Square's Grocer Sage's Closes Shop

There was little fanfare for Sage's as the Square grocery store--which stood for nearly a century at the corner of Brattle and Church Street--closed its doors for good Saturday evening.

Instead, music played softly as customers browsed, taking advantage of the liquidation sale to pick up a few choice items.

It could have been any day, except for the bare shelves and the handmade, simple green cardboard sign propped outside the store that read, "Goodbye Sage's--Thank you."

It was an appropriate, somewhat bittersweet end for a store that has quietly served a loyal core of Square patrons for nearly a century.

The Sage family trust--which owns the building--voted earlier this year to close the grocery store and lease the space to a commercial retailer.

In all likelihood, says owner Charles E. Sage, a vendor outlet for the telecommunications company Sprint will replace his neighborhood market.

Sage's other locations--in Belmont, Boston and Waltham--will remain open.

A Square Landmark

Last Tuesday, Sage is surveying his store from the clutter of his upstairs office. He sits, surrounded by papers.

He spends a lot of time in his office reminiscing.

"My grandfather worked here before the advent of the telephone," he says, "He'd get up early, hitch up the horse, take orders, then buy produce in the marketplace and come back again and make deliveries."

But things have changed. Now, Sage says, customers do not necessarily even need deliveries by car.

"Everything's on the Internet. Now, people can just call the dot.com grocers," Sage sighs.

To serve the Square population, a store no longer needs to be located in the Square, Sage says. He faults the changes in delivery needs for much of the decline in business.

Sage says the move of many national chains into the Square had negative repercussions for his business.

"I remember 20 years ago a lot of our customers were from the suburbs of Boston," he says. "People would come here because there were unique shops in the Square."

Now that many of these shops have closed, Sage says, people choose to go to a mall, with easily accessible parking, rather than coming to the Square. It's just not worth the effort any longer, he says.

"Our customers now are limited to people who actually live here," Sage says.

And even the longtime core of loyal customers Sage has amassed over the year is part of a past generation. Many of the patrons Sage remembers from years ago have recently died.

While Sage's has been losing customers, rents in the Square have been steadily rising.

"Economically, I suppose this is something that just had to happen," Sage says.

"I'm going to be really sad to leave," he says. "I've worked here in this little office for the last 30 years. I'm really disappointed this had to happen."

On closing day, Sage does not come to the office. But his employees spend the day thinking of him.

"Charlie has done his best to keep the community together and behind this store," says cashier Chris P. Chase. "I know how he's struggled and how we've all struggled to keep this place open. It breaks [Sage's] heart to have to close this store."

But a store like Sage's cannot survive without a large base of support, Chase says.

"We needed the whole community to operate--it can't just be one man," Chase says

The Latest Casualty

That Sage's could be partially forsaken by the community is a testament to the changing nature of the Square, says G. Pebble Gifford, president of the Harvard Square Defense Fund.

"No landlord wants to keep a grocery store when he can rent to Sprint, with its big pocket," Gifford says. "It's the almighty dollar that's changing things around here--it's just that simple."

Fred H. Humphreys, whose 100-year-old Square music store Briggs & Briggs was replaced by Adidas earlier this year, says he is saddened by this trend. Sage's closing is a great loss to the Square, he says.

"Now there's no place in the Square to shop for beans, carrots, franks and cupcakes," he says. "They're all looking for more money--they're just going to make a mall out of it."

And for the customers who have remained loyal to Sage's and have grown to rely on a market within walking distance, the closing comes as a shock.

Priscilla McMillan lives just outside the Square and does not own a car. She has memories of Sage's dating back to 1951.

"It's really a necessity to have a grocery store," she says. "Sage's closing will make it quite difficult for a lot of residents."

A few nights ago, McMillan says, a friend of hers, who lives quite close to Sage's and has trouble walking, called her "in distress."

"She had just found out and said, 'What are we going to do without Sage's'" McMillan remembers. "I really don't know what we're going to do."

Sage's closing is just one more sign that the Square is no longer as much of a residential area, McMillan says.

"The creeping commercialization of the Square is no longer creeping, it's galloping," McMillan says. "As operations like Sprint replace stores that sell everyday necessities, I think it will start to affect real estate values.

"The Square really has to be able to support a grocery store for it to have any residential component," she continues.

Sage says he has made an effort to thank the customers like McMillan who have, over the years, become his friends. He knows that his store--and its seeming ability to withstand the changes in the Square--has become quite important to many of them. But not enough to keep him in business.

"I get to see people coming back for Harvard reunions and they tell me how much the Square's changed, and how nice it is to see a familiar store," he says. "I guess that's the way you have to judge things--through the eyes of people who've been away for a while."