Tough times on the cut. How shall we put it..... it’s hard to be competitive and yet financially sustainable. As the old saying goes “you can please all the people some of the time, or some of the people all of the time”.
Have a look at “long-tail” market theory, particularly in conjunction with the rise of eBay and Amazon. Ultimately people want unlimited choice, instant availability and the lowest price, that simply isn’t possible
on all fronts.
I expect that they tried their best but like everyone else reserve the right to do something else with their lives if the returns were no longer proportionate to the effort or personal sacrifice involved in running a small independent business.