Dead Pool

Esbee's post about various states of local small businesses, some moving and some gone out of business, coincided with my discovery that the Back Yard Burgers in Lewisville has been closed since last month. Given that the Back Yard Burger website says "Under construction" I'm wondering if the whole chain went under.  After seeing that I'm tempted to start a "Dead Pool" for area businesses, but considering how depressing most of the economic news is these days it just feels too "icky."  

I will go so far as to say that my personal feeling is that the bloodletting in retail has just begun, and it hurts me to say that.  I love and respect entrepreneurs.  To me they're the true heroes in business, far more so than the titans who run the mammoth corporations.  Entrepreneurs put their financial lives on the line every day, while the corporate chieftains merely face public failure and perhaps losing their jobs.  Sure that's hard, but at the end of the day they still have their golden portfolios and they probably aren't facing the loss of their homes since they didn't have to put them up for collateral to finance their companies.

So let me say this loud and clear: Save the entrepreneurs and shop local.