Sadly, Karem's Meats has closed its doors.

With 225 shares on Facebook since the 19th of February, this will come as old news to many of you, but note that Karem's Meats has closed.

AFTER 53 YEARS OF SERVING NEW ALBANY, KAREM’S MEATS REGRETS THAT THEY MUST CLOSE THEIR DOORS. I WOULD LIKE TO THANK EVERYONE THAT HAS BEEN A PART OF KAREM’S MEATS SINCE THEY OPENED IN 1965. KAREM’S HAS ENJOYED BEING A PART OF THIS COMMUNITY AND APPRECIATE THE LOYALTY FROM THE CUSTOMERS THAT HAVE PATRONIZED OUR HOMETOWN MEAT MARKET FOR GENERATIONS

It's been only seven months since Karem's enjoyed a rebirth.

Karem's Meats: Grand (re)opening and customer appreciation day is Saturday, July 29.

Indie business longevity: "Karem's Meats is New Albany's locally owned Meat Market since 1965."

Earlier in 2017, Karem's shifted to a new location at 3306 Plaza Drive, off Grant Line Road (near Aldi and NABC's original location). This weekend, they're celebrating.

Indie business ownership is rewarding.

It's also unrelenting trench warfare, especially in a monopolistic system of terminally ill capitalism, now firmly jigged toward chains and franchises.

Perhaps the relocation of an indie business is the most difficult of all these tricks. Customers develop habits, and they're hard ones to break. There isn't always time to adjust, or to develop a new shtick. 

I'm reminded of my experience working at the old Scoreboard Liquors, which was situated for quite some time on the 100 block of West Spring, just across the street from the federal courthouse.

In 1987, the liquor store's owners were told the building was being sold, and their lease wouldn't be renewed. They had a year to make a decision, and eventually opted to move the store all the way across town, to a fixer-upper on the corner of Beharrell and E. Spring (it had been a Night Owl food mart decades previously).

Scoreboard made the move; Chase Bank now occupies the space where the store and Cadillac Lanes bowling alley once stood.

Jim and Ed had nicely remodeled the building at Beharrell and Spring, but while highly visible to traffic speeding past -- well, the basic problem was that traffic kept speeding past, because access was feasible only when traveling westbound. I didn't know it at the time, but I was witnessing one of several reasons for traffic calming and human-scaled streets.

Neighborhood trade made up for some of it, and yet the fact is that the new location never really jelled. Eventually the license was purchased by a competitor, and Scoreboard Liquors passed into history's mists.

I feel awful for Matt Nash, who's as good a bloke as I know. May his next step be more rewarding -- and as an extremely reluctant capitalist, this isn't to imply money alone.

Sleep's more important in the end.