A Man's Place

"He was both worker and shopkeeper and, as such, was doomed to a life of solitude and distrust. He didn't belong to a union. He was afraid of the right-wing Croix-de-Feu partisans, who marched through L-, and of the Reds, who were after his business. He kept his ideas to himself. You don't want ideas when you're in trade.

"They gradually carved a niche for themselves over the years, hovering above the poverty line, but only just. Because they granted credit, they had kept the large, working-class families, the ones who were always down to their last penny. They realized that it was the needy who supported them and were understanding, seldom refusing to 'chalk it up'. At the same time, they felt they had the right to give a good talking-to to those who turned up penniless, and to scold the child who had been sent to the shop empty-handed by his mother because it was the end of the week. 'Tell your mother she'd better pay, or else I'll stop serving her.' They were no longer on the side of the humiliated."

~~ from A Man's Place by Annie Ernaux