Hello from the family-owned business, The Cozmic Cauldron. My wife Jessica, our son Cooper, and I, Jeremy, have been in business for nearly 4 years. Located in the city of downtown Syracuse, we strive to make our small mom-and-pop store thrive. We sell handmade gifts alongside metaphysical items such as stones, crystals, and anything witchy. We also sell gourmet sodas and freeze-dried candy. Oh, and I almost forgot, I have an entire wall of my favorite things in the world: nerd stuff, ranging from Dragonball Z to Star Wars toys and O.G. Ghostbuster toys.

This is our second location downtown, as the first did not pan out. Simply put, it was not a good fit for our kind of store. So we moved and grabbed this little tiny hole-in-the-wall store on street level. It was cute and within our price range. Knowing full well it was in the middle of the city, I had one question and one question only before signing a lease agreement: How is the riff-raff here? Meaning, are there bad apples who traverse the street this store is on? My question was met with, "There is no riff-raff." I took them at their word.

Our first year was amazing. Everything was going splendidly. Here and there, I'd see the so-called riff-raff trickle in. It wasn't until the start of this year that it really came to a boil. Drug addicts and the unhomed (homeless) moved right onto our street. Between sleeping and going to the bathroom right in our door area, they would also do all kinds of drugs right in front of our store. Most would OD right in front of our store. Of those who were not taking drugs, there would be drunks. Not just that, they would harass every single passerby. I couldn't get a single person to stop into our little store. We have reached out to local law enforcement, but there was only so much they could do. We reached out to our landlord, and of course, there was nothing they could do either. Many thefts started to occur, to the point where we couldn't keep up with replacing our products. Our store is open weekly from 10 am to 5:30 pm, and the only people that would walk into our store would be the unhomed asking for money, food, and whatever else they could ask for. I, trying to be as nice as possible, would kindly decline and ask them to leave, only to be met with aggression and quick grab thefts near our door.

At this point, our only choice is to hopefully pack up and move our little store out of the city and into an area where we have a fighting chance of staying open. Without having to fight for the same dollar as someone begging on the street. Our goal is not too far-fetched. It's a dream my wife and I have had since we got together: to own our own business and do so by creating.