In Coolidge Corner's world of business, one size doesn't fit all

The Boston Daily Bread in Beacon Street may soon be history for Coolidge Corner

For a decade, residents of Brookline's Coolidge Corner have dropped by Boston Daily Bread to satisfy their taste but also to take in the aroma of fresh bread awaiting them on the metal racks behind the counter.

Darwish Ramzi and his brother Houssami opened their bakery in Coolidge Corner 10 years ago, and they have been kneading, baking and selling fresh bread and assorted pastries ever since. Among their treats relished by customers are a triple chocolate bread (a luscious chocolate dough baked with dark and milk chocolate chips), cinnamon swirls, butter brioches and cheese-and-olive rolls.

But Boston Daily Bread, opposite the Coolidge Corner T station on Beacon Street, in the heart of the busiest business district in Brookline, could soon be just a part of the neighborhood's rich history if the current economic downturn continues.

"Deep inside me I know it," Darwish Ramzi says. "Next April I am moving out of the area."

He says he owes his decision to continuous increases in rent, which he says he cannot afford to pay, and to the economic slowdown of the past few years.

"In the mid '90s, business was thriving," he said. "It was very encouraging; we couldn't ask for more. But in 1998, we started feeling the pressure. After September 11th things have not been going very well."

A Subway is opening soon in Harvard Street, where the Imperial Cafe once was.

Ramzi is not alone in his decision to moveout of Coolidge Corner. According to data provided by the Brookline Department of Economic Development, in the last nine months three "mom-and-pops" have left Coolidge Corner: the Coolidge Corner Café became the Mediterranean Café and Pizzeria; Contemporary Arts moved out of the area; and the Imperial Café will soon be replaced by a Subway, one of the more than 18,000 stores of the chain worldwide.

The closing of the three stores is the latest chapter of a story that has made a lot of headlines since the late '90s. News stories repeatedly have referred to empty storefronts and national chains taking over independent businesses. If the trend continues, locals are concerned that Coolidge Corner will lose its character and become yet another colorless business strip.

Three gone, five opened

Already, about one in four stores in Coolidge Corner are national chains, according to research conducted last year by Marge Amster, commercial areas coordinator for the Brookline Economic Development Office. The number is well above the Brookline town-wide percentage of national chains (19.7 per cent). Nonetheless, it is below other areas in greater Boston, such as Harvard Square, where about 70 percent of stores are chains, Amster said.

But all the news is not discouraging for those who love the character of independently owned stores. In fact, five independent businesses have opened in Coolidge Corner since September, according to data provided by Amster.

Michael's Deli, a new store in Harvard Street

Michael Sobelmon, who opened Michael's Deli on Harvard Street nine months ago, is satisfied. "People who live here are educated and wealthy, so business is good despite the recession," he says. "Business creates business. If you are alone in an isolated area, you are going to suffer. If you come in an area where other businesses exist, you are going to flourish. Competition is healthy for our job."

Still, Amster admits, the picture could be very different if, instead of the number of stores, one meaured the size of each store - either the actual space each store occupies or its total sales and revenues. Such data is not available; but Amster says that it might show that national chains are far more important in the area than their absolute number suggests.

Take for example the Barnes & Noble store that occupies the whole second floor of the building on the corner of Harvard and Babcock streets, the same space that is shared by five stores on the first floor: Cambridgeport Bank, Foot Locker, Crew International, and two restaurants (Mr. Sushi and Zaftigs).

Brookline Booksmith, 42-years-old, survives the competition of a Barnes and Noble store two blocks away

It's size dwarfs the competition, Brookline Booksmith, a 42-year-old local bookstore located only two blocks away. Still, Booksmith stays alive.

"We are surviving," Dana Brigham, manager and co-owner of Booksmith, said to the Boston Business Journal. "It's an ongoing story. The challenges don't diminish."

It was because of Brigham that Arthur Golden, author of "Memoirs of a Geisha," recently turned down a Barnes & Noble invitation to appear in a New York Times advertisement. "It's not that I feel that chain bookstores are evil or that independents are good," Golden said in an article [LINK to the ARTICLE] that appeared on the web log HoltUncensored.com. "It's just that if I did something like that, I could never look Dana Brigham in the face again."

Back to the future

A drawing appeared in a 1926 book shows how people imagined the future Coolidge Corner. On the left, the SS Pierce Building. Credit: Coolidge Corner: Past- Present -Future.

Almost every type of local or regional store in Coolidge Corner is competing with one or more national chain stores. The classic battle game between Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts here comes in a multi-player edition, which includes Peet's Coffee and Bruegger's Bagel, and about a dozen more local cafes and eating places. Hollywood Video competes with Cinemasmith, which specializes in art movies, classics and documentaries in order to be competitive. KB Toys competes with next-door Imaginarium, and both of them compete with a local toy store half a mile away. Foot Locker competes with other shoes stores, like Downtown Shooz and Andre Shoes.

On a larger scale, Trader Joe's competes with Stop 'n Shop and both of them compete with local grocery stores. And, in a face-off of national chains, a CVS and a Walgreen's are across the street from each other at the intersection of Harvard and Beacon streets, right in the heart of Coolidge Corner. They also compete against themselves, as each one has a second store on Harvard Street.

In a sense, Coolidge Corner has been attracting large businesses since the very beginning. The area got its name from William D. Coolidge, who in 1852 opened a grocery store on Harvard and Beacon streets, where the SS Pierce Building now stands.

