I finally got around to going to Gibson’s Bakery this week.
It is pretty pathetic-looking inside. I honestly don’t think it was that great-looking before the trouble with Oberlin College based on what I saw.
But I’m glad I saw it in this state. I will make an effort to go back there in about six weeks. I’m hoping to see it closed for renovations.
I know that they had had a black employee for a long time whom they had to let go when business dried up. I imagine by now he is happily situated in a job that is not worth giving up for a dubious future at a store that may never last in Oberlin. I was the only customer in the store for the twenty minutes I was there. The clerk, who had worked there since she was a teen and is now probably over 40, said the students stay away.
I imagine the family will give this former clerk and the current one a nice little gift here soon for standing by them. It would be great if he spoke at a reopening ceremony.
They had a help wanted sign up. I’m glad they think there is enough business to warrant hiring people, but IMHO they should just shut down, work on redesign plans, take a hiatus, and reopen next year. Maybe they should open a second store in Ashland. The university there seems to be one of the rare normal ones.
Oh, and another thing, a lot of the students walking around the town of Oberlin were wearing masks outdoors. I saw more Oberlin College students in masks than I saw College of Wooster students in masks walking around the campus in Wooster when I was there last week. I didn’t think it was possible that there could be more students anywhere in Ohio in masks outdoors than what I saw in Wooster, but I was wrong.