Here inside the Age of Aquariums pet store on the northwest side of Goshen the humidity hangs in the air, fish tanks gurgle and owner Garry Ferrell keeps hoping for a miracle.
“It’s sad,” Ferrell said Friday from behind the store’s main counter. “My wife and I have owned this place for six years. I’ve been associated with it for more than 20. I really feel sorry for any small business these days.”
After 26 years in business, this little pet store originally founded by Rocky Farmilo and his mother, Anita, will most likely have its doors locked for good by the end of the month. Ferrell hopes to have most of his inventory liquidated by then.
Sadly, a giant “GOING OUT OF BUSINESS” sign clings to his windows here along the 1900 block of Elkhart Road.
Business, while not booming by any means, had been steady for the past several years, Ferrell said.
“It was soft, but you could tolerate it,” he explained. “It really took a dive in February. That’s went it really hit me … If business was a quarter of what it was four years ago I could live comfortably.”
Back in those days, Age of Aquariums required three full-time and two part-time employees. And it was all they could do to keep up, Ferrell said.
Today, it’s him and one part-timer, a 17-year-old Goshen High School senior named Morgan Rhodes, who was distraught enough over Ferrell’s struggle that she was compelled to write an open letter to politicians that was published in The News earlier this month.
“Being that small businesses have proven to be the backbone of a capitalistic society,” Rhodes wrote, “I fail to understand why more money hasn’t been put toward small businesses. … Please keep the ‘backbone’ going. If not, I fear the worst is yet to come.”
For Ferrell, 58, the worst has arrived. Like many small business owners, Ferrell pays himself last after all the other bills are paid. So far this year he said he has received a grand total of three paychecks.
Animals dropped off
With unemployment and underemployment soaring here in Elkhart County, families are paring down their expenses as best they can. That includes their pets. Ferrell said he can’t count how many times he has found small pets left outside his door in recent months.
“I guess they don’t want to take them to the Humane Society,” Ferrell said. “They know I’ll find a good home for them.”
Longtime customer
The scenario is hard for Ferrell to swallow. As he was contemplating his current lot, longtime customer Jean Zollinger of New Paris stopped in. For years Age of Aquariums has been a mainstay on her weekly list of errands.
She owns a guinea pig, a gecko, a dog and a cat. On Friday it took her just a few minutes to stroll through the aisles and find what she needed. She went to the counter and put down a couple treats, a bag on sun-cured Timothy hay seed and a bag of corn cob small animal bedding.
“You even get a discount today,” Ferrell told her, referring to his going-out-of-business sale.
“I’d rather not have it,” she replied, “and have you stay in business.”
When Ferrell first informed Zollinger that he was closing she cried.
“It breaks my heart that he’s closing,” Zollinger said. “He treats you like family.”
Ferrell asked about Zollinger’s granddaughter, who is a senior at Bethany Christian, before she gathered her supplies and left the store for one of the final times.
A helping hand
Shortly thereafter, Anita Farmilo, who sold the business to Ferrell, arrived and set her purse behind the counter. The two are still close and Anita has been coming in during the days to answer the phone and man the cash register as Ferrell tends to breaking down his business.
“I’m here,” Farmilo said, “to hold his hand through this sad time.”
It’s a far cry from the days when Ferrell said business was so steady that he remembers getting lunch at noon and not taking a bite of it until several hours later. These days Ferrell is starving for business in this barren economy.
He believes that if there was some more financial help available to small businesses, he could weather this economic drought. Instead, he’s making other plans.
Could see it coming
“I could see this coming about six or seven months ago,” Ferrell said. “I went out and got a part-time job. Hopefully I’ll be able to pick-up some more hours.”
Meanwhile, the phone at the Age of Aquariums keeps ringing. People call to ask if the news of the store’s closing is true. They convey their sympathies to Ferrell. They ask him what fish he has left in the tank.
By the end of the month the phone line will likely go dead. The shelves will likely be bare. The door will likely be locked. Ferrell will go about his life, uncertain of what will be next.
“I’m going to take it one day at a time,” Ferrell said. “I just don’t have the option to be looking too far in the future.”
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