Steve Carell Buys General Store in Marshfield, Massachusetts: Way to Go Steve!

Ever since I saw the movie "The 40-Year Old Virgin", I've thought Steve Carell was cool. After reading the latest news story on him this weekend, I'm sure he is. It's been reported in the Boston Globe that Steve Carell, famous lately for his role in the TV series "The Office", has just bought a general store in Marshfield, Massachusetts. The store used to be owned by Sherry and Bob Bechtold, but they sold it to Steve Carell after they'd spoken to him about the general store purchase and decided he wanted it "for all the right reasons". Carell himself said he wanted to buy it because he wanted to help preserve a small piece of Americana. Steve's sister-in-law will run the store, but he'll occasionally help out.

If you know anything about small businesses and especially retail, you'll know that many independently-owned general stores all over America have closed down in recent years. The encroachment of the supermarket and now hyper-markets like Wal-Mart are dooming the once popular American general store to a page in a history book. If you don't believe it, just do a Yahoo search for "general store closings" and see how many stories you can pull up - it's thousands. But, when somebody like Steve Carell comes along and buys a store he can afford to run, even if it means losing some money, you've got to agree it's cause for celebration. It's also a pity more American movie stars don't do similar things. After all, they are the people that have the money to be able to do this. Your average small business person doesn't.

Steve Carell, with his purchase of a small general store in a town hardly anyone has ever heard of, has shown the world he puts his money where his mouth is. In the 21^st century, American small business is in trouble, America's small towns are losing their small stores and, along with them, their character, yet nobody seems to want to do anything. But, Steve Carell did. Marshfield Hills General Store is a store that fits right in with the image of American small towns. It's a little shop with a stereotypical small town look to it (you climb up some steps to a small porch, open the green door and you're inside what seems to be Aladdin's Cave, stocked full of pretty much anything you might ever need) and it's shops like these that give America it's soul.

Thanks to Steve Carell, Marshfield, Massachusetts won't lose its general store. And if any other Hollywood movie stars are out there and reading this, check out your local small town. You might be able to buy a general store of your own. And much of America would thank you.