Robert Spector grew up in a butcher shop. Throughout his childhood, he watched his father, an immigrant from Russia, slave over carcasses and slabs of beef in Spector’s Meat Market, his self-run butcher shop in Perth Amboy, N.J. When not in school, teenage Robert worked there, too. He waited on customers and sliced their pork chops and salami. He hated it.

But after launching a business journalism career, writing about Nordstrom’s, Amazon.com and big retail chain stores, Spector decided to focus on what he knew best. He set off across the country, listening to modern “moms and pops”—small-business owners like his parents—share their insights about running the stores that dot the streets of nearly every town, large and small, in America. He channeled his research—and his personal experience—into his latest book, The Mom & Pop Store: How the Unsung Heroes of the American Economy Are Surviving and Thriving. (Read an excerpt here.)

He found that small stores represent something big. Together, they create two-thirds of new jobs every year and account for about 50 percent of the private GDP in the United States. Today, they’re run not only by moms and pops, but moms and daughters, friends and mentors, cousins and cousins and every other kind of partnership imaginable. Though small homegrown stores hold a sentimental place in the hearts of many Americans, owners can’t rest on their laurels. They know better than anyone that in the competitive world of business, it’s all about the customer. And that’s where we come in.

Robert Spector spoke with the AARP Bulletin about some of his favorite mom-and-pop stores, why they continue to soar in a downward economy—and how you benefit by patronizing them.

Q. Why do apple pie, America and mom-and-pop stores seem to go hand-in-hand?

A. It doesn’t matter what country or political system you come from, when you come here, you see opportunity. We’re all immigrants here—and immigrants have always used the mom-and-pop stores as an entryway into this country. If you can’t speak English to get a job, you create your own. Retail is labor-intensive, and you can employ all your family members.

Q. At a time when a customer can order anything on the Internet with ease, it’s amazing mom-and-pops are still around.

A. Ten years ago, the so-called experts were saying we’re not going to need brick-and-mortar stores because we’ll get everything online. That was, of course, madness because the experience is beyond just buying stuff. We need to be out there with other people. We’re social animals. We’ve always had stores where people like to hang out and not only acquire goods and services but talk about politics, find out the latest gossip. We all gravitate toward the marketplace.

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