Those folks all had basically the same question. Even if the local Gaps are doing well, if the chain is failing, they'd haul out of here in a flash, like Woolworths, Crown and McWhorters did. That would leave us with no local stores carrying those products, and no chain either. On the other hand, if the national chain was doing beautifully, it could afford to keep any local operation running for years until all local competition was completely dead. Either way, national chains are not fair competition.
Borders certainly fits that description.
Peter and Clay are assembling the footage into a documentary so we can all learn how essential public squares are to downtowns. The City Council has placed the Plaza discussion on the January agenda. Our once-yearly performance this Friday night at Bookshop Santa Cruz's birthday party won't quite be the same. This annual party has been held under some mighty unusual circumstances in the past, and it's always one of the most happy engagements we ever play. We'll also be featuring guest performers Matt Michaelis and the Radical Cheerleaders Quartet, which wrote and sang that great anti-Borders ditty heard at the City Council hearing last week.