December 2009 MPC Closings

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There is no clear consensus on what happened to Sarah’s Campus Dollar Store on South University. Sarah Perry closed up shop in October hardly a year after opening, and the space has been leased to someone else. Mike Moeller at Motivation Boutique thought she also had a cleaning business on the side and might have expanded that: “She said she was going to come by and say good-bye, and she never did.” Another neighbor “heard she got a job in her field” (she has a kinesiology degree from the U-M). Moeller says South U hasn’t been particularly affected by the economy. The same number of students are walking around, and his store “had our best month ever last month.”

Ana Banana left South University for Nickels Arcade a little over a year ago, and in October the Pinheiro twins from Brazil, Ana and Claudia, dissolved their store. Ana Banana was a mix of new and vintage clothing, jewelry, and accessories and had played host to everything from enthusiastic samba dancing to Brazilian waxing by Ana. Next door, Tiffany Royal, who owns Arcade Barbers, says, “They were always doing something”—but adds, “I would assume the rent was way more here than on South U” (their space there was upstairs).