Birdie was kind of a little bitch.

She's supposed to be a kook, not someone knowingly mean. Her deepest moment was actually when she saw that flake Miranda's sign, showing that she dumped them and had the signing at Fox books. The look on her face showed that she was calmly registering the state of things.

I think she was supposed to be an eccentric. We are to assume she was kooky but nice best friend to Kathleen's mother in their prime and that she was probably here at the the shop's beginnings.
So yeah, she did not help much. But I'm not sure there was actually much she could do. She says she is well off, but it's probably her life savings: even if her money could have made the shop go through another month it was just putting off the evil day, the superstore would win anyway.

" You ain't running this place, Bert, WILLIAMS is!" Sgt Harris

I interpreted her behaviour as someone trying to remain strong during those problems so Kathleen could be strong too. If Birdie would become very sad and depressed, then how would that help Kathleen?

And of course, she was old and different. At her age, you tend to look at life in a different way.

Yeah-I agree that she was too flippant when Kathleen asked what her mother would have done...and Birdie takes out the locket and listens-for Kathleen, this was one of her saddest moments and Birdie's flip response just didn't work for me.

Really? I didn't get that vibe from her at all. In fact she reminded me of my grandma.

What a harsh description of a wonderful character. I love her! She has a strong, witty personality, and clearly has an interesting and colorful past. I don't think she was ever condescending to Kathleen. She knew closing the store was a decision Kathleen had to make on her own. As her 'surrogate mother', she was treating her as the adult she was, instead of like a child. It didn't matter what anyone else 'would have done.' Only Kathleen could make that decision. I think she handled that situation perfectly.

Oh, I disagree! She wasn't meant to be a friend; as Kathleen said, she's her surrogate mother. The locket scene demonstrates that she is always there for her, making her mother a gentle approving presence in her life while trusting Kathleen to make the difficult choice of what to do with the shop because only she can. I think this is a girl thing-often when we are asking advise we are really "throwing it into the void" as Kathleen said at a different point. When she has her support network of surrogate mother and her mother's memory pulled around her, then she makes the grown up decision to close the shop.