Late in the afternoon at the Grolier Poetry Bookshop on Plympton Street, a little white dog named Jessie greets customers searching for an elusive volume of Blake or perhaps Neruda. Unlike the previous generation of Grolier customers, these come to buy, not to hang out, in the crowded little shop.

Owner Louisa Solano fondly recalls the days before she took over the store. Since the former owner could afford to carry a small stock of books, he used floor space for couches and chairs.

In lieu of the seating area, Solano has increased the number of titles she carries from 2,000 to 16,000. She supports herself with the store, and is using creativity and personal attention to her customers to move her specialized merchandise off the shelves.

But with Grolier's reincarnation as a serious small business, its clientele has changed. Gone are the pipe-smoking Advocate members and loitering Harvard professors.

Though Solano speaks sentimentally about her store's past, she emphasizes that one of her goals was to rid the shop of its "clubby atmosphere."

"Women were not welcome here unless they were attractive as hell, married to someone wealthy or sleeping with one of the writers," she says with a wry smile.

However, the new strategy--increased merchandise and a welcoming atmosphere--is not a panacea. The Harvard Square book market no longer hosts a plentitude of small bookstores. Barnes and Noble, amazon.com and multi-media stores like Media Play draw customers looking for convenience and selection not offered in stores like Grolier.

In the past year several small Harvard Square businesses like Grolier have left the Square for more fruitful markets in nearby neighborhoods. They cite the increasingly homogenized customer base, inconvenient and crowded location and comparatively high rents as reasons for seeking new homes. As the Square loses its diversity of stores, the people and essence of the neighborhood are changing.

Feels Like Home

Last month McIntyre & Moore Booksellers moved its stock of used books from Harvard to Davis Square. Owner Daniel Moore says he is happier there, where the neighborhood and costs are more in line with the way Harvard Square was when Moore founded his shop 15 years ago on Mount Auburn Street.

Moore opened the Davis Square store last April because he realized he could be more profitable there. For only 15 percent more rent, he has four times the floor space he did in Harvard Square. Almost immediately after the Davis location opened, his Harvard Square sales dropped by 15 percent, indicating his customers would rather shop at the Somerville location.

"We had virtually nothing on our shelves [in Davis Square] and lots of really good stuff in Harvard Square," Moore says.

Harvard Square was once a destination for used book aficionados and book lovers in general. The area between Harvard and MIT had the highest concentration of bookstores in the world.

But as he sat covering damaged paper book jackets with durable plastic covers, Moore lamented the change in his old neighborhood. He estimates that 30 percent of his customers once lived in Cambridge, but that number halved after residential rent control ended in the mid-90s, forcing many of his customers into lower-rent areas.

Moore says his new location is actually more convenient for shoppers, and he doesn't worry about losing local customers. In fact, Moore is excited about his new surroundings. There is a synergy between his store's character and Davis Square.