“There isn’t even a sign outside the store,” said Alexis M. Martire ’05, who lives in Pforzheimer House and only recently discovered Celeris.

“It was a pretty bad ad campaign, honestly. It didn’t make much sense but at least it got the name Celeris out there,” said Co-Chair of the Currier House Committee Robert M. Koenig ’06.

According to Koenig, Celeris doesn’t attract the business it needs because it is not a “hang-out spot.”

“It definitely takes on a different role than the Quincy grille or the Adams Molotov,” he said. “Students don’t spend time chilling in the grocery store down in Cabot basement.”

Mishra said that an on-line survey designed last semester to investigate Celeris’ customer base and most popular hours had not told her committee what it did not already know.

“By the time we were actually able to conduct the survey, we had less optimism about the future of Celeris,” Mishra said. “A lot of times Celeris was overstocking the organic foods and those items were going to waste. Some people complained that certain items were understocked, including chips.”

She added that several students surveyed recommended that Celeris be run by students and that the store would be more successful if it didn’t employ a union worker.

“The main problem for HUDS was labor,” Mishra said. “The main suggestion that came from people in the House was that we needed to employ students, possibly on a federal work-study program.”

According to Harris, Larry D. Williams, the HUDS employee who works at Celeris from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m. five nights per week, has accepted a job from HUDS working in the evenings at Loker Commons next fall.

Williams said he did not know for certain where he would be employed next year, but that he planned to remain with HUDS.

With the radio playing music, Williams sat behind the cash register with a book, peacefully passing the time.

“Working at Celeris is like being a fireman. I sit and wait for the work,” he said. “There’s a core group of students who come to support this store, and it’s pretty sad for them. But I guess there wasn’t enough pull from the three houses.”

Williams said he would miss talking to the students who swing by late at night for soda and snacks.

“I’ve got to meet a lot of kids here,” he said. “I have no problems with this job. I get to do a lot of reading.”

Jon B. Durham ’04, a resident of Currier House, said that the closing of Celeris was a “big bummer.”