Two Square Businesses Shut Down

Following the announcement that Crate and Barrel will shut its doors this weekend, Brattle Street is poised to lose two more businesses with the closing of cosmetics store Beauty and Main and business accessories store Cross.

Beauty and Main closed its doors over a week ago after six years in Harvard Square. The store noticed a dramatic decline in sales over the past year and a half, according to director of operations Kate E. Richard.

“We changed our staff and the structure of our products, but ultimately the number of people coming in the door was down by 49 percent,” Richard said. “Traffic just died out.”

For the last four years, the space below Beauty and Main, which was located on the second floor of its Brattle Street location, had been vacant following a bookstore closing. This contributed to less people visiting the store, Richard said.

She also cited bad weather, unreliable T service, and frequent protests as factors that have kept people from the store in recent years. Richard said there was also a loss of clientele.

“For almost three years the store did very well with lots of students, professors, and a healthy mix of women of different ages with different needs,” she said. “It then dwindled down to more students and less reliable business.”

Denise A. Jillson, executive director of the Harvard Square Business Association, said that while it was evident that Beauty and Main was struggling, Origins, located nearby, has similar products but has not faced the same problems.

“I’m not sure if it’s marketing or location,” she said. “It was a store that just never really took off here in Harvard Square as one would expect.”

Another store prepared to close by the end of this month is Cross, also located on Brattle Street. The store sold luxury business accessories for almost five years. Store manager Christopher H. Siren contributed its closing to “hard times.”

The rent was too high for the store in Harvard Square to be maintained, Siren said. In order to pursue a less costly alternative, Cross is opening a kiosk in the Prudential Center to make up for this loss.

“The general consensus from what I hear is that rent in Harvard Square is really high and even good businesses are struggling,” Siren said.

But Jillson said that the HSBA has been receiving two to three inquiries a week about available store space, many from businesses owned by women in the area.

The increasing presence of these small businesses proves that rent in the Square is reasonable, Jillson said.

“Clearly, if locally-owned, independent businesses run by women are able to afford rent in prime locations, then one would conclude that rents are not skyrocketing,” she said.

Jillson also said the store’s location could have contributed to its decline.

“It was an inappropriate use of space, and [Cross’] closing came as no surprise,” she said.

Currently, 78 percent of businesses surveyed by the Harvard Square Business Association are locally-owned. Sixteen percent are national chains, and 6 percent are regional companies.

—Staff writer Emma R. Carron can be reached at ecarron@fas.harvard.edu.