like claim tickets.

Tom’s also started to construct its signature large canopies on the front of markets to facilitate drive-up service. Today, customers can still pull up for help loading groceries into their vehicles.

“Our operating philosophy has remained constant throughout the years. We want our customers to feel welcome and well taken care of," says Tom’s Food Markets President Christy Kuhnke — Tom Deering’s granddaughter.