The structure of “The Little Store” contains various elements that contribute to the meaning of the story, including the childlike perspective, foreshadowing, and the characterization of Mr. Sessions.
The story is told from a child’s perspective, which contributes to the structure in that the child gradually unveils the event concerning the Session family. From her naïve perspective, we are told about the stores impact on her childhood, including the violent act that she could not determine. Information about the story is kept “down at a child’s eye level,” giving the story a naïve structure (157). From the child’s perspective, the trip to the grocery store is like an adventure to a far-away place. The structure is important here in order to convey the going and returning of the child, but at the end, the author discusses a different trip to the store. This second trip has a darker theme, culminating in the event that changed the way the author thinks about the Little Grocery Store. The structure is such that we are shown a happy instance of Mr. Sessions, then a darker, mysterious instance of the same man, where “it may be harder to recognize kindness – or unkindness, either – in a face whose eyes are in shadow (159).” The author structures the story in this way so that the reader is left in the dark about what the author is trying to convey until the very end of the story, and even then it is hard to tell what the author wants us to walk away from the story with (are we supposed to believe that grocers are scary people, or that shady people can appear nice but are evil?).
The author effectively uses foreshadowing to supplement the structure of the story. The author carefully begins with carefree days, and then moves to what the Little Grocery Store is like. On the trip home from the store, the author foreshadows the end when she says that one could also travel through the sewer in order to get home, where “you could go in darkness through this tunnel to where you next saw light (if you ever did) (158).” The author also foreshadows a darkness when she brings up the time she saw the Monkey Man, a shadowy figure who invades the sanctity of her world by showing up at the grocery store.
In characterizing the store and Mr. Sessions, Welty gives us a wealth of information. Firstly, the store appeals to the sense of smell before all other senses. Welty describes entering the store and while her eyes are adjusting to the light, she can smell everything about the store. She then goes on to describe the store through sight, leaving out touch and sound. This gives us a vivid shot of what the store is like, as the sights and smells are most powerful.

I am from a lot of places. I was born on Earth, which revolves around the Sun. I am also from the United States of America, a place on the North American continent. I am also from Georgia and from Atlanta, a city. On the Northern outskirts of Atlanta, Georgia, the U.S.A., Earth, there is a suburb called Marietta, where I live in a house at 3067 Wicks Lake Dr., in the Wicks Lake neighborhood. With so many places to define where I came from, there are plenty of cultural assumptions. As an American, I am lumped in with the general (and disliked) view of American tourists by other countries. As a Georgian, I am called out on my Southern accent and red-neck ways. As an Atlantan, paradoxically, I am known for Atlanta’s cultural and economic growths, while the Marietta suburbs bring upper-middle class connotations. All of these places developed my sense of where I am from. When two travelers meet and ask one another where they are from, they share stories about their hometowns or when they have been to a place near the other’s home. They trade funny happenings about the places where they grew up, proof that the places we grow up in leave a powerful mark on our lives. Where we grow up at also affects how we perceive the world, as people who grow up in rough neighborhoods perceive the world as hostile and act accordingly. My own perception is skewed towards learning as the highest goal, from attending schools where this is the highest priority. The people around me also leave their mark, as they too are products of the places they have grown up in. For instance, many of my high school friends detested camping and the outdoors in general, while the members of my Boy Scout troop loved to camp, yet both groups came from the same place. This suggests that the places that each of groups went to camp changed their perception of camping indelibly. Also, every person had a unique experience at a particular place that gives a continuum of views about camping (or anything else). Some went to an overcrowded campsite where it rained the whole weekend, giving the impression that camping was terrible idea, while others went to a secluded spot high in the mountains and enjoyed a weekend with their family and friends enjoying the outdoors.

I fiddle with the doorknob, finally opening it. In the newly created opening, I see an attractive young woman. She smiles at me as I hold the door open for her to pass. I return the smile, but nothing intelligible comes to my mind to say, so I continue on my way towards lunch. “It’s all a matter of keeping my eyes open,” I think to myself. A cold wind blows as I step onto the sidewalk, carrying life to new places. Above me, a solitary hawk floats in an upstream of warmer air. From the hawk’s perspective, I am meaningless, a mere visual curiosity quickly dismissed as inedible. At her height, however, she can clearly see three squirrels scampering up three different trees in between the buildings. Unlike me, she is not hungry, and merely watches the squirrels moving below. She sees only what she wants to see, unconcerned with anything other than squirrels. Like me, we only see what we want to see. I continue walking on the sidewalk, unconcerned about the hawk and no longer seeing her. Two people walk past me, but I only look at them long enough to determine that I do not know them, and not taking the time to see them either. I look up at the tree and see leaves and branches, which is what I expect to see. However, I only see the songbird mere feet from my head as I look away from the tree. Surprised, I look back at the branch to confirm that there is a bird. Unlike the hawk, this songbird sees me as a possible predator, and alights from its branch to pursue other tasks away from me. I continue to walk towards the student center, now only looking at the various objects around. I climb some stairs, at the top of which is a maintenance vehicle. The vehicle piques my interest, and I wonder briefly about how it works. I see the muffler, smoke coming from the end of it, and see that, although small, the car runs on gas, not electricity. No longer concerned with the functioning of the vehicle, I stop seeing it and continue walking. I hear a high-pitched squeal and look in the direction of the vehicle. The vehicle has just stopped its movement towards me, now only inches from my feet. I begin to realize that I should have seen the car moving earlier, though I was merely looking, not seeing it at the time.