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

[S CLEMENGER]

We lost two of our specialty stores in the last couple of years.  In one 
case (Broadway Market...imported foods, wines, and good conversation, lol!), 
the owner was in his 90s and wanted to retire.  He's since passed on, dang 
it.  The other store (In Good Taste) has been gone 3 years or so, and I miss 
it.  We've got one left, Red Rooster Trading, but they're more an overall 
life-style store that happens to have some kitchen items.  Oh, and we've 
still got the Good Food Store, which is our homegrown analog for a Trader 
Joe's or Whole Foods.  Haven't lost our local sources for odd herbs and 
spices, either (Butterfly Herbs), at least in part because they're also a 
successful coffee bar/import store.
I would expect, in a shrinking economy (and in the mood people are in, 
whether their local economy is in the dumps or not) that demand for "luxury" 
stuff would be on the decline....
--Maire (in northern Artemisia, mundanely, Missoula, MT)


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Johnna Holloway" <johnnae at mac.com>
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Sent: Wednesday, January 28, 2009 5:38 AM
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Gourmet/Kitchen Store Closings OT OP


> 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