The still-busy liquorstore is nestled in a form of shopping center cul-de-sac between an over-priced gas station and a closed hair salon, facing a business that has gone under. The latter was a coffee shop, so it’s hard to know whether it was the city that pushed it into the cliff over the pandemic, or the Starbucks a few meters away that done did it in.

Amongst this corporate debris, merry Faris tends to his boss’s business, giving change while speaking on friendly terms with customers. He i...