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Health & Fitness

What Should Go Here? Former Silk Road

The Silk Road at 1412 Park Street closed last month, but before I pose the question of what you would like to see in this space I want to talk about their story a bit.

I found their farewell message on their blog and then another entry with pictures of their kids growing up at the store.  It was beautifully written and really connected with me since I have similar memories.

I encourage you to read their original message than to have me give you a summary, leaving out the context and emotions.

Closing a business, saying goodbye to your customers and the community you served, or just changing a routine that you’ve been doing for the past several years can be a very emotional time.  Looking back at how it all started, the day-to-day, the friends you made, and watching your kids grow up in the process creates a lot of memories.  It can be tough to say goodbye to that even if it is the right thing to do.

Many years ago my wife and I opened a martial arts studio in San Francisco.  It was, no doubt, one of the hardest things we’ve ever done.  We built it up one student at a time and within a couple of years had about 100 students, and the majority of them were children.  We didn’t have our own children then, but our students were family to us.  We ran the studio for four years, watched our kids go from not knowing which foot is which to being able to do jumping, spinning kicks.  

But after four years we also decided to move on and find someone to takeover the business.  It was the right thing to do, but saying goodbye to our kids and to the routine we’ve been doing for the past four years was very, very hard.

Like their farewell message says, “a time to plant and a time to uproot,” and as the Silk Road uproots it leaves a spot for someone else to plant a new idea.

Suggest what you would like to see at this spot using this link:http://www.spotmojo.com/openspot/silkroad/

PS.  I did get a chance to speak with Michelle Stibbs, the owner of Silk Road, and she said one of the reasons why they closed was simply that they didn’t get enough business.  Things were growing steadily until this year and suddenly sales really slowed.  When they closed many people came by and said they loved the shop but that might not have converted to enough sales to keep things going.  She’s not sure if it’s people shifting their purchases to the web, the local economy, or if the cost of living was going up.

Be sure to support the businesses you love or they will close.  But I know that isn’t the complete solution.  I’ve been thinking about this topic for a while, but am still working out many details.  I’ll write a separate post about it at a later date.

Alameda Patch is working with Spotmojo to collect your ideas for filling vacancies.  Michael Hsueh is the co-founder of Spotmojo.  Spotmojo is a website where you can suggest the businesses you want where you live, work, or play.  The suggestions are used to help new businesses find the perfect location.  This gives you a voice in the businesses that open in your neighborhood and it helps local businesses succeed.

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