Leaf Rapids Co-op

When you're the only game in town, you don't need to spend money on a fancy building or slick logos. Despite its uninviting utilitarian exterior, the Leaf Rapids Co-op was a popular shopping destination, and one of the places I found comic books on spinner racks to fire my childhood imagination. I believe it was here that Mom or Dad purchased my first comic book, an issue of Spooky: The Tuff Little Ghost.

These days, the Co-op is located in the Leaf Rapids Town Centre. It's the only place you can buy gas and other essentials, or at least that was the case back when Sean and I visited in 2009.

At some point the Co-op improved their signage before moving into the Town Centre, but there's no sign of the original building. It's a little sad; Leaf Rapids was deliberately constructed as a new kind of community, one meant to exist in harmony with nature rather than conquer it, and now nature is steadily reclaiming this fragile outpost as its residents flee in search of better economic opportunities.