Chain Reaction

Locals have complained for years that oppressive landlords and skyrocketing rents have gentrified a once distinctive mix of independently owned mom-and-pops and larger retail stores and restaurants.

But the four years that the Class of 2003 spent in the Square—years beginning with prosperity and ending in recession—also saw a wave of national chains closing.

Turnover has always been part of the business cycle for small businesses, with owners burning out and leaving without anyone to take their place. But in recent years, and in bad economic times, turnover has become part of the cycle for the Square’s chains as well, with corporate headquarters pulling stores out of the area when even their well-recognized names couldn’t sell in the Square.

The surfer clothing outlet Pacific Sunwear, an Adidas shoe and clothing store on Mass. Ave., the trendy Express and Structure women and men’s outfitters and music megastore HMV all are national chains whose Harvard Square locations have closed their doors in the past four years.

In the case of HMV, many argue its departure last month signals a major loss locally, taking away from Harvard Square a major seller of classical CDs.

“Even though HMV was a chain, it was a chain that filled a real need in the Square,” says Jinny Nathans, president of the Harvard Square Defense Fund, a volunteer group that works to preserve the area’s traditional variety.

She says many national outfits come to Harvard Square to take advantage of the shopping attraction that has built up over the years, figuring that they have a “slam-dunk captive audience.”

But when they fail to turn a profit, the closure of national chains leaves longer lag times than the turnover of small businesses.

“They decide it’s cheaper to close the store and pay the rent on an empty space than run a losing operation,” Nathans says. “They’ll just run out the lease and they give no thought that there may be for three or four years dead space on that street.”

Closing Shop

After 16 years in retail, Irma B. King Licorish has decided to get out.

One day last week, her green and purple dress billows as the owner of Caribbean-African Creations circulates among the tapestries and trinkets in her JFK Street store. Customers come in off the street and offer condolences on the “going out of business” signs on the door.

“I’m sorry to hear this,” says Regina Ellerbee, a T bus driver who heard the news from a passenger this morning.

Over the years Ellerbee has accumulated garbs, hats and jewelry from the store, which sells traditional African masks for several hundred dollars, as well as baskets of inexpensive wooden carvings, trays of earrings and racks of colorful dresses.