Out of Business

Eric
Eric
Aug 23, 2017 · 2 min read

“Can I ask you why this store is going out of business?” I put down my stuff for checkout. Hair gel, 20% off. Four bottles of wine, all half price. A loaf of sourdough bread, 70% off. I stocked up on birthday and Christmas cards for the next five years too, they were all 90% off.

“Well lets just say this,” said the lady who started rigging up my items. “If you were just driving by outside, how would you even know we are here?”

I thought about it for a moment. I guess she had a point. This place isn’t even visible from the road, it’s behind a mountain. And you have to park downhill by the swamp and walk uphill over five hundred steps. You have to pass under a crumbling bridge, which is actually a historical marker from the Progressive Era. It has a plaque and everything. The bridge is also a serious tetanus hazard. One of my uncles got lockjaw from it. You then have to trudge through a small national park of pine trees and poison ivy, and only then will you finally see this place, crumbling and covered in ivy. But there is a chasm separating you and your destination, and a rope made of horse hair is the only way over.

“Snickers are buy one get one,” the lady said to me. I grabbed three.

“Yeah I guess this is a weird location for a Tom Thumb.”

— — — — — — —

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Peace.

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