Last November, nearly a year ago, Carol Powers made the difficult decision to close the doors of her beloved gift shop, Paper Bear. The weighty work of shutting down began as Powers, her husband David, and long-time employee, Cathy Natal, took stock of their inventory and made plans for a slow, meaningful exit from their retail space on the Square.
Then, as they planned a Going Out of Business event to commemorate their 41 years in San Marcos, the coronavirus hit, pushing downtown shops into quarantine.
Powers credits Dia, the Paper Bear shop cat, for keeping the store alive in the long months of shutdown. “Cathy came in every day to visit her,” Powers said. “The store’s just been sitting here. The candy got old. We pretty much had to throw all the coffee away. We all had to wait.”
