The Black Friday That Bought a Neighborhood Back

The Bell & Book was a tiny independent bookstore wedged between a dry cleaner and a pawnshop on a corner that hadn’t seen much sparkle in years. Its owner, Marta, had run it for twenty years: poetry nights, school field-trip discounts, repair-your-soul advice between the biographies. Two months before Thanksgiving, a national big-box retailer announced a shiny new superstore three blocks away. Marta watched foot traffic thin out like coffee in a slow pot. She had bills. So did several other local owners on that strip.

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