Jim, We Hardly Knew Ye

Last week, The Mister and I ordered some pizza from one of our favorite places, Garlic Jim's. As the delivery girl took my money, she stated somberly, "And just so you know, we are closing at the end of this week." When asked for a reason, she shrugged and replied, "Not enough customers." And that was our "official" notice that Garlic Jim's has decided to close their store at Lakeview Village. Sigh.

Part of me understands the business side; I do work with numbers, after all. Part of me really wishes they could just hold on until Basha's gets open and folks start living in the houses being built right behind them. You know, our culture and media have been replete with references to being green. In the real estate vernacular, being green has nothing to do with environmental conservation; it means that an area isn't quite ripe yet, like a green apple. It means that there aren't enough consumers to sustain businesses. Lakeview Village is ripening quickly, especially with Lakeview Trails North under construction. Albertson's decision to sell itself nationally, thus closing their store in Lakeview Village, was a very real setback to the ripening process, but it is temporary.

In the past week, I had the aforementioned pizza from Garlic Jim's, a sandwich with my daughter at In the Raw, and some jewelry repaired at D'Avanti's Jewelers; and of course, in an attempt to feed the never-satisfied craw of the IRS, sent more packages using the UPS store. The Mister and I are trying to do our part to support those businesses; pretty soon the center will be juicy sweet.