Gifts From Afar, Saying Goodbye to Clackamas

Once again, I am behind in my blogging. At the end of January, Gifts From Afar (the store I've worked at for the last 5 years) had to close their location at Clackamas Town Center. We were very sad to go, as it was our most successful location. Clackamas is trying to make their mall more upscale, and apparently we didn't fit their image anymore. They decided not to renew our lease, despite our offers to pay higher rent. So we had to pack up (in a very short space of time) and leave.

I have been shopping at Gifts From Afar in Clackamas since I was in middle school, and have so many fond memories of that location. So, as usual, I had to document every moment of our closing with my camera. Here is a small selection of my photos.

Before

After

My favorite co-worker.

Pretending to be hard at work. 

This is the anciently ancient till I've worked with for the past 5 years. Admire my decorations, go on. ;)

My GFA family. (left to right: Sunita, Raja, Sachita, and myself)

We took a break from packing to have a pizza party.

Of course before we cleared out, we had to graffiti the walls. All the previous occupants of this space have left their mark too, so we didn't feel too bad about it.

On the night we had to be out by, the owners and I didn't get done moving out and cleaning until after 1:00 in the morning. These are two very tired bosses!

So we said farewell to Clackamas Town Center. We still have a store in the Lloyd Center mall, and I still have my job, but I sure miss Clackamas. For one thing, it was a lot closer to my place. The commute to Lloyd center takes me at least twice as long. For another, since Clackamas has closed, hours for all of us employees have greatly reduced. But I'm sure what we'll all miss the most about Clackamas are the many boredom-induced self shots I took in the mirror there...

... NOT! Hahahaha! Farewell, dressing room mirror. Farewell, Clackamas Gifts From Afar.