4. Last Christmas, I gave you my heart
The energy is volatile and unpredictable, confusing or enlightening, painful or ecstatic.
THIS IS A DIFFICULT UPDATE TO WRITE.
In fact, I’ve been procrastinating about it since June, and I’m still not 100% sure about what I’m about to unload here, but - as with most things - I tell myself I can always change my mind down the track.
By way of a little more procrastination, the sub-heading to this email was taken from a summary of last week’s full moon. The astrological author mused; 'think of this full moon time as a giant clean out much like a flash flood, immensely powerful in its ability to scour out the dead wood and accumulated debris.’
So, what am I getting to? What's the accumulated debris?
Next month, it will be 12 years since I opened my shop, Kate and Abel. Since then, my whole life has orbited around this store, like a galaxy around the sun. My friends, my interests, my art, my loves, my community, my work, my understanding of this town, the state, the people, the politics.
Everything in my life today has originated from the Big Bang of Kate and Abel; I feel entirely anchored in its evolution.
It is therefore quite hard/ emotional/ destabilising for me to type that I am about to close Kate and Abel.
Of course there are many, many reasons for this decision, layered with (potentially) more hesitations, doubts and unknowns. But, I’m calling it, the time is now.
The hard part of this decision hasn’t really been about me, and my newfound WHO AM I existential mid-life crisis. It's more about you, and even more so about Fremantle. I know my customers are loyal and loving – my brother described them (maybe, you) as shareholders. Maybe ‘careholders’ is more apt. I know that people care about, and love Kate and Abel like it’s a living thing with a personality, needs and wants. For many customers and visitors to Freo, the shop is part of the fabric of this place, and part of a routine. A spot to take visitors, or to buy a card, or look for a present. Frequently, it’s a place where people bump into old friends, and a store where I know you, and you know me.
Taking this ‘being’ out of this town, and out of your life, is a heavy burden that I’ve been grappling with.
I mention I have been procrastinating on this since June. It was in June, when strolling around sunny London, that I received an email from my landlord to let me know there’d been a rent review; rent was going up, and they would like me to sign a 5-year lease. Obviously I was flooded with rage negative emotions, but there was also a noticeable feeling of relief, like; ‘Well, that’s helpful for decision making purposes’.
I would also note that I was not angry at the landlord. Yeah, it’s a shitty thing to do to a long-operating local, ‘anchor’ business, but my real anger was toward the systems that allow this to happen. The lack of protections and support - from all levels of government - for our towns and communities, and the small businesses which keep them vibrant, alive and interesting.
As I passed through the five stages of grief that followed the rent-review-email, I felt pretty bereft that I’d spent more than a decade attempting to promote, support and save small, local businesses in Freo to no real avail. I’m gutted that my desperate attempts to convince our representatives - both elected, and those in relevant orgs - about the importance of protecting small business have been ignored or met with lackluster response. No amount of hashtag-shop-local posts are going to save the city.
I have spoken to ‘people at the table’ about the fact that once shops like mine go, they are not coming back. Our towns need actual, funded, ongoing succession plans that provide accessible opportunities for young people and new businesses if we want any chance of preventing our town centres from dying a slow death. I have spoken about this stuff for years and years. I’ve lived it, I’ve raged about it, I’ve offered solutions and ideas. I even ran for parliament to attempt to tackle it.
In reaching the acceptance stage of grief, I recognise that this stuff is not a priority to those in power.
I recently spoke about ‘political will’ in a 90 second Instagram rant. When I see the government sloshing billions of dollars in subsidies to fossil fuel projects, while offering a business like mine nothing (aside from additional requirements for ATO reporting), I realise they don’t care about us small businesses.
And, therefore, they don’t care about you. YOU are who enjoys the small businesses that offer a reason to visit Freo, or wander around after a lunch date, or come in for a chat about ‘that thing’ we last spoke about in the shop. Those in power don’t care that your kids grow up knowing they can come into my shop if they need to borrow my phone to make a call, or that I’ll chat to you about your new business idea, or that I’ll put up your event poster, or give your visitors to Freo directions to a great cafe, or wrap your Christmas presents while you pick up your new glasses from the store next door.
I replied graciously to my landlord, noting I wouldn’t be able to afford the extra rent because shops like mine are run for the love of a place and of the people - they are not profitable - there is no ‘spare’ $20k at the end of the year. This is why I've always had a job outside the shop, to pay for the shop. And I’m totally fine with this - to be clear, no one would have a shop if they wanted to make bank - but, like all aging broads, I know ‘success’ is not linked to money. Success is contentment, it’s satisfaction. It is a feeling of belonging, and the ability to contribute to a place in a positive way. Running a shop is a lifestyle choice and if you are fortunate to stumble upon this choice in your life - you are incredibly successful. Sure, you don’t have any money, but you’re successful. And although I can’t afford to cover the increased rent, there’s no failing here. Kate and Abel is a huge success story. It’s offered me the vehicle to participate in brilliant happenings in our town, to meet incredible people passing through, to talk about big, bold ideas, and it's enabled me to help make people feel good. I still get full body goosebumps when I watch people reading our cards out loud to their pals, howling with laughter.
What unique joys that I'll miss so deeply.