The SS Pierce Building in Coolidge Corner

"There is a tendency for Boston's largest shops to establish themselves in Coolidge Corner ..."says the 1926 book "Coolidge Corner's Past - Present - Future." "Various ... large business concerns are negotiating for Coolidge Corner locations." The book predicts that in the near future "all this business activity with its almost unbelievable increase in land and building values" will "comprise Boston's ultra-smart and most convenient and most fashionable shopping district."

But 83 years later, some owners and managers of mom-and-pop stores complain about two things: extremely high rent and the slowing down of business.

Small business owners privately admit they pay "crazy" or even "brutal" rents, but publicly they ratchet down their criticism. They say that their rent is very expensive, but "relatively not as bad as others around here."

The average rent for businesses in Coolidge Corner is about $50 per square foot, cheaper than in downtown Boston, but still expensive for small businesses, especially when combined with a slow economy.

"In our current economic situation, people have less money to spend; when they do buy something, they are looking for bargains that can be provided by national chains with multiple locations, substantial financial base, and low overhead," said  Polly Cornblath, executive director fo the Brookline Chamber of Commerce. "The independently owned businesses have little or no economic cushion or multiple sources of income."

Andre Shoes has been on Harvard Street since 1984; lately business has slowed down

Ask how business is going and responses are peppered with grievances about the economy and the collapse of the stock market. Marie Hassan, manager of Andre Shoes, owned by her husband, says that in the last couple of years it has been very difficult to reach the annual goal of increasing business by 10 percent. Their store has been in Coolidge Corner since 1984.

Can a poor economy affect even a small store selling newspapers and tobacco? "Let's put it this way," says Michael Willner, owner of Brookline News and Gifts on Harvard Street. "If it hadn't been for September 11th and the war, things might have been much better."

Michael Willner opened Brookline News and Gifts on Harvard Street 40 years ago

In June, Willner will celebrate his 40th anniversary since he first opened his store in Coolidge Corner. On a recent Saturday at noon, eight customers could hardly fit in the little space left by stands and cases packed with cards, toys, magazines, papers, and cigars in the store. The room had a discreet smell of tobacco. "This is as small as it gets," Willner says. "It can't be any smaller."

Penny, who works at the store and declined to give her last name, says the advantage of the store is personalized business and customer service. "When you go to a CVS, the only thing they ask you is if you have a CVS card," Penny says. "When you come to buy your paper here, you can also discuss the news."

In addition to personalized service, most small business owners and customers boast about the quality of their products. The quality of shoes is better in a small shoe store, the manager will tell you. The quality of groceries is better in a small grocery store, the owner will say. And the quality of bread is certainly better in a small bakery, everybody will tell you.

"It is maybe because they are small and have the time to do it, but the bread is so good and fresh," says Bryony Darcy, 26, who visited Boston Daily Bread after listening to a friend. "My friend was like 'You have to try it, it is so delicious.' She was right," Darcy says.

Less is more in Boston Daily Bread

If there were any doubts, a sign hung on the wall that compares the store's bread with "their" bread makes it clear: Boston Daily's bread is made with five ingredients: wheat, water, honey, yeast, salt; their bread is made with 27 ingredients, most of them with names you might have to memorize for a chemistry class.

But it is not only the number of ingredients that matters when it comes to the quality of products in small businesses. For some customers, shopping in a mom-and-pop store takes the form of political activism based on solid ideological ground.

The politics of shopping

Brookline News and Gifts ispacked with cards, toys, magazines, papers, and cigars, to name but a few.

"I am anti-capitalist; I don't like chains and big corporations," said one customer who declined to give her name as she ordered a loaf of triple-chocolate bread at Boston Daily Bread. "I don't want to see small businesses disappear."

For some customers, the act of shopping in a small store instead of a national brings to mind a sense of community and purity that are considered forever lost, victims of modernization and technology. Small businesses represent the fantasy of a lost era of innocence, when things were made with personal care by a loving mother or father, or a loving neighbor.

This could be one of the reasons why the Coolidge Corner / Longwood Avenue Neighborhood Association and local residents are concerned about the identity of the area being lost.

Critics complain that national chains tend not to reinvest the money they make in the local community to the same degree as small businesses do.

"National chains do not usually become an integrated part of the community in which they are located," Polly Cornblath of the Brookline Chamber of Commerce said.

A study on the impact of a Borders bookstore in Austin, Texas, published on Liveablecity.org, suggested that Borders may have increased sales of books and music but had a negative effect on the local economy. "Local merchants keep much more of their labor, profits and spending here instead of out of town. Shopping at local businesses instead of national chains with equivalent products and prices injects three times as much money back into Austin's economy," the report claimed.

Regarding the future of small businesses in Coolidge Corner, Marge Amster says she is "concerned but not worried, because people are appreciative of small businesses."

On a recent day around noon, Ellen Pick, a retired owner of a mom-and-pop store in Boston, went shopping at Trader Joe's and then came to Boston Daily Bread to buy what she likes the most in the store: a round loaf of triple chocolate bread.

"They don't make it anywhere else. It's nice to know the store is here," she says. "But I get angry with people who blame the chains for forcing small stores out of business. Consumers go to the chains for their own reasons. Maybe the variety is better, maybe they like the extended hours. I go to national chains but I also come here."

DIMITRIOS ANGELIDIS