Letter to the editor: An ode to Pyramid

June 16, 2019

To the Editor of the Manchester Mirror:

I will be sorry to see the end of Pyramid Office Supply, a Manchester Main Street stalwart for 32 years. I love shopping there! It’s great not having to drive to the big city for a good pen and notebook, or even a package of sewing needles. I don’t have to fight traffic, and I can park right there in front of the store.

But it’s also the atmosphere of the place that I love, and the memories of the old downtown. The connection to the past is so strong at Pyramid! It was a Ben Franklin “5 and Dime” then. These dime stores were in almost all our surrounding small towns. Downtown Manchester also had Marx and Marx dry goods and ladies clothing, two hardware stores, Haller’s Meat Market, Pete’s Drugs and Soda Fountain with its juke box, Way’s Bakery, Roller’s Jewelry, Schaible’s Menswear, the IGA grocery and other lively family businesses including of course E. G. Mann and Sons Mill. Although in the 1950s there were closed storefronts, as there are now, our little town bustled, and could fulfill almost any commercial need.

Pyramid is a bit of a relic, non-corporate, family owned, almost a living museum. I remember stepping through that same door as a 6-year-old. I would see a large collection of treasures stacked high when I was 3 feet tall. It actually doesn’t seem all that different now. There are displays and shelves full of color and texture, merchandise stacked in so high that you can hide from other shoppers. I almost feel small again. The building smells pretty much the same as it did in 1956, of papers and packaging, pencils and old tile.

There is one clerk, Christine, and one shopkeeper, Maan Baki. He knows me. He’s ready to talk, to help. It’s real customer service. You can tell Maan that you need tracing paper size 25” x 28” and he’ll go down to the basement to get it. You’ll watch the store while he’s down there. You can buy one sheet, but you’ll buy four on principle. There are little plastic animals, games, puzzle books, party stuff that could have come with the store when Maan bought it.

Besides office stuff, there are crafting and sewing supplies and yarn. Christine cheerfully accepts donated yarn for her hat-knitting group, the hats going free to veterans. Likely some of the hats have rare and historic yarn in them, and warm the heads of rare and historic people.

I grew up in Manchester and there is that human connection and the sense of place that Pyramid holds. It feeds my soul. When I shop local, I am an active part of my town’s financial success. My money circulates right here, back into the town that I love, not into the cold anonymous coffers of a big distant corporation. Did you know that the Walton family, founders of Walmart, are wealthier than Jeff Bezos or Bill Gates? One of the heirs owns an art collection worth over $500 million. You can go down to Arkansas and visit her museum. Yeah, they have more money than they know what to do with, and it came from closing down stores like Pyramid. I’m not saying that they meant to do it, and yes, it’s all legal and it’s the way of capitalism’s “bigger is better” mantra and competition is king and all that.

But at what point is it still FAIR competition? A local lawyer told me recently that young people can’t get into businesses like Pyramid anymore because they have too much student debt. There’s surely other reasons (possibly Amazon) a profitable small business hasn’t found a buyer.

And yet the old Ben Franklin, in its solid home of concrete and structural steel, was a locally owned franchise, and represents a core problem for small business everywhere. Like the IGA, it was a corporation. Although small by today’s standards, it predicted success for the few that could invest as it grew. And soon the vibrancy of the diverse small family business culture suffered. Pyramid will still be open for a couple more weeks. The close-out sale is at 50% off now.

I’ll go in and buy some more good pens and cling to hope that Manchester’s downtown will find its way to new life in some new way. Enjoy it while we can!

Kathleen Graddy
Sharon Township

For as little as $1 a month, you can keep Manchester-focused news coverage alive.

by Marsha Chartrand

Marsha Johnson Chartrand, a founder, writer, and copy editor with the Manchester Mirror, is a 50-year resident of Manchester. She has a long history of volunteer and community involvement.