This SHOP CLOSING news is in keeping with 2025, as this year has truly delivered an absolute shattering of normality. I had no idea what was incoming when I closed the shop for a Christmas break at the end of last year. As always, when the 24th of December arrives - I work late, wrapping last minute presents - completely physically and mentally exhausted from working every day of the month - but humming with excitement about the next few weeks of ‘nothing’.
In 2024, those dreamy ‘weeks of nothing’ didn’t happen because the day after Boxing Day, I received an email that would change the course of my life. The email meant my usual Christmas break was replaced with launching a short, sharp, moonshot campaign for the seat of Fremantle in the state election. This is probably a story you know – and therefore, will also know this state campaign pivoted into a run for the federal seat of Fremantle in the May election.
During these four-ish chaotic months - I abandoned all ‘other’ jobs, including working in the shop - in order to campaign 24/7. I missed the comforting routine of the shop, the anchor it provided to my life, and the in-store conversations and interactions that have always kept me energised. During the campaigns, I found it impossible to talk about the shop - its products and news - because my brain was so overloaded with the newness and wildness of politics. I neglected Kate and Abel in pursuit of a more important mission, but this abrupt dissociation from the shop has been hard to bounce back from. Well, I’ve not bounced back.
I often think that if you were a new follower to Kate and Abel on instagram, you’d struggle to see that it was an actual shop that sells actual things. My IG feed has morphed into a storefront for my ideas and thoughts about the world. I’m ok with this, though the question is, is the maintenance of an actual, physical shop behind this metaphorical storefront of commentary, recommendations, and reflections really necessary?
What I have learnt is that peeking behind the curtain of politics is dangerous if you ever want to get back to normal life.
The struggle of talking about Kate and Abel online is actually irrelevant to the crux of the issue - which is that I have become disconnected from physically being in the shop. That has always been my reason for having the shop; my shop. My space and my place to chat to people, grow ideas, share thoughts, learn new things, offer interesting products that start conversations or make someone’s day. To welcome people in, make them feel good, send them off with a smile. I adore all of that. Well I did. There’s now a fracture in this relationship between me and the shop - and we need to take a break.
Maybe Kate and Abel will be reborn in a new location, or in a new form, I don’t know right now.
Another part of my hesitation [read: dread] of making this decision / announcement was the thought of facing another wave of community overwhelm. The incoming OH MY GOD THIS IS SO SAD interactions in the street are almost too much to bear. But I’m satisfied that avoiding this possible sad-ambush isn’t really a good enough reason to continue to pay rent, wages, insurance, internet, power, superannuation, Shopify, Spotify, Xero, GST, merchant fees, accounting fees, etc etc etc. Oh, not to mention the thousands of dollars spent on stock. You’ve really got to spend a lot of cash on ‘THINGS AN UNKNOWN CUSTOMER MIGHT LIKE’ in the hope that an unknown customer might buy that *thing* some time.
So - here we are. I’m closing my beloved shop, maybe also your beloved shop, for many reasons.
As I type (surprised at the tears that keep welling up) (maybe in your eyes too, though probably due to the length of this flipping email) my mind is incredibly full with ideas and intent about a lot of what I’ve touched on above. Mainly via the lens of my experience, and of the experiences you've told me about when you’ve visited the shop.
I know we have a huge problem when it comes to effective leadership, proper representation, and good policy / laws that work for the majority of us today - as well as our kids, the future inhabitants of our country, and, well, the longevity of the entire planet.
My problem is that I peeked behind the curtain, looked a little closer, and now there’s no going back. There is a people-powered movement that needs tending too, growing and mobilising - I am all in on this. My focus is on making things better, which for me right now means making politics better, and to do that I need to put down some of the mental and financial baggage that I've been carrying about with me.
I hope you’ll come along.
In summary: the shop is closing in mid-October (weekend of 11th / 12th is current plan). Therefore, you’ve got about a month of shopping at Kate and Abel in its current iteration. Come and get some of your Christmas shopping sorted early?
ONE LAST THING: Fremantle Chamber of Commerce Awards
If you want to do something nice for me, aside from taking stock off my hands, today I was nominated in three Fremantle Chamber of Commerce Business Awards. I feel very flattered - and thinking that it would be beautifully ironic to win my first Chamber of Commerce Award this year. LOL. And, the awards night is on 9th October - my business's 12th Birthday. Another sweet irony.
Maybe you could vote for me, and send the shop out with a bang? Click on the links below to cast your vote(s)
Rightio - that’s it for now. Except to say, you may be encouraged to support my work here - on Substack - especially now that I’m almost completely underemployed. The monthly plan is $7 a month, which is about $1.61 per week, which is about a drop of coffee per day.
With love and thanks,
Kate x
This update was written by me, a human being, living on stolen and unceded Aboriginal land. Any mistakes are genuinely mine, and not AI generated. I mostly work in Walyalup Fremantle - and will be forever grateful for the 60,000 years of care and love that the Nyoongar people have imbued in the land, oceans, rivers, air - and culture - of this place we call Australia. I pay my deepest respects to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
You’ve given Freo a place that wasn’t just a store, it was a heartbeat and that spirit doesn’t close with the door. I’m not sad, I’m just deeply inspired (as always) to watch how you’ll spin your next piece of magic. Thank you for every ounce of courage and creativity you’ve shared with this town and with me x
😭 tears indeeeeed