This ending was easy enough to predict. When we reported in June that the Hastings bookstore chain had filed for bankruptcy and had put the entire business up for sale, it wasn’t hard to predict that a buyer wouldn’t be found. Folks interested in buying national bookstore chains probably have all their money tied up in Packard and telegraph collections.

Indeed, Lawrence’s Hasting’s store at 23rd and Iowa streets will close in the coming months. With its closing, Lawrence will be without a national bookstore chain. That’s the part that would have been hard to predict a decade or so ago.

Those of you in town long enough remember when Lawrence was so sharply divided over whether a Borders bookstore should be allowed to locate at Seventh and New Hampshire streets. Lots of smart people were betting that the Borders store would put all the locally owned bookstores out of business, and the only bookstores in the community would be chains. I’ll admit, it sounded plausible back then. But now, the exact opposite has happened. In fact, today, two of the larger retailers on Massachusetts Street — by physical size anyway — are the locally owned bookstores The Dusty Bookshelf and Signs of Life. The Raven, of course, is still operating in downtown Lawrence too. Local bookstores seem to have found their niche by offering the customer service that internet and chain stores can struggle with.

There were lots of folks who used the fear that local businesses would be put out of business by a chain to argue that Borders shouldn’t be allowed to locate at the Seventh and New Hampshire location. To be fair, there also were folks fighting the project for historic preservation reasons because they didn’t want to see an old building on the site demolished. The City Commission vote in the late 1990s to allow the store was a contentious one, but it was approved.

I’ve brought all this up before, but do so again because the takeaway from it still seems relevant: None of our crystal balls are very good when it comes to predicting the future of business and commerce in our community. When we argue that new businesses shouldn’t be allowed to locate in Lawrence because of the impact they will have on existing businesses, we are really doing nothing more than making a guess. Sometimes we are right that a new business puts another out of business. But other times we are wrong. Borders is the example that comes to mind today, but the Sixth and Wakarusa Wal-Mart, which has a grocery store, is another good example. Concerns were expressed that it would harm the Dillons across the street. But in fact, the Dillons has since expanded and another grocery store, Sprouts, has located at the intersection. Not sure many folks saw that coming.

Everybody guesses wrong from time to time. That’s not the point. The question is whether city officials should rely much on those guesses to determine whether new retailers should be allowed to locate in the city. It could be argued that some commissioners over the years have relied too heavily on those guesses. It is relevant today because there seems to be a lot of national retailers looking at Lawrence. Most, I suspect, aren’t interested in playing a guessing game.

As for the Hastings store, there’s not much to report. The going-out-of-business sign is up. Discounts are up to 40 percent at this point. National press reports indicate all Hastings stores will be closed by Oct. 31. I suspect it could be sooner depending on how quickly inventory is depleted.

The more interesting thing to watch will be what comes next for the location. The Hastings store — located at the northeast corner of 23rd and Iowa streets — is highly visible at perhaps the busiest intersection in town. It is one of the larger retail spaces on 23rd Street.

I’ve chatted with some folks in the real estate and development industries, and they said there’s certainly been speculation that Whole Foods is interested in the site, and has been for quite some time. At about 40,000 square feet, it is the right size for a Whole Foods. I don’t believe there is any deal for the property at this time, and I would note that just because Whole Foods is interested doesn’t mean it will ultimately end up there. The site, even though it has some access challenges, is so visible that it is expected to draw interest from multiple prospects. I’ll let you know as I hear more.

In other news and notes from around town:

• Maybe a jet pack store will go in at 23rd and Iowa. If you are looking to buy a home in Lawrence, you certainly could use a jet pack or something else to help you move fast.

The latest numbers are out from the Lawrence Board of Realtors, and homes sales posted a nice increase in June. But the report also highlighted that the number of homes on the market continues to dwindle, and in some price points homes are selling in a just a matter of hours.

In the popular price category of $150,000 to $200,000, the median number of days a home sat on the market in June was just three days, according to figures from the Board of Realtors.

Here’s a look at some other numbers from the June report:

• Lawrence home sales in June totaled 176, up 8.6 percent from June 2015.

• For the year to date, Lawrence home sales are basically stagnant compared with the same period a year ago. Sales total 625, down 0.5 percent. The dollar value of sales, however, is up about 3.8 percent. About $130 million worth of homes have sold in the first six months of the year.

• Sales of newly constructed homes are having their best year in awhile. Year to date, 46 newly constructed homes have sold. That’s up nearly 40 percent from the same period a year ago.

• The number of homes on the market in June totaled 283, down 15 percent from the same period a year ago.