Good-Bye Cayenne ...

At the end of May, Boulder County loses one of its foodie shopping spots - well, if you're a foodie who likes to cook. Cayenne Kitchen was (is, but not for much longer) Longmont's "kitchen store" with all sort of gadgets, cookware, and an interesting selection of sauces, spices, and other .... stuff.

Judging by the way the vultures were pecking over the corpse of this store on the first Saturday when the closing was announced, people LIKED the products Cayenne sold. That Saturday, prices were 25 percent off, which is a decent sale. But if you were on Cayenne's mailing list, you got a 25-percent-off coupon every month. That Saturday's 25-percent-off was a good sale, but shoppers could have gotten that discount every month, if it was the discount they were after.

But even with that monthly discount and other sales, there wasn't enough traffic to keep the business viable. People didn't think about shopping there until the store announced its closing. And then they flocked in..

It's a shame, too, because not only was it a great place to browse for cool cooking toys, but it was a store owned by two incredibly nice and generous people. It seemed like any time a charity asked for a donation, Cayenne ponied up with a gift card or a basket filled with product.

If only all the people who asked for donations had come back and shopped at Cayenne, the store might have had a chance at surviving. And if all the people who flocked there for the sale had stopped in once in a while over the past year, maybe that would have helped.

Too late now.

Another local business bites the dust, and now Longmont locals will have to shop elsewhere. It's not like there are no other choices. In Longmont, there's the Ace Hardware store that has just expanded its housewares selection. And in Boulder, of course there's Peppercorn.

But still it's sad to see a nice local store close.

I'll miss them.