Since Slovenia's independence, large supermarkets and megamalls have sprung up across the country. With their convenient parking lots, wide variety of merchandise, and assorted entertainment, they practically invite people to shop until they drop. Now, a museum in the small village of Lokev on Slovenia's rocky, sun-burned Karst plateau takes visitors back to a time when shopping was a much simpler affair.

For almost 80 years, between 1869 and 1948, the Fabiani homestead in Lokev housed a general store. It had been founded by Jakob Fabiani and then run by successive generations of the Fabiani family. In 2007, a collector named Miro Slana, who had married into the Fabiani family, decided to set up a museum that would bring back the spirit of the store that had once meant so much to the village.

A passionate collector, Slana designed a faithful replica of a Slovenian country store from the first half of the 20th century, featuring authentic fittings and merchandise. He interviewed former general store owners and consulted archival photograph to ensure the museum was as authentic as possible.

The items on display, some 12,000 in total, represent everything that was once needed for life in the Slovenian countryside, from candy to assorted herbs, canned food, shoe polish, cosmetics, and vinegar, - all displayed on period shelves made of polished wood. Among the items on display are rare treasures such a 19th century box of chocolates from Slovenia's first chocolate-making workshop. Slana acquired most of the merchandise in Slovenia, but he also made a number of trips abroad, always on the lookout for products likely to have graced the shelves of a Slovenian country store.

The store is also adorned with posters and enamel signs ranging from the late 19th century to the immediate postwar period. The signs, along with several old advertising statues, remind visitors that marketing was around long before the first megastores opened for business in Slovenia.