On moving on – • When I opened the shop on March 15th, I didn’t realize it would be the last time. I figured COVID-19 would pass and I could get back to business as usual. Fast forward 4 months and here we are, still closed. More and more people are getting sick, yet there is a sudden societal push for businesses to reopen. • Wooden Sleepers is a small shop. The realty is, even if I wanted to open right now, I would not be able to meet the mandatory social distancing requirements to do so safely. It would be physically impossible. More importantly, I have a family whose health and safety is paramount to me. So, I’m left with two choices – keep the shop closed and continue hemorrhaging money paying rent for a shuttered store, or cut my losses and close up shop until I can safely reopen in a new location. • Here’s the thing, before COVID-19, I thought maybe I had outgrown my small shop. Maybe I should look for something bigger and better. I thought about this a lot in 2019, but I was unsure. Moving is risky and I have a stable thing. The realty is, I was scared to take the next step – to do what I needed to do in order to grow the business. • COVID-19 put my back against the wall. It forced me to make a decision that I might not have otherwise had the courage to make – the decision to close my shop at 395 Van Brunt and reopen in a new space, a space better suited to sustain the health of the business and enable us to grow for years to come. • Now, this move isn’t happening right away. We’re still in the midst of a global pandemic and I am in no rush to reopen. With that said, Wooden Sleepers WILL reopen. In the meantime, we will continue to operate online and via some other special projects. Of course, I will continue to update you all here. • Thank you to anyone who visited Wooden Sleepers in Red Hook. It really means the world to me. On to the next chapter. I invite you to stick around and visit when the time comes. ✌🏼 Brian • #woodensleepers #redhook #395vanbrunt (at WOODEN SLEEPERS) https://www.instagram.com/p/CCTwuM6h8bm/?igshid=13ozsaqbu1gks
