So, here where I work, we're located in a shopping mall.

And in that shopping mall there's... well, not much. It used to be flush with stores. When I first started working here there was one vacancy (an education assistance place that had gone out of business). But little by little, almost all of the stores have gone. The biggest trouble was Ragshop closing up all their stores. That was our anchor store. And when we no longer had an anchor stores, other places started suffering. We lost a big ice cream parlor and Marty's Shoes, the other two largest stores in the building, basically cementing a lack of desire for anyone to move in.

Luckily, by the time this started happening, we were at least three years established. And over the years, we've done a lot of outside events, outreach programs, school programs, etc. All of which gets us decent exposure and all of which was enough to get us through last year's particularly bad financial situation and come back ahead of the game. And this year we're doing even better. We have been very lucky.

Other businesses here, however, have not. I counted a month or so ago, after Dark Tower had finally moved out, and we had about 11 stores left. The diner in our lot, Midori (Japanese Restaurant), a nail salon, a hair salon, a dress place that never seemed to have any customers and had some very specifically designed dresses, a tiling business, a custom sign business, a dry cleaners, a pizzeria (Saporito), a completely useless Verizon store (best I can figure they're only connected to Fios and no other Verizon service; they are paid every day to sit and watch Spanish soap operas and look lost and horrified every time someone walks in asking anything - fortunately for them, that's not much of an issue), and us.

Well, soon after that I noticed the dress place was gone. Then the sign guys had trucks out in the back for a couple of days. The week after they were gone.

It's beyond depressing at this point. The management doesn't want to renovate or update the place until an anchor store signs with them and an anchor store doesn't want to sign a contract to move in until the place is updated. The management would like us to be fooled by their constant implication that they are, in fact, going to renovate anyway! Because, as any smart business owner would when owning a large shopping center that will hopefully last a long time, there would have been money saved and set aside sometime between 1985, when the place was built, and now to _do_ said renovations. Because, buildings, not the mention styles, don't last forever... So, of course they'll renovate. Totally.

Well, they're fucking liars.

There hasn't been a lick of renovation all spring and we've not crossed into summer. I see still no signs of renovating. There are signs. Oh! Are there signs! Front, side. Signs proclaiming the wonderful things to come.

Nothing.

And, shockingly, there's not going to be a surplus of money to do renovations with the lack of income coming in from the lack of stores. And no one wants to move in here when there's no prospect of walk-in business. And we'll have no additional such prospect without some more goddamn businesses.

Now, again, we're truly doing okay. Pauline and I have put a lot of work into making sure we keep our regulars and reach out to get even more loyal customers. I cut corners where I can while cultivating loyal and solid employees. It works.

But this week I'm pretty sure we lost one of the most important businesses left.

See, on Tuesday I was chatting with some customers who casually asked is Saporito was back open. Confused, I clarified and it turned out that on Monday they were closed the latter half of the day with a sign on their door explaining their oven had broken and they would reopen as soon as it was serviced. So these customers wanted to order pizza today instead and could I please call and see if they were reopened? Well, of course! Now I'm curious! And ya know? A slice of pizza sounds really good.

No answer.

Doors locked.

Lights out.

Okay, obviously the pizza-oven-repairman was busy on Monday and Tuesday.

Well, today Julianne was here working with me and asked if I minded her going to get a slice of pizza for lunch and if I wanted anything. So I told her the mini-crisis they'd had and suggested she call to check.

Still no answer.

So she took a walk over.

Doors locked.

Lights out.

Tables gone.

And so that's where we are. Maybe they're taking this time to re-wax the floors or something while they wait for the oven to be fixed or replaced. Maybe they're replacing the old tables with newer, nicer ones. Maybe a burglar came in during this quick break in business and stole all the tables and chairs!

And maybe when I come in tomorrow Ragshop will be back open.

There's no sign, no message on their machine, but there's also no pizza.

This presents two problems to us. The first of which is the _very_little_ walk-in business we get because people stopped in for pizza and noticed us on the way. But the bigger issue is our birthday parties. While the majority of parties choose to provide their own food, they _always_ order from Saporito. It's convenient, they pay for the pizza ahead of time, and the boys there bring it on over at the exact time it's needed. Now where will we get the pizza?

Honestly, I have no idea. Maybe we'll need to work with the diner and different food? Maybe a delivery place will be flexible and reliable enough (although I'd hate to have to trust that _every_ time, sometimes 3-4 times a day). But I am now, officially, worried. Summer brings with it few to no parties so hopefully by the fall when things pick up in that area, we'll have something good worked out. (Although what I truly hope that what actually happens is that either they're not closed or miraculously another pizza place takes their place.) :/