"I'm going to try to fill that need now," Maxi's store manager, Tony Durant, 36, said. "But at a lower price."

Durant said his customers often complained about the high prices at Woolworth, located halfway down the block.

"A lot of people used to complain that it was a little higher-priced than they could afford," he said.

Durant believed this was the main reason for Woolworth's demise.

"I think it's the pricing and [the fact] that they have to pay the big executives," he said. "We don't have these problems. We carry basic items. It's stuff anyone could use."

Nevertheless, Durant, a Central Square resident and an almost-lifelong Cantabrigian who bought buttons and big, plastic storage bins with his family from Woolworth, expressed sadness over the loss of a long-time and much-beloved neighbor.

"It hurts the community to a point," he said. "Woolworth carried the little things that other people didn't."

A Changing Square

Holmes Realty Trust, a Newton, Mass., real-estate company, plans to bring a $20-million-dollar retail mall, apartment complex and parking garage to Mass Ave. To do so, it will raze 12 stores and displace 11 other businesses currently located there, according to store owners.

Some of the stores have been there for as long as 80 years, they say.

According to the Boston Phoenix, the new complex will house such tenants as Barnes & Noble and The Gap.

A Starbucks is also going up across the street on the corner of Mass Ave. and Prospect Street, replacing the Harvard Do-nut Shop which used to be housed there.

It is being developed by Jerome Dangel Developers, also of Newton, which is refurbishing other stores--including Central Square Florists--on that side of the street.

Conflicting Views

Hoicka, a spokesperson for Save Central Square, said the Trust sent out eviction notices a few days ago, notifying businesses of impending demolition in January or February.