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Locally owned shoe store in Harvard Square bites the dust
By adamg on Mon, 08/10/2015 - 9:54am
Berk's, which opened in Harvard Square in 1980, is announcing its imminent demise - at the end of the month:
It's a sad day for us and a sad day for Cambridge as we watch yet again another small business fall. From the bottom of hearts thank you all so much. Please SHOP SMALL, SHOP LOCAL & whenever you can please SHOP INDEPENDENT. A friend made a great analogy to me yesterday that rings very true. When you shop at a corporation you're lining the pockets of folks buying new cars/houses. When you shop local/independent your lining the pockets of of folks getting dance/music lessons for their children. You can see the difference.
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Comments
Really? Who wants to pay a
Really? Who wants to pay a premium for the same crap service one can get at Payless just because the store is "independent"? They have the same stock as every other shoe store on the planet. If the service isn't there and the product is no different there is no reason to fork over cash just because the owner is local.
You obviously know nothing of the store
I could never buy shoes at Payless - their shoes are cheap crap. They are not constructed properly and do not last!
I buy things at Berks because they carry brands of shoes that don't macerate my feet, or destroy my ankles and knees.When did Payless start carrying Born and Kamik and Sorel and Dansko and those waterproof, warm Canadian boots that can be worn in an office yet used to hike miles through slush? Answer: THEY DON'T. I fork over the cash because it is cheaper than $25 copays and PT, and also cheaper because they last four times as long.
You simply have no clue what you are talking about. Same stock as "every other store on the planet". Bullshit. THE PRODUCTS ARE DIFFERENT. Very different.
ReadingcomprehensionFAIL
YOUR reading failure
They said "They have the same stock as every other shoe store on the planet". So the reading fail is ... yours!
Berks also had vastly better service than Payless. I know because I would buy my kids shoes there when they were going through two shoe sizes in a summer and destroying them anyway. Again, experience fail.
Zappos?
6pm? Sierratradingpost? I don't know about you, but the warm fuzzy feeling of buying a nice pair of hiking boots locally for $300 instead of buying the exact same pair online for $150 just isn't worth $150 to me.
Zappos is not cheaper
They never were. They do offer excellent service, but Berks usually beat them on price.
Lets face it: all that shipping things back when they don't fit cost money, as does buying five different pairs of boots and shipping back four of them - which is what you have to do when you have no idea if they will fit.
Sierra Trading Post is the Berries ... but they charge you to ship back stuff that doesn't work. They also have a limited selection as they are a discounter.
Well
That's what the terribly overpriced "local" businesses are for - try on their $300 boots, find out what fits, then order them for $150 online.
Man, that's low
I have no problem buying stuff online, but going to a store, trying stuff on there and bugging employees, then buying it online is low. Really low.
Besides, I just don't buy any kind of footwear online because of the size issue.
But man, that's low.
Low, sure
But unlike the trustfunders who think money grows on trees, many of us won't cry for a week over some store clerk who simply did what he was being paid to do. But hey, if your morals are forcing you to buy $150 Chinese crap at your local Ripoff's Shoes because you can't afford to spend $300 on a decent pair there and you refuse to shop online, be my guest.
I don't specifically remember
I don't specifically remember the quality of the service I received at both this Berks location and the one on Thayer Street in Providence, but I do remember that they never seemed to have my size (40 EU; 9US) in the shoe I wanted to buy. It seemed to be a consistent theme with them, so I just stopped shopping there.
I'm glad that you had a better experience. Shoe stores are one place where I've become absolutely devoted to online shopping. No schlepp only to hear, "Oh, no, we only have that in an 8.5." The shoes come the next day, I try, and return what I don't need at the UPS store down the street.
Ha!
I wear a 39, and REI never has that ... "could you try a 40 instead". The horror of wearing a median size.
Dansko is
Chinese made crap since 2007, and Born is selling cheap Chinese factory garbage for a few years now too. If you want quality American or European made shoes, keep looking.
Maybe the destruction of quality shoe brands leads to the destruction of quality shoe stores.
Dansko
I don't know about their other models, but Sanitas clogs are still made in Denmark.
I loved Dansko until they switched manufacturers to China. You can feel the difference in quality--the shoes feel lighter, and the leather thinner. I stopped buying.
To be clear
Sanitas is not a model of Dansko clogs. Sanitas is the European manufacturer that, as part of its century-long history, made the American company Dansko's clogs, from the early 90s until 2007, when Dansko decided to abandon quality for economy. Sanitas still makes clogs in Denmark and Poland, but not the clogs sold by Dansko. The European-made clogs, including models identical to what was once sold as Dansko clogs until 2007, are now sold as Sanitas, without the Dansko label.
The post-2007 Dansko-branded clogs are made at random factories in China or wherever it's cheapest that month. Everything about them is different from a pre-2008 Dansko, including the last, the leather, the heel, the arch, the comfort, and the quality. If you want the Danskos you wore prior to 2008, buy Sanitas. If you want uncomfortable Chinese crap, buy Danskos. Today's Danskos are basically a knockoff of the pre-2008 Danskos.
I have Euro ones
Most of my Danskos are older than than the switch because they last a long time - particularly the boots and sandals that get seasonal wear. They all say "Made in Italy" on them.
I wonder if newer ones are less long lived? I see a lot of my German and Dutch colleagues wearing Dansko shoes. Great for walking on cobbled streets.
Sanitas are, sadly, too wide for my feet.
Aren't several of those
Aren't several of those brands now made in China?
Yes
And it lead to a clear and immediate drop in quality.
Sorry to see it go, but really?
When you shop at a corporation you're lining the pockets of folks buying new cars/houses. When you shop local/independent your lining the pockets of of folks getting dance/music lessons for their children. You can see the difference
That is without a doubt one of the stupidest things I've ever read in my life. So in other words, people who work and shop at Modell's or The Sports Authority don't deserve new houses and cars for their work?
They want to blame someone, blame Harvard and the local landowners who seem to be more wiling to rent to those soulless corporations that can afford the constantly raising rent.
They are saying most of the
They are saying most of the money you spend in a chain store goes to wealthy executives from all over, whereas if you buy from a locally owned business that money stays in the area and is re-spent locally.
Zappos
Of course, if the customers were getting their shoes on Zappos, then they are in fact choosing a different retail source which famously treats their employees very well.
These local/non-local arguments never seem very constructive. Plenty of crap and great businesses on both sides of the spectrum. Upper Crust was a local business as I recall for example.
So in other words, people who
Yes, those are other words... just not the ones the shop owner used and not at all what he or she meant. Red herring. But if you're going to go there, you could have at least topped it off with "Why do you hate the working class?"
That's exactly what they meant
The shop owner pretty clearly stated that if you give your money to the big chains only the out-of-state management gets higher income unlike with the local store.
It's a critically dumb oversimplification of how these things work. Among other things it also implies that only the owners/managers of both local and national stores get the profit and ignores how many local employees each store has and the wages these people are paid.
not so stupid
When I read that comment I didnt find it stupid at all. I saw the importance of buying locally/independently to further the cycle of local commerce and purchases. Sometimes that is in the form of dance and music lessons. Sometimes that is in the form of co-op food purchases. And sometimes that is jusssstttt getting by on your day to day. More often than not, the jusssst getting by is not felt by corporations in the same way as a local business.
It's is tough to purchase a product at a local spot when it is more expensive than a chain. But when you can make that purchase, it goes right back into your immediate neighborhood.
Again, that wasnt a stupid comment at all. Sounded like a person who felt the repercussions (instead of benefits) of being a local business owner or worker.
Hope you can make one or two purchases a week at a local spot.
I do...
I take my car to a local mechanic instead of a dealership. I patronize small businesses in my neighborhood. Shit, I run a small local business!
However, if I were going out of business, I would not blame the drivers at Boston Coach, I'd blame their owners. Also, why does Berk's not say why they're going out of business?
Also, I wonder what type of mobile phone the aggrieved owner uses?
We all know who you would blame
Also, did your darknet connections vanish or something? Or are you just in need of some good metamucil these days?
Nope!
Just got my card last month, no more nervous mail deliveries for me!
And, pray tell, who would I blame, "we"?
Your favorite car service
Uber, of course!
My goodness! From someone who usually
chastises those who make ridiculous statements without facts to back them up! I serve those in the business and entertainment industries that pay for me to wait for them and not the other way around. Cabdrivers are the only livery business that have anything to worry about from Uber.
I would be more concerned about adding to the statistics of lost productivity in the workplace due to the internet if I were you.
Also, Uber is not a car service, as they do not own a single vehicle.
I knew that sounded familiar...
The line about the dance lessons has been floating around for a while:
"When you buy from a local business, you are not helping a CEO buy his 3rd vacation home.
You are helping a little girl get dance lessons, a little boy get his team jersey, a mom or dad put food on the table, a family pay a mortgage, or a student pay for college. Our customers are our shareholders, and they are the ones we strive to make happy. THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING SMALL BUSINESSES”
http://patch.com/florida/tarponsprings/when-you-buy-from-a-local-business
Wouldn't it be nice
If the public schools covered the cost of Music lessons (like the used to) so that all children could get these lessons regardless of what their parent's job is? Unless you buy into the theory that only "hardworking" (aka Lucky) parents should be able to have their kids educated.
Fire the useless
Fire the useless administrators which have larded up the public school payrolls the past 20 years and there will be plenty of cash for music lessons.
Bla Bla Bla
Want to take a particular school system and indicate who should be fired and who should handle the workload they previously took on?
There is some fat in public education, for sure. But when you start digging though the numbers and talking to actual teachers you find there isn't nearly as many people who could be cut without impact as you seem to think.
Um, Okay
That's what they said in Wisconsin, Oklahoma, and Kansas and several other states.
Now they can't even find people to teach who have a 2-year degree, let alone the degrees that people really need to manage a classroom and teach effectively.
Your approach has been tried and is a massive failure. Own it.
Consider the quality of US
Consider the quality of US public education and the massive amount spent per pupil compared to other countries for that poor quality. "The approach has been tried and is a massive failure." OWN IT
Cambridge and Boston spend big $$$ per student
They ought to be able to afford to spend some on music and dance for all those tax dollars.
Oh. no! They were a major Librarian Shoe Provider
Where will I get my flowered Danskos? My leopard patterned Sanitas?
And Millipede in JP closed a few years ago, so my other supplier is gone, too.
Sorry to see them go.
Coolidge Corner
There are a couple of places that might have what you're looking for: http://www.downtownshooz.net/
http://www.simonsshoes.com/
Shooz is hilarious.
I had a love-hate relationship with that place for years--bought some shoes there but oh, the frustration. The owner is always so dogged and slightly desperate. Like "I know you said red size 7--we don't have that but I brought you a 9.5 in purple--how about that?" Still...I'll miss him when he's gone.
Cambridge Clog
Mere steps from the Porter Sq. T stop.
Thanks for the recommendations!
.
Longhorn steakhouse
Meanwhile over at the landmark in Fenway, a not so locally owned steakhouse abruptly closed Saturday. Was this to make room for Wegman's or lack of business?
Huh
They were always plenty busy whenever I walked by. If I had to guess it's rising rent rather than lack of customers that hurts most small businesses, particularly in Harvard Sq. The place is swamped with tourists buying all sorts of stuff.
Harvard STEM kids, Kendalites
Harvard STEM kids, Kendalites and MIT kids are probably rejoicing at this new sign of progress for a new space for yet another 30 and under "workspace" playpen daycare for tech nerds in their effort to turn Cambridge into a cultureless wasteland like the new San Francisco.
Daycare for tech nerds?
Now there's a good business idea.
There's already one called
There's already one called "work bar" in central taking up a massive amount of space for STEM manchildren. 745 atlantic was just renovated as one as well. who knows how many more will take over cambridge. Quick, we don't need local colour at all, it all has to be tech havens exclusively for our new ruling class of 22 year old app designers!
Chains or rents and taxes?
Probably a combination of high rents, high Cambridge commercial property taxes, competition from stores with lower overhead, and not enough profit/volume in shoes made the business unsustainable in pricey Harvard Square.