when the shades are drawn up , the doors unlocked , and the new concern declared open for business , customers come and go in a trickle which would undoubtedly strike an outsider as apathetic ... and probably as an ill omen for the shopkeeper 's future prosperity what seems like lack of interest often masks keen anticipation and even keener observation ( cora rusk and myra evans were not the only two women in castle rock who had kept the telephone lines buzzing about needful things in the weeks before it opened ) that interest and anticipation do not change the small-town shopper 's conservative code of conduct , however .