Sign of the times

A hobby shop I've liked very much suddenly announced it is going out of business this month. I went over there yesterday. Things were steeply discounted and the owner was trying very hard to convert the rest of the stock into cash. I bought more than I usually do and wished him luck for the future. Not the first time I've seen this happen to this kind of store. When one folded in Missouri, the owner called me *after* the store was gone to offer me some stock he was still stuck with. In Columbus I happened to wander into a bookstore a goodly walk from campus that was going out of business. It was to the point they were giving away books so they wouldn't have to be moved. The place seemed to have specialized in selling textbooks to private school kids. So most of it wasn't worth carrying off. Having been part of a family business, it is difficult to see small businesses fail, even in times like these when you expect it will happen to some.