12/27/2024
Good evening,
This post is going to have a different tone, it won't be my normal cheerful post, nor will it be rage filled. Today was our last day as a business. Another downtown business bites the dust, but of course, we'll be blamed for not advertising enough, our prices were "too high", not enough variety-the list goes on.
The idea of BargainMart was to serve an under served area, downtown. a lot elderly folks, people on fixed income or low income live downtown because it's cheaper, it's what they can afford. Why go all the way across town for dish soap or bandaids when you can just take a short walk or drive?
Our regular customers were our backbone, they were few, but amazing. Chad Banks did what he could to advertise for us, Royal Flush, the downtown business guide, friends, family, word of mouth. The true MVPs and we are forever grateful, but unfortunately, it wasn't enough to keep us afloat.
Everyone preaches until they're blue in the face, "Shop small, shop local!" Where were you? Aside from accusing us of getting our items from Ali Baba and Temu. For the record, everything on our shelves was ordered from the same places Dollar Tree and Family Dollar order from. We wanted to get the cute things, the neat things, we wanted to draw you in, 'Field of Dreams' style and we did, at first. The new, shiny toy in town got attention, then, it didn't.
When Sidekicks closed, we knew the end was nearing for us as well. We couldn't afford to advertise and did our last hail Mary at the holiday show; I made a total of 5 or 6 sales those 3 days and we had a heck of a deal going. That's when we knew it was not "if", but "when".
To be absolutely honest, I wanted to go scoarched Earth with this post, I had every plan to, because I'm angry; not because I'm losing my job as store manager, but because everytime a small business closes, especially downtown, everyone acts surprised. Because my boss, a great man and a hard worker, has to put his dreams to bed. Because my employees have one less job to help them survive. Tomorrow, I get to go in, dismatle our POS, take down our open sign, the BargainMart sign that has hung faithfully for almost 2 years and sort through some things. Take down the holiday decor, and when I am done, clock out one final time.
With lessons learned and gratitude,
Natalia
