“I’ve been a collector for a long time, but I never wanted to sell in the beginning. I met this lady that used to have a spot here and she encouraged me to sell my products, and I’ve been in love with it ever since,” TJ said.

TJ owns two storefronts in town, but prefers his time spent at Rustic Cave, which allows him to create more connections with his customers.

“The end of the year is usually the best time of the year. A lot of people come in looking for personal gifts and we have everything they could need,” TJ said.

Parkade Cinemas, which first opened up in 1966 as a single-screen movie theater, is yet another piece of Manchester’s history. The current family ownership, who bought the theater’s property back in 2007, said that continuing the storied theater was a no-brainer. Since their purchase, they have steadily increased their operations and turned a single-screen operating movie theater into a six screen and live performance combo venue, adapting to the many needs of our community. While 2019 was their most successful year to date, the pandemic severely impacted their operations, and ownership has been fighting to get back on track. The only possible way this will happen is if we, as a community, continue to put money back into our people.

Unfortunately, we can see how a lack of support can cause businesses to shutter. The Manchester Parkade Health Shoppe, which has been around for nearly 61 years, has recently had to close their doors.

“The store has been a piece of the community’s lives…It took me months to make [the decision to close] and I was hoping things would bounce back, that people would support [local],” shop owner Erika Dworkin said.

When local stores such as these close, it cuts off supplies and necessities for populations that do not have means to access larger stores or distributors. People who are not connected to the internet and the convenience of online shopping, or those with language barriers who don’t feel comfortable straying from their local shops, can often become misplaced and unaware of how to get their necessities. With any closing business comes multiple jobs lost in the process, adding individuals to unemployment and misplacing yet another population.

“Peoples have been overwhelmed by the pandemic, just trying to get by and live their lives,” Dworkin said. “I have no resentment towards this, and I completely understand the circumstances, but this closing is very sad for the people who have depended on the store.”

It is painful to see the locally-owned businesses that have come to define our town shut their doors. These businesses are in danger of becoming forgetting and eventually erased from our public consciousness. I advocate for local businesses because every person has their own history and story to tell. We are all still hurting from this last year and trying to predict the future as it slowly unravels. As a community, we have to be there to support each other and understand we are all going through something incredibly difficult right now. Only as a Manchester community can we get through this.