One would think that history would be kind to The Gerosha Chronicles. In some ways, yes. In other ways, not so much. But while the alternate history world had to struggle with the tie-in tour A Very Anarteq Tour of the Soo coping with the fact that AirBnB wasn't in possession of 1011 Wellington St. in real life in 2015, requiring a retcon to make it so, and further had to deal with the fact that the HD Sports Grill in 2015 had since become a Montana's, these were minor setbacks to one being able to live inside the world of Anarteq: Guardian of the Soo.
Yet, the timelines for Ciem: Inferno and Sodality: Instigation were done both an ironic service and disservice in September of 2022. So, what happened?
According to this article from The Warrick County Standard, the Posey's Market so critical to Earth-G7 Ciem mythos got shut down, just two years after its ceasing normal store operations in the Earth-G7 timeline. Only, it wasn't repurposing as a gateway to Imaki's catacombs to hide the Exodus Agenda from Halal Affadidah's patrols that led to the shutdown.
Instead, Posey's fell prey to something else: poor management. More specifically, health code violations up the gazoo.
Pummeled by the economic brutality of the Scamdemic, and draconian lockdowns that failed to protect anyone from disease, the business had to start cutting corners just to stay in business. The building was old and decrepit. Its infrastructure, in bad shape. And that was on top of other acts of mismanagement leading to lots and lots and lots of spoiled food!
It wasn't just spoiled meat that was an issue, however. All that rotten vegetation that went unadressed had led to a fly population growing out of control. Customers could look forward to being assaulted by horseflies while trying to by canned garbanzo beans. Store shelves in an "out of order" freezer unit tried frantically to get shipping companies to accept recalled products that they failed to pick up from recalls from 20 years prior! The logs were never honored by the companies back in 2002, and were ignored all through 2012. But after 2020, records about it all...went missing.
With credits to be earned from overdue returns, Posey's didn't want to eat the cost to simply have that way-expired product go in the dumpster. Speaking of which, no one was maintaining the dumpsters to deal with the maggot problem. Probaby because the insane city hall had made most practical "cowboy" methods of dealing with the problem illegal, resulting in having to wait for services that the Scamdemic destroyed in order to (never actually) deal with the problem that Posey's was no longer able to deal with itself!
Rather than come to the store's rescue, when it was begging for help, that's not the Indiana way. Instead, the store got kicked while it was down. The health department's sign notices didn't even bother to give anyone an explanation as to why the store had been suddenly closed down. The only thing anyone knew, was that what used to be a mainstay of shopping local in the area, and supporting local store owners, had fallen prey to government red tape. Only an article published later by the local paper finally explained what the rationale behind this closing was.
Who could benefit from letting a store like that die? For one, Big Box. Wal-Mart, which has had its share of issues with meat, and the War on Flies, is big and powerful enough to survive getting slapped with occasional fines by the health department. And was all too eager to eat up the business that Posey's lost. Little guys, like Posey's? Defenseless! And given how tied their hands had been for years, it seemed the problems with that aging store were only destined to get worse. The inevitable finally happened: the store became unsafe to do business in.
What does this mean for Dozerfleet fans? It means, barring a massive internal overhaul and new management, Posey's will likely never again be open to the public. At least, not under that identity. So if you are fans of Ciem: Inferno, and you would love to revisit the locations mentioned in Ciem: Inferno: The Grand Tour as part of your Boonville-visiting experience, just take note that shopping at the grocery store whose parking lot was the setting for Candi Flippo's arrest in Ciem: Inferno is no longer an option.
This is unfortunate, as the cashiers were very friendly. Alas, you can't stay in business in an old building when Big Box wants you gone - especially if you can't control your inventory, and the flies take notice!
No comments:
Post a Comment