Just inside, and off the main entrance to the service bay at Canadian Tire there is an accommodating rest area with large comfortable leather-look armchairs and sofa tables and a large television set brightly advertising products for sale. And that's where I sat with Jackie and Jillie after we extended our ravine walk to include a street walk to take us to the shopping plazas south of Innes Road, not all that far from our neighbourhood.

While my husband went off to the service desk to pay for the truck's oil change and tire rotation we three sat quietly on one of the chairs. Only one other person occupied the area besides us, a man some distance across from where we sat, busy on his cellphone. I knew we'd have a bit of a wait, but we were just relaxing patiently, and then the man caught my eye, smiled and I returned his smile. He spoke from across the distance, asking how was I? Fine, I said, our little dogs were tired after their long walk.

What happened, he asked, to our other little dogs? That startled me, and I thought I'd heard incorrectly, indicated that could he repeat the question? In response he raised himself out of the depths of the chair and brought himself to sit on one right beside me, where he repeated the question; yes, I'd heard right, he obviously knew something about me, about us, about our little dogs. He smiled at me, said the obvious, that I failed to recognize him. Mustafa? I asked, is that you, referring to a neighbour we haven't seen lately while knowing he couldn't possibly have aged so much, so fast.

But no, he nodded. Then he said, remember Looney Toonie? This was one of two dollar stores we regularly used to shop at: Looney Toonie and Looney Toonie Two, in our neighbourhood. The two shops were several miles apart in different local shopping malls, and they were owned by three related Lebanese Christian families. All of them were warm, friendly people and we became quite fond of one another, I suppose, though it's entirely likely that they extended their genuine and appealing warmth to many of their regular clientele.

About eight years ago they informed us that their leases weren't being renewed, and unless they could find new places where they could rent, they would be forced out of business. The plaza owners had decided in both instances to give preferential leasing arrangements to two of their lessees, both name-brand pharmacies, to extend, absorbing the space of the two dollar stores. They never did find substitute rental spaces where other dollar stores weren't nearby.

And here one of the family members sat now, next to me, enquiring about what had happened to Button and Riley. I almost felt like weeping, but his sweetly benevolent smile demanded calm and recognition, so I explained what time had wrought. I knew that his wife who had been the main organizer and buyer for the two stores had taken work with Home Depot because my husband often came across her, as cheerful and efficient as ever. He had told me that she had won recognition as an exemplary employee and was awarded an official prize, as a result.

What irony: the influence of an sales-aggressive commercial name brand dynasty had put the family out of business, and yet another of the same ilk was now giving recognition to the industrious entrepreneurship of a member of that same family reduced to working for one of their outlets.

The men of the family had taken to driving taxis to continue earning a living. The family compact of working together to give excellent neighbourhood service selling common commodities failed because of the overwhelming incursion of the multinational business model putting small business owners out of commission. But there was no bitterness to be discerned, just a shrug of recognition and resignation, and the determination to forge on.

When my husband finally returned, he had no problem immediately recognizing with whom I was speaking, and the relaxed conversation between them as we continued to update one another seemed normal, natural and very present, despite the years that had gone by. When we parted, it also seemed natural and fitting that we embraced closely and with feeling, warmly wishing one another well into the future.