Strawberries Closes Harvard Square Store

The Strawberries Music and Video store at 38 JFK St. closed last week.

Several sources said the record store closed because of lack of business. Officials at the store's parent company, Waxie Maxie Music and Video, yesterday did not return phone calls to comment, but the manager of the remaining Strawberries store in Cambridge, on Memorial Drive, said the company is undergoing an internal reorganization.

"This location has closed," a sign posