Contacts:  Ray and Becky Schritter, co-owners of Quality Appliance (Farmington, NM)

Though not exactly a hamlet, Farmington, New Mexico, is a small enough town that it stayed well off the radar of most national retail chains for decades. Those decades were very good to Ray and Becky Schritter, partners in both marriage and business, who started their own retail operation 31 years ago and named it for the manner of service they planned to provide, Quality Appliance.

Still, despite success at gaining customer trust and a proved reputation at their 7,000-square-foot show room, and even despite staying in full competition with the Lowe’s and Home Depot which finally landed in Farmington five years back, the Schritters say 2008 has been a rough year.

“We saw a turn in March,” said Mr. Schritter. “We’re down about 7 percent [in sales]. We have a couple of big power plants in town so our local economy is steady, but I think people just listen too much to the bad news they hear...they’re holding off on big purchases.”