It's pretty sickening to watch a small company slowly fail and go out of business. It's like American Werewolf in London, when Jack continues to visit David and his dead body becomes more and more drippy as it starts to fester and languish. If you know what to look for, you can almost see it decompose in front of your eyes. It starts when, out of the blue, there is a staff change and that always willing to go the extra mile employee who has consistently been helpful is replaced. That could mean lots of things, granted; maybe that person has actually been rewarded by the universe with a better job. Sure, that's possible, and you always want to think that is what happened, for both the company's and employee's sake. But then the problems with inventory start. Slowly, either the overall level of stock starts to fall significantly or else the quality starts to go down the tubes. That foul smell of rotting flesh starts to waft from the decaying organization. The company becomes the walking un-dead, unable to address said issues with their product or simply stops responding to their customers at all. And then, one day, the door is just closed. And those six or seven people who put out a unique product, or created a comforting space in the world for those who felt uncomfortable, or whatever their business was, are gone and they have to leave the coprse behind to be swallowed up by the elements. Maybe you run into them down the line, maybe you don't. And it's really scary when you see the parallels between your own life and theirs and you realize that it could easily be your casket that others mourn.
Support local, family-owned businesses, especially during the holidays. I had to watch one of our most excellent suppliers close their doors this last week and it broke my fucking heart.
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