The "Pandemic" may be over, but the sluggish economy continues to take its toll on our local businesses.
The latest "victim" is our 40+ year old office and art supplies store; the owner was "of retirement age" and wanted to quit, but had no success in finding a buyer for a store that... well... hadn't been making any money for several years.
And so, we have paper on the windows and the "For Lease" sign in the window.
Another "sign of the times" in the downtown area of our small seaside city is the way stores have been slowly closing and their front windows papered over... but no new stores have been coming in to replace them.
The latest "trend" I have been observing is that the only new businesses seem to be real estate offices where there once were shops.
I suppose that what's noteworthy about this latest business shutdown is that we allegedly live in a "seaside arts community," yet now you can't actually buy art supplies locally, anymore!
Seems a bit ironic, to me...
Meanwhile, aforesaid "arts community" has fewer and fewer places that sells art... the Red Dragonfly Gallery was certainly not the only art gallery to fall by the wayside in recent times.
A couple of days ago, I struck up a conversation with one of the managers of the bakery department at our local Safeway supermarket... she's been working there for as long as I have lived in this town, 16 years... and I didn't realize that she actually commutes 50 minutes each way, to and from work, because she cant afford to live in town.
She actually hasn't lived here in almost a decade, but her seniority with the supermarket makes it worth her while to spend almost two hours a day in the car, burning $5.75/gallon gas.
I realize that the truth of the whole "arts community" is probably on shaky ground, as well. After all, very few artists can afford to live here, any more... so most of the local art is actually being created by wealthy retirees from elsewhere, who came here for the "quaint quirkiness" which has since moved away, for cost of living reasons.
All I can say is that I am glad we are no longer in the art business, here in town.
I stopped in and visited a fellow merchant/friend from when we had the gallery, and she said that visitor traffic — the lifeblood of our town's retail trade — is only back to about 2/3 of what it was, before Covid.
She, too, was questioning whether or not it was worth her while to continue having her kitchen accessories and cooking store.
In many cases, the bitter reality is that most of the "old timers" here have — as their best option — less and less incentive, and might be served better by selling their homes they bought for a pittance 30 years ago, moving to a less expensive part of the world and live off what they got from the sale of those homes.
Change is inevitable, and our town is changing into more of a wealthy retirement area than a quirky art community. Sad, but true. It's something that seems to happen pretty much everywhere.
Meanwhile... we're not immune, and have started to slowly cast about and consider the idea of moving to a nearby community, about 50 miles from here... that's still a "working" port and lumber town, and a fraction the expense of living here.
Seems we have been "gentrified" out of our lives...
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