State of the Small Retail Owner

dino writes: As a mail man, I can offer you a little antidotal evidence on the state of the small retail store owner. Up until 2 years ago, some were very demanding and took a lot of joy in telling you how to do your job. You could sense that they looked down on mere workers. Now a lot are asking if there are any jobs available. Once they start asking they tend to fold up shop in about 3 months.