The goods which had so attracted the residents of Castle Rock - the black pearls, the holy relics, the carnival glass, the pipes, the old comic books, the baseball cards, the antique kaleidoscopes - were all gone. Mr. Gaunt had gotten down to his real business, and at the end of things, the real business was always the same. The ultimate item had changed with the years, just like everything else, but such changes were surface things, frosting of different flavors on the same dark and bitter cake.

At the end, Mr. Gaunt always sold them weapons. . . and they always bought.

Oh, it was alwas good, so very good, to be doing business in the old way again. And business had never been better.

Needful Things, Stephen King