Some family heritages are worth celebrating in a book. That view finds support in a handsomely printed volume that comes from Bill Buffett, currently an Arlington resident but born and brought up in Omaha, Nebraska.

Entitled “Foods You Will Enjoy: The Story of Buffett’s Store,” this book recounts the history of a family business that endured for a century. It also shares the atmosphere of a developing American city, one located almost exactly halfway between the east and west coasts.

If the name Buffett stirs recognition in you, it’s most probably of Bill’s cousin, Warren Buffett, the super-rich entrepreneur and famous philanthropist. When he was a boy, for a brief period Warren worked in the store, as did Bill himself.

In our age of giant supermarkets, offering an infinity of choices, food stores like Buffett’s may seem of little importance. But they played a vital part in their community, serving rich and poor while helping shape their city or town.

In Omaha, Buffett’s Store played that role. Starting in 1869, and for the following one-hundred years, the owners of this business exemplified the virtues of honest and devoted service.

That’s what Sidney Buffett, the store’s founder, believed in. With unwavering devotion to this ideal, he set up shop in a part of Omaha that was still thinly developed when he arrived from Long Island at age 19.

His son Ernest, as befitted his name, carried on this new family tradition seriously and with unflagging zeal. Though he moved the store to a more populous part of the city, Ernest furthered the store’s ideals of service and became one of the leaders of the community.

At Ernest’s death in 1946, his son Fred took over and extended the life of the store until its final days in 1969. The end came then because neither of Fred’s two sons wished to take it over. Bill, one of those sons, is the author of “Foods you will enjoy.”

With its photos of the store and the people who ran it, and with abundant documents, including ads, newspaper articles, and letters written by family members, this book gives you a feel for the place and those connected with the business.

The letters, especially those from fathers to their young adult children, will strike modern readers as naïve in their straightforward talk about the virtues that bring success. Given the current of the time in which we live, however, they can serve as a corrective to our society with its emphasis upon maximizing profits.

On one of the opening pages, Bill Buffett provides a family tree that lets you keep in mind the names of the dramatis personae. At book’s end, you can find yourself regretting that the hundred-year institution ever came to an end.

Of course, stores like Buffett’s have not disappeared entirely. At least four modern versions of such places stay in business near where I live and seem to be flourishing. Each has its devoted customers who make going to the store part of their regular schedule. They would be devastated if any of the four were to close.

Needless to say, no one of the four has pneumatic tubes that send order slips and cash from the main floor up to the balcony for processing. When he was researching the history, Bill Buffett spied an older couple eating in an Omaha restaurant. The husband remembered those tubes, and the “whoosh” sound that they made as they shot their contents upstairs.

Inevitably, Bill sometimes indulges himself in nostalgic contrasts between then and now. In the present, he tells of three quick transactions: getting cash, pumping gas, and buying a few items from a supermarket. For all three of them, he uses a credit card and never exchanges a word with anyone.

By contrast, at Buffett’s store, customers would walk into the store, be recognized and greeted, buy on account, and pay their bills at the end of the month. If these payments came late, people did not have to fear steep penalties.

Bill also wonders about huge stores and suggests that the Buffett pioneers ─ Sidney, Ernest, and Fred ─ would “be glad they got out of the business when they did.”

Even if you have no connection with the food business, other than eating and drinking, you may still find Bill Buffett’s advice applicable to your life. “My hope for all who read this book is that you will save your family history and collect more information, while people are still alive. You never know who will be interested, maybe even someone not yet born.

“The most common complaint of those who look back is, ‘I wish I had asked more questions.’

The book is currently available in at least one store located in my home area ─ Porter Square Books. Further information can be found at Bill’s web site buffettstore.com.

Richard Griffin