When it first opened there was always stuff there. Yet for over a day now, I haven't seen anything there and it doesn't matter if it just restocked or not. Even during the time of the day that the site is quiet, the shop is always empty.

What's going on?

In past times when the "Free Shop" was open during busy times, I would generally see some items left right after a restock (even if I missed out on buying any) but this time nothing at all is showing up.

They probably stopped filling the shop

Yeah, the Free Shop still "restocks" in the sense that it will show that message the same as any other shop because it's on a schedule or whatever. But it only pulls items up when staff members have it set to do so during special time periods. This previous time was probably meant to only last for a couple of days or so as a little bonus for putting up with the site acting funky for a bit. It wasn't meant to be as long as something like the Christmas bonus time or other times.

doesn't the free shop usually have a message when it's closed, though? i don't recall being able to view the shop as normal when it's not intended to be open.

If it used to, I don't think it has recently. But I'm not 100% sure.

The last few times I've noticed after it stopped stocking, it just looked like a regular shop but with nothing in it.

The free shop is manually stocked by staff (like the forum boxed) so they probably aren't having time rn

Free shop isn't an all day everyday thing. We usually get it opened for holidays and downtimes