Palo Verde Cleaners 5620 E. Speedway; 900 square feet; Cleaners of laundry, leather and suede. Owner George Pappas, 60, comes from a dry-cleaning family, and he and his wife Maria, 58, have spent their last 21 years working at their Speedway location, Pappas said. His father began the business in 1925 in Chicago, where it thrived for 60 years. Pappas took over when he turned 18 and moved it to Tucson 22 years ago. "What we did in 1925, we still do today. We don't depend on machines to do the work. We do the work," Pappas said. Palo Verde Cleaners stays competitive in the growing corporate culture by adding personal touches, like calling clients to let them know when their cleaning is ready to be picked up, he said. The store is packed about as full as it can be — there's a tiny dropoff counter in front, and the place is brimming with all manner of clothing hanging from overhead rods, but Pappas makes it work. In fact, in 1986 when the store was still new, it won an award for "plant design" from the company's main trade association, the International Fabricare Institute, Pappas said. Coffee Times Drive-Thru 3401 E. Speedway; 300 square feet; Purveyor of coffee and various mixed coffee drinks, sandwiches and pastries. Despite the nearby opening of three chain coffee shops since Coffee Times opened eight years ago, business continues to grow, said company co-owner Dave Mannell, 52. Mannell, sister Andrea and two nephews — Michael and Jeremy Cripps — bought the shop March 1 from Mannell's younger brother, who founded it. The group constitutes all four of the store's employees. Unlike other little-box owners, Mannell and family are excited by the prospect of opening other locations, Mannell said. "We're all just really enthusiastic about the possibilities," he said. When the other coffee shops began to pop up in the area, "I myself was very concerned," he said. Mannell thought he would see a temporary drop in sales that would take a while to come back, but that didn't happen, he said. Pet Designs 2411 N. Columbus Blvd.; 700 square feet; Dog groomer. Caring is a big factor when it comes to keeping up with the titans of the pet-care industry, said Kevin Sarullo, 35, who opened Pet Designs eight years ago. Like other proprietors of small shops, Sarullo grew up in his business — his parents owned kennels and grooming businesses throughout his childhood, he said. "My summers off of school, I was brushing dogs," he said. The first year his shop was open, he lived in the back, he said. "I'd sit in the back room watching Oprah, thinking, ‘What did I get myself into?' " People have come to know his purple building with the happy-face ball on top, so he's gained some recognition that way, he said. The sign out front says dog and cat grooming, but he gave up working with cats last year after a particularly painful run-in with a kitty. Now he offers full-service grooming, brushing, bathing and nail trims for dogs only. West of the Pecos Guns 5118 E. Pima St.; 560 square feet; Retailer of guns and accessories. Buying a gun is a very personal thing, said Rich Wells, 41, the manager at West of the Pecos who has worked there for 18 years. "It's not like buying a lipstick at the Clinique counter," he said. The Tucson gun-store community is fairly tight-knit, however, with decades of knowledge combined. For instance, Wells' father, Frank, who has owned West of the Pecos for the past six or seven years, managed the now-defunct Jensen's Arizona Sportsman store for about 20 years, leaving in the early 1980s, Wells said. And some of the other local shop owners worked for the elder Wells at one time or another, and vice versa, he said. Wells admits he cringed when he found out Sportsman's Warehouse was coming to the Tucson area, but once the place opened, business at West of the Pecos didn't seem to suffer for it, he said. Gentlemen's Choice Barber Styling 2801 E. Speedway; 700 square feet; Full-service barbershop including straight-razor shave. It's easiest to keep service at a personal level when there aren't 25 locations of your store in town, said Lynn Bartlett, 52, owner and founder of Gentlemen's Choice Barber Styling. The 700-square-foot building she bought on East Speedway in 1985 has been a great investment for her, she said. "It's harder and harder to find a little building. There's no more corner grocery stores or gas stations," she said. "We're getting squeezed out by developers." These days, small commercial buildings sell for more than a half-million dollars, she said, making it difficult for a little guy who wants to open a little box. "That's a whole lot of haircuts and a whole lot of coffees," she said. Her shop uses a note-card system to keep notes on all her clients, how frequently they come in and what they like to have done.