OP-ED; Failing businesses deserve their fate

Thomas M. Keane, Jr.
861 words
22 March 2002
Boston Herald
All Editions
025
English
(Copyright 2002)

Buzzy's Roast Beef, home to more 3 a.m. sandwiches than I care to admit, has closed. Like Harvard Square's Tasty, the Wursthaus and Billings & Stover Apothecaries, it's a piece of the local culture that is now gone.

Good riddance.

That opinion is not shared by those fussing about what they see as the increasing homogenization of retail America. The funky, one- of stores are remembered with fondness. They were places of character, we're told, that gave each street a unique sense of place. Now they're being replaced with the inevitable Gap or Starbucks.

There's little question that independent stores are rapidly disappearing. Boston's hottest shopping areas - Newbury Street, Downtown Crossing and Faneuil Hall - are full of the same shops one could find in any suburban mall. The Harvard Square Defense Fund (Yes, there really is such a group.) estimates that 63 of the 93 stores in the once-trendy square are chain-owned. To some, these changes are an issue of public policy. Local government, they argue, should stop the chains.

It's not a new idea. Choosing charm over convenience, towns like Woods Hole have mightily resisted fast food, with townspeople picketing against McDonald's and Burger King. In Boulder, Colo., a group calling itself the Boulder Independent Business Association has proposed a series of ordinances that would ban city-owned property from being used by chains and sharply limit the number of chain-owned stores in town. (Ironically, the Boulder group is itself now a chain, called the American Independent Business Association, with chapters around the country.)

To be sure, there is a lot that cities and towns can do to help small entrepreneurs. The best assistance would be to get out of the way. The Pioneer Institute, for example, has catalogued an extensive array of state and local regulations that impose high if not overwhelming burdens on those who would start up their own businesses. (For example, to get a license to braid hair one must attend a 1,000-hour cosmetology course, even though hair-braiding is not part of the curriculum.)

Entrepreneurs in Boston quickly learn it's a game only opened to those with money. Liquor licenses, issued by the city for just $2,000, commonly trade for more than $100,000. Lawyers such as Dennis Quilty, Carolyn Conway and Larry DiCara specialize in helping business people wend their way through the maze of permits needed to open up shop. They're good, but expensive. Chains have the wherewithal to afford that kind of talent. Independents do not.

Still, all of this explains why it's tough to start up a business. It doesn't explain why the mom-and-pops are shutting down.

The answer? They aren't all that good.

I know, I know. You loved those places when you were younger. But the last time I went to Buzzy's was three years ago, and even then, there weren't too many in line. The Tasty wasn't tasty; the Wursthaus was the worst. And Billings & Stover may have been funky, but CVS was always cheaper.

Back when Waterstone's bookstore occupied the Old Exeter Theater on Newbury Street, people used to marvel at how wonderful it was: One could sit for a couple of hours in its comfortable chairs, sipping a latte and reading away with no hassle from the sales staff.

Exactly. Places without sales don't last long.

There's another phenomenon at work as well: Good ideas almost inevitably become chains. If I come up with a new idea for a pizza place and it proves a huge success, there's no reason why that idea won't also be a success elsewhere. That's what happened to Bertucci's, which started up in Somerville's Davis Square. So too with Staples (the first store was in Brighton), and Legal Seafood (which used to serve on paper plates in Cambridge's Inman Square.

The reason has a lot to do with improvements in communication and transportation. Where once it was difficult to do so, it's now possible to run a number of stores across the country. Inventories are kept on computer, shipping can be done with ease and oversight is only a few hours' flight away.

Moreover, with rare exceptions, entrepreneurs want to grow big. They're in business, after all, not charity, and the idea is to make money - preferably, lots of it. The chain stores we rail against were once someone else's mom-and-pop (Borders Bookstore, for example, started as a small place in Ann Arbor, Mich.). And today's innovative entrepreneurs - like Chacarero, the Chilean sandwich shop at Downtown Crossing - will doubtless someday be serving customers in all 50 states.

All of which is why efforts to keep our shopping areas filled with independent stores are bound to fail. Unique and attractive ideas have appeal everywhere. And bad ideas? As Buzzy's learned, the market for heartburn is limited indeed.

Tom Keane can be reached at tomkeane@tomkeane.com.

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