Keplers, part II
Sep. 10th, 2005 09:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
apparentparadoxWell, there's now talk about doing things to make it so that Kepler's can re-open. The landlord, which by all reports had refused to meet with Kepler's or the city about reducing the rent, now says that "Kepler's is an institution, and we can't imagine Menlo Park with them gone". People are coming out of the woodwork to talk about what they can do to get Kepler's to re-open.
In some ways, it's nice to see, but I just have to think, why did it take the store closing before any of these people did anything, like, say, actually spending money there? It's been pretty clear to me for a while that Kepler's was in trouble -- the shelves were noticeably less well stocked, fewer items taking up more space to make the store look full, etc. Even though I will miss Kepler's a lot, if we don't fix the basic underlying problem (e.g. people aren't spending enough money there), then this is all just a farce. If the store can't be economically viable, then why play this "life support" action?
Don't get me wrong. Like I said in a response to someone's comment in my previous post, I consider myself part of the problem. Sure, I've dropped lots of money at Kepler's over the years, but the last few years, I've switched over to using the public library more -- both to save money and to avoid having so much "stuff" around my house.
In some ways, it's nice to see, but I just have to think, why did it take the store closing before any of these people did anything, like, say, actually spending money there? It's been pretty clear to me for a while that Kepler's was in trouble -- the shelves were noticeably less well stocked, fewer items taking up more space to make the store look full, etc. Even though I will miss Kepler's a lot, if we don't fix the basic underlying problem (e.g. people aren't spending enough money there), then this is all just a farce. If the store can't be economically viable, then why play this "life support" action?
Don't get me wrong. Like I said in a response to someone's comment in my previous post, I consider myself part of the problem. Sure, I've dropped lots of money at Kepler's over the years, but the last few years, I've switched over to using the public library more -- both to save money and to avoid having so much "stuff" around my house.