[Sca-cooks] Gourmet/Kitchen Store Closings OT OP

[Johnna Holloway]

I have been meaning to ask if other parts of the country
are facing the waves of closings that we are facing here
in the kitchen/gourmet specialty market.
Locally, Kitchenport, the local independent kitchenwares store,
is closing after 40 years. We've also lost one specialty gourmet
grocery/wine/deli store in January. And several restaurants.
I realize the economy here is awful and that Michigan's
unemployment rate is 10.6 per cent, so store closings here
are understandable in some part, but are they also happening
across the country?
We learned on the Subtleties list recently that Minnesota's Sweet 
Celebrations/
Maid of Scandinavia closed in November. That was one of our major
mail order standbys for certain cake items. Williams-Sonoma is in
the news with layoffs.
So, Are we going to lose our local specialty merchants?
What's it like in other parts of the country?

Johnnae