Thank you for this article about the closing of At the Oasis (my store) and Verde, but please accept a correction.
Your piece contained an accurate quote from me, but concluded from what I said that economic concerns were not the reason for my choosing to close my store.
Finances were certainly not the only reason for closing, but the difficult economy and the pull of online and nearby box-store shopping were major factors in my decision to shut down.
Rising expenses across the board and a trend of diminished spending in general, and local spending in particular, made surviving profitably an impossibility.
RE: “Visions, values, and tragedy” [Special Focus, July 17]: This is a very very impressive and brave piece of journalism. Thanks, Joyce Marcel! People involved speak for themselves, and this group of articles lets readers fill in the bigger complicated picture, and come to their own conclusion, or more...