We Were Stunned at the News - Apr. 14, 2010

 It is sad to say goodbye to a locally owned and operated business.

 With the news Green Village is closing its doors, we have lost a piece of community fabric.

 Not sure where it is going to end.

 Will there be a movement sometime in the not too distant future that sees us go back to the way it was?

 Hard to imagine right now.

 We continue to accept the fact that going out of our way to shop at massive stores in the middle of nowhere is the thing to do.

 Huge companies where most of the money brought in goes out the door and goes back to the mothership in the United States.

 Not all of them, but many of them.

 Anyway, there will not be a rant here to shop local. Been there, done that.

 It just goes to show that we genuinely appreciate every person that comes through the doors of Animal Essentials and supports us.

 Somehow we have survived almost four years of operations.

 It means we are doing something right.

 Just this morning, Shelley met a lady in a coffee shop. It was idle conversation that somehow turned to Animal Essentials. Turns out she supports us for her Golden.

 It is an amazing feeling.

And we talk about that all the time.

 We were prepared to go into a marketing partnership with Green Village that would have started in May. Everything happened so fast we were all left a little stunned when the news came down today.

 There are good people looking for work and good people who lost their dream yesterday of offering a locally owned business.

 We feel for them.

 There has to be answers for all of us who owned independent stores.

 Right now there just seems to be more questions.

 Sadly.