Been ordering from this shop for years, way back when he was cutting foam himself with a cheap laser cutter. He leveled up with the rise of the hobby, bought an industrial cutter from China. China did what China does, fucked him, the machine didn't work. Fucked the store up for a good while (I'm sure some of you remember the delay in foam), he eventually found someone to cut the foam in Asia and that worked out well.
Seems some GBs didn't go well for him either, though I hear designers were also flakes.
Basically, dude made a proper go, things didn't work as planned. Now it kinda sounds like he is terminal, or at least sick enough that things like exits scams are probably the last of his worries.
Rough situation. And more stores will be closing I'm sure, this won't be the last. Still sucks to see. What other store would commission a freaking X-Files deskmat other than MKUltra? What I really loved was the conspiracy notes included with each order.
Consumers don't need to know how the sausage is made, but they sure as fuck know if it tastes good. Ignoring criticism because consumers don't know how the sausage machine broke is how you get endless news articles pointing and laughing at Bethesda.
The customer is always right goes beyond the literal words. Perchance it's a lesson that needs relearned.