When a long-familiar commercial retail institution closes, it's a little bit like a friend moved, or a favourite building got demolished.
News of the recent closure of the Euro Deli on the Main packed an emotional wallop for many, and not only the fans of the spinach empanadas and other sorta weird stuff they sold.
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While it wasn't my favourite place, it sure offered a great stoop to sit on in the midst of some of the most hipsterlicious Montreal scenes, since it opened in 1982, which happens to be my favourite year of the last four decades.
I feel a bit guilty that I had assumed the place was more popular than it was and seeing it as a place where others, not so much myself, felt at ease.
I also feel slightly bad that I didn't share my custom sufficiently to do my part to keep them open, because even though I wasn't a big fan of their healthy stuff, at least they had an angle.
On their FB page, the joint cryptically blamed their closure on "many obstacles entailing accountability suffered in the past five years or so." Feel free to speculate exactly what that means on your own, but it sounds like there was some sorta sneakiness involved.
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There's not always cause to mourn these closures, however. Many might recall the coverage that was heaped on the news that Foufones Electriques was closing in the late '90s, only to never actually close at all. So getting too upset could backfire.
There's a chance the same, or a similar business could return to the spot, so force back the tears.
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It's frequently assumed that small shopkeepers who close up simply didn't make enough money but sometimes there's an element of boredom involved as well. Not everybody wants to spend their lives in a little shop worrying about tiny issues each day.
Some also assume that the owners of closed establishments must have been mean, or rude or incompetent.
But in a couple of other recently local cases the business folk were quite delightful.
The woman who ran the recently-closed Super Dave dry cleaners on Papineau just below Sherbrooke was terribly kind. She was practicing Hindi the last time I had a lot chat with her, so perhaps she moved off to the far east.
And the A + Dollar store around the corner on Ste. Catherine, also recently closed, was similarly very well operated with a super friendly east Indian woman in charge.
In both of those cases the shopowners seemed almost abnormally happy and friendly, certainly not an attitude one would consider reflective of business misery.
News of the recent closure of the Euro Deli on the Main packed an emotional wallop for many, and not only the fans of the spinach empanadas and other sorta weird stuff they sold.
While it wasn't my favourite place, it sure offered a great stoop to sit on in the midst of some of the most hipsterlicious Montreal scenes, since it opened in 1982, which happens to be my favourite year of the last four decades.I feel a bit guilty that I had assumed the place was more popular than it was and seeing it as a place where others, not so much myself, felt at ease.
I also feel slightly bad that I didn't share my custom sufficiently to do my part to keep them open, because even though I wasn't a big fan of their healthy stuff, at least they had an angle.
On their FB page, the joint cryptically blamed their closure on "many obstacles entailing accountability suffered in the past five years or so." Feel free to speculate exactly what that means on your own, but it sounds like there was some sorta sneakiness involved.
There's not always cause to mourn these closures, however. Many might recall the coverage that was heaped on the news that Foufones Electriques was closing in the late '90s, only to never actually close at all. So getting too upset could backfire.There's a chance the same, or a similar business could return to the spot, so force back the tears.
It's frequently assumed that small shopkeepers who close up simply didn't make enough money but sometimes there's an element of boredom involved as well. Not everybody wants to spend their lives in a little shop worrying about tiny issues each day.Some also assume that the owners of closed establishments must have been mean, or rude or incompetent.
But in a couple of other recently local cases the business folk were quite delightful.
The woman who ran the recently-closed Super Dave dry cleaners on Papineau just below Sherbrooke was terribly kind. She was practicing Hindi the last time I had a lot chat with her, so perhaps she moved off to the far east.
And the A + Dollar store around the corner on Ste. Catherine, also recently closed, was similarly very well operated with a super friendly east Indian woman in charge.
In both of those cases the shopowners seemed almost abnormally happy and friendly, certainly not an attitude one would consider reflective of business misery.