To the Editor:
There seems to be a growing number of residents here in The Villages who behave as though they are extras in an old Mickey Rooney movie — rallying the neighborhood to get folks to throw a tantrum every time a restaurant closes, a business relocates, or a shop decides it can no longer make money.
This is not high school theater people. This is the real world, where businesses survive by serving customers profitably, not by public demand, emotional petitions, or community temper tantrums. The people acting outraged whenever a private business makes a business decision seem to believe they are somehow shareholders in every storefront simply because they live nearby.
In case they didn’t mention it in your high school civics class, we live in a free enterprise system. Businesses open, businesses close, and businesses adapt. Wake up my fellow Village People, that is how capitalism works. Nobody is “entitled” to force an owner to continue losing money just to preserve someone’s favorite sandwich shop, dance hall (Katie Belle’s), or happy hour routine.
What is especially frustrating is the self-righteous tone that often accompanies these public complaints, as if business owners owe the community permanent operation regardless of economics, staffing realities, lease costs, or changing consumer habits. They do not.
Instead of acting like an angry student council every time a business changes hands or shuts its doors, perhaps residents should remember that privately owned businesses, even those owned by the developer, are not community property.
James King
Village of Gilchrist