Feast to famine in a few short months

I don't mean to brag, but I'm pretty happy with the place I'm living in, from a scrapbooking standpoint. When I moved here 6.5 years ago, I had been going to a stamping store in MI and the small scrapbook aisle at Michael's for my scrapbooking needs. Made an entire 100+ page scrapbook for my 3-month trip to UK with those few supplies. (Probably very few of them are acid-free, though, and I should be scanning them soon - I know.)

When I moved out west, there was one scrapbook store next to the place I worked, and nothing else except Michael's and JoAnn's for 10+ miles (or nothing I could find in the phone book, anyway). Within 2 years, four more SB stores had popped up within 5 miles of me AND Michael's and JoAnn's had expanded their SB aisles AND Target developed an SB area too. There's even 2 SB Expos that come within 35 miles of me. I was in SB supply heaven!

About 4 years ago, I discovered a SB store down the street from me with a weird name that never would have clued me in that it was SB supply. It was an average place, but it seemed to carry a lot of old supplies and not update with the latest stuff I was seeing in MM. Within 4 months of me finding it, it closed, and some people told me it was open for less than a year. Ditto with the stamping store in my little downtown area; they closed after only a few months and moved to website-only, and then they shut that down too. I still had my main four, not to mention the bigger chains, so no biggie.

A few months ago, one of the stores near me (one I didn't visit often because it was further away than others) closed their doors. This is the place everyone went for those hard-to-find basic supplies, and sometimes for the really cool, really trendy papers. That store also had Friday night crops that lasted until 2am... or later, depending on how the store employee felt at 2. They had a loyal following, and they were situated in an area with a lot of upper-middle class and upper class homes and people who could work from home or still stay at home... many with expendable income to support something like SB. I was shocked it was closing, but not surprised, since there were so many stores in the area competing. I didn't have a second thought about it.

This morning, I just found out that one of my 2 main SB haunts is closing early next month. I can't explain how this has affected my head today. I know the owners and talk to them socially whenever I'm in. I started going there alone 2.5 years ago for crops just to get work done and feed my social need... and then started taking my friends. One night, there were 8 of us there, and he had such a great time! They always have these cool little embellishments and trendy papers that I've never seen anywhere else. They usually book their 25 seats for Friday night crops every week. Again, it's on the border of a upper-class area with SAHM/Ds and tons of expendable income... and I can't believe they're closing. I feel like the guy I lost my virginity to is dumping me because he's gay. "No, no, it's not you; it's me."

This is compounded by my other main SB haunt cutting back their Friday night crops to no more that 2x per week and introduce more gift wrap and stationary, while crowding out some of the truly good, cute, and unique SB supplies. When they started doing that at the beginning of December, I thought, "Eh, it's only for the holidays and I can always go to the other place." But now my other place won't be there!

There is an upside: I'm on vacation this week and they're have a 30% off sale beginning tomorrow. You bet I'll be there when the doors open. But, with mixed feelings: it's like being dumped by the gay guy you lost your virginity to... and then paying him for sex anyway. "Okay, fine, it's you. But maybe we can both walk away from this happily."