Librarian, NMAH Branch Library,Smithsonian
A few things that came up in this library's catalog on general stores:
 
   Clark, Thomas D. _Pills, petticoats& plows: the Southern country
store(Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 1989 (reprint) this one should still be
in prin t
   Carson, Gerald ; _The old country store (Dutton, 1965)
 
   Atherton, Lewis E. ; _Southern country store, 1800-1860 (LSU Press)
(this one m ay have been reprinted as well)
 
  "Country stores, country fairs, and mail order catalogs: consumerism
in rural America" by Thomas Schlereth, in: _Consumer culture and the
American home (McFaddin-Ward House, 1989)
 
   If its visuals and artifacts you want try: Division of Community
Life/Rm 4100/Stop 612/Museum of American History/Washington, D.C./20560;
(202) 357-2385; also try the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village in
Dearborn, MI. I forwarded the inquiry to the library at the
Smithsonian's National Postal Museum
 
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