Billings & Stover is one store that has kept its head above water by keeping its ear to the ground.

Owner Phyllis Madanian says the store has been hurt by HMOs and other health plans, which cap the prices for drugs.

"Some things we actually lose money on just to be able to keep our customers happy," she says.

But the store, which has stood near the corner of Brattle and Church Streets since 1854, has found ways to keep its head above water.

Though it removed its trademark soda fountain in 1947 when such fountains were going out of vogue, it reinstalled the fountain four years ago and found success.

Madanian says though new high rents have forced many of their longtime customers to depart, the new clientele is as much a fan as ever of the store's classic wares.

Madanian characterizes her store's best-sellers--the likes of shaving brushes, Mason-Pearson hairbrushes and Dr. Bronner's soap--as "old-time products but very good products that you don't find in discount stores."

Bowl & Board, whose elegant housewares fit the bill for upscale residents, has ridden many a trend in the past to stay profitable.

The store sold used fur coats and live plants in the '70s, and ethnic clothing from Mexico and India in the early '80s, but the Square's changing consumer made those lines obsolete, says owner Bill Giarrusso.

"People who enjoyed products from abroad...got into more of the contemporary shopping and shied away from the imported ethnic handcrafted items," Giarrusso says.

Cardullo's gourmet shop near the heart of the Square is also experiencing a renaissance with the influx of a different type of shopper.

The store began as the Square's sole international foods store, but its classy and cosmopolitan wares hold appeal for the new, sophisticated Square residents as well, says Donez Cardullo, granddaughter of the store's founder.

In the food business, Square stalwarts Mr. Bartley's and Charlie's Kitchen say a combination of tradition, charm and plain good food keeps them in business.

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Gifford says when Cambridge Savings Bank was in the process of deciding upon new tenants for the Read Block, the Defense Fund "begged them to go for a lot of small tenants rather than three big ones."