Tommy’s Market Suffers Slow Start

After its first month in business, Tommy’s Value convenience store has yet to see the financial success that its owner had hoped to achieve.

The new store, which first opened its doors on Oct. 23, is located on Mt. Auburn Street, two doors down from Tommy’s House of Pizza.

Store owner Mian Iftikhar, who also owns Tommy’s House of Pizza, says the convenience store’s current daily income of $600-700 is less than half of what he expected.

But Iftikhar says the store’s initial reception doesn’t worry him.

“It will take people in the neighborhood a while to realize that this place is available for shopping,” he says, a fact reflected by Harvard students in the area.

“I haven’t had a chance to go there yet,” Andrew C. Lin ’04 said. “I’m not really used to it being there.”

Iftikhar says that as with any new establishment, business will continue to pick up as he gets feedback from customers, so that he can improve the range of the store’s services. He said students should let him know what items they would like the store to stock.

He says since he firmly opposes selling alcohol and lottery tickets—staples at many convenience stores—he hopes instead to provide “healthier” alternatives.

Instead of selling liquor, he plans to set up a juice bar, in which custom drinks are blended from fresh fruits and vegetables, in January.

Iftikhar also expects to have a DVD and video rental service available as soon as next week. The Square has been without any video rental stores since Videopros closed its location in the Garage last spring.

In addition, he is still waiting for a shipment of imported handicrafts he hopes will attract customers.

Iftikhar says he intends to gear the store to what he sees at its main customer base.

“This store is generally mostly for [students from] Harvard,” he said. “This is like [their] personal shop. That is the position it fulfills.”

Iftikhar says he expects sales to double in six months, after he has added some new services.

Iftikhar said that sales dropped almost 80 percent when students went home for Thanksgiving break.

The slow sales since the opening of Tommy’s Value only add to the list of recent disappointments for Iftikhar.

Business at Tommy’s House of Pizza is down 15 percent since the City of Cambridge last spring ordered it to close at 2 a.m.—an hour earlier than it had previously—in response to noise complaints from neighbors. The eatery failed to get permission last month from the Cambridge License Commission to stay open for another hour.

Iftikhar says he has not received any nuisance complaints from neighbors since the commission’s ruling.

Tommy’s Value also closes at 2 a.m., a time Iftikhar says may change if he receives enough feeback.

“They’re usually closed whenever I want to go,” said Jason L. Douglas ’04.