Unlike other small stores and shops in the downtown area, a hardware store, Davis says, is “a place of necessity.”

“People come here because they need to,” he says, adding that the majority of his customers are Kent residents and landlords of students’ apartments and houses.

Davis understands the need for both corporate chains and local specialty stores. He says corporate stores bring new jobs and money to the local economy, but smaller businesses build a solid rapport with the customers.

“Most customers tell stories about how they dread those places,” he says, but he adds that most of them are employed in corporate stores.

from cat to mouse

Because of business rivalry and limited customer base, small businesses have needed to evolve to stay competitive. Rodney: The Compleat Bookshop is proof of this evolution.

The bookstore on South Water Street had to begin selling on the Internet to survive, owner Ted Bliss says. His store makes nearly half of its sales through Internet marketplaces such as eBay and Amazon.com. The online market, he says, will keep him from going out of business almost indefinitely.

“It’s pretty near impossible unless the Internet goes down,” Bliss says. “Not as long as the Internet stays up and I stay healthy.”

He says the Internet sales keep his store in business because he doesn’t get the foot traffic he used to. So instead of waiting on customers, he spends his day online while his black-and-white kitten, Furball, sits in the storefront window. When customers enter the store, the kitten greets them by rubbing against their legs and purring softly.

“She just wants attention,” Bliss says and then begins clicking away on the computer where he sells books to customers across the country and overseas.

His store is in the middle of the downtown area, wedged between other small shops, but the location has a disadvantage.

“If you’re a small shop, you need to be near a Wal-Mart, Target, Kmart or plaza,” he says, explaining that people shopping at the larger store would become familiar with the smaller one. This lack of traffic is why the small stores downtown don’t have as big of an appeal, and they don’t attract as many potential customers, he says.

Down the street, City Bank Antiques is also beginning to sell items on the Internet.

“It’s difficult because the marketplace has switched to the Internet,” says owner Karen Barrett, who lists items for sale on eBay. “That is the marketplace.”

Using the Internet is becoming popular because it can showcase many more items than one store can, Barrett says. And, she says, people are impatient.