Excuse me, do you know where I can get a coffee?

 

Rainforest Cafe

Pop up stores have been around for a while and I generally don't mind them. Often tied to a trend or serving as the introduction of a new line filling empty storefronts.

Until they started to bother me. This surreal reality were living in that is forcing people to shop online is just part of this feeling of an unstable world.

Municipalities approve what goes where and four internet cafes in a row made no sense to me. Its poor city planning. In November,  a much needed cafe showed up. Baked goods, breakfast and coffee. It was packed on the opening day. People read papers and their digital media. Anytime I walked by, it was well frequented. I asked about brunch and they were still just serving yoghurt and muesli as they had just opened and weren't ready.

I was ill for a month and when I walked by the Cafe I'd been looking forward to just a month later, it was gone. There is no possibility that a new owner with a thriving business was failing. A pop up cafe?

I like to support small businesses, but I suspect it's part of much bigger companies who either try out concepts or are required to fill their empty real estate with something.

During Covid a number of landmark department stores closed. Because of the number of jobs involved, the government stepped in. Some of those companies didn't make it and as it turns out the new owners had no interest in the retail aspect, but were only interested in its real estate. Government is suing. We'll see.

I like new experiences, but not being able to rely on any store being where it was is not an experience but a hassle.

One of those experiences was the Rainforest café in London, a few years after it had opened. I went as an adult as it had not been around when I was a child. I would have driven my parents crazy had it been. At the time it was still in great condition, animatronic animals, a fog machine, thunder and lightening. No gift shop that I recall and the animals weren't well known cartoons. My inner child was in awe, adult me thought this was a better design than Disney world. The food was overpriced, less than meh, but we had a good time. It was a once in a lifetime themed experience. A number of them have closed in the last few years. I can do without a themed restaurant, but I do not want everything to turn into a theme or trend.

An aquaintance of mine wants to open a themed bar with miniature train sets delivering beverages and hammocks to relax in, if only he could get investors to fund it. I laughed because I doubt either will work well with inebriated people.

Too much is disappearing too quickly. That businesses come and go is normal, but that everything is disappearing is not. Spouse and I needed some new pots, but the store where we always buy them from was now selling clothes under the same name. I no longer know what store carries what items at any given time.

Maybe I should open my own flower shop, which also serves a good coffee, sells pots and pans as well as art supplies.