Shop owner overwhelmed by community support during hard times
For nine years, Dawn Spencer has owned a Silver Spring shop that sells greeting cards. She has followed the life passages of her customers through the cards they buy, cards neatly arranged under familiar headings: Birthday, Graduation, Wedding, Anniversary, Get Well Soon.
And when the worst happens, Sympathy.
That’s a fate Dawn is hoping she can avoid. Her card and gift shop on New Hampshire Avenue in Colesville Center is called Patches. Battered by the weak economy, Patches is hurting.
“The snow is what really put me behind,” Dawn said. From the first storm in December to when the last snow of February was cleared, Dawn’s revenue dropped $26,000 from the previous year. She’s so far behind on the rent that her landlord is talking about evicting her.
There are some who will say that Patches deserves its fate, that its closure would be the unfortunate, but inevitable, byproduct of the engine of capitalism. Survival of the fittest and all that.
