#because im brokenhearted at the thought of the store closing

[basketghost]

Feeling so stressed and tired and discouraged.

People fucking suck.

This is about a lot of things, but also specifically about my job.

And people just not giving a shit. Giving all of the lip service to the store, while actively watching its death throes.

Describing the store, which has been in business for fifty years now as a small, family-owned book store, as a "pillar of the community," "the main hub of town," saying things like "I love this place so much, I don't know what I'd do if you weren't here," while sales are so bad, my bosses are pretty convinced we may close by the end of the year.

Like I'm inclined to say that nobody ACTUALLY gives a shit. Two years ago, just before covid started, things already weren't great, and my bosses (husband and wife) put out a letter to the community to say "hey, this isn't the end, but if things don't get better, we won't be here forever." And for a few months, that helped, though plenty of people misinterpreted it as "WE ARE CLOSING" and only came in to badger us about closing sales. Now, though, things are just worse than ever. We're all just stuck on the inside, watching the slow death of the store we all love so much, while people on the outside essentially give us a thumbs-up and walk right past.

We try so hard to pull the public in, and literally nothing works. We've had authors, we've had sales, we've had a TRAVELING STORYTELLER WHO'S TRAVELING THE US ON FOOT COME AND DO A PERFORMANCE. We had a local guy who wrote some books and all of his profits for the time being are going to Ukraine. He was in a local paper, and we did a whole big event promotion for his signing.

He sold a single book.

Several staple shops on our main street have closed in the last couple of years. This may just be the big one that brings down the rest of main street behind it. I hope all the assholes in this quaint, Victorian canal village like more pizza shops and tattoo parlors, because those just keep filling the empty storefronts of the more diverse, interesting places that close.

The town has lost so much already because the people who actually live here don't shop here. Maybe they deserve this. This is what happens when you don't support your own community.

I just wish there was a way to pick up the whole store and plop it in a different place.

This is an immature way to end this, but I don't give a shit, everything fucking sucks, and nothing's fair, and I'm so tired of everything.