Another customer this morning, Liora R. Halperin ’05, walks with a handful of hangers into the bathroom, which doubles as the fitting room. The dresses are too big, but she starts talking with King Licorish about which colors she prefers.

When Halperin hears that King Licorish used to live in her hometown of Lexington, she realizes that she knows of the owner’s daughter—who was a track star at the high school.

“A place like this you can chat with the owner,” she says. “You don’t chat with the people at the Gap.”

Locals often decry the closing of small, locally-run stores like Caribbean-African Creations as a sign of the decline of Harvard Square. For example, Video Pro, which used to be located in the Garage, closed in spring 2001 due to the pressures of high rents—leaving Harvard students with no Square location to rent videos and DVD’s.

But King Licorish shows that the blame does not always fall on the pressures of high rent and gentrification.

Booted by Harvard after three years in the Holyoke Center arcade, King Licorish has occupied for the last six years a building owned by MIT—which has been a more accommodating landlord, she says, even when she got $17,000 behind in rent this spring.

The former accounting manager, who moved to the U.S. from Guyana in 1967, says the store represents her “final career in the human scene.” After closing the store at the end of the month, she plans to become a full-time Christian Science healer.

King Licorish arrived at her decision on April 1, still facing the backlog in rent and coping with the recession. She knew immediately that it was the right decision because the very next day she saw an upturn in sales that began quickly to make up the deficit.

“The heavens opened,” she says. “It cleared the rent in a week. I prayed a lot for it. That was God’s way of taking me out of this business.”

She had to get out, King Licorish says, because national chains can weather economic slowdowns and offer discounts that small operations like hers cannot sustain.

She complains of the “big conglomerates” that have taken over the Square in recent years. But nevertheless these chains have established themselves as well-known businesses in the area.

A few minutes later, answering a telephone call, this small business owner gives directions by referring to the solid red windows of the store across the street which had moved in three years ago.

“I’m opposite Staples,” she says.

Finding a Niche

While Harvard Square has changed in the last four years, many say that the evolution is natural, especially in a lagging economy and difficult real estate market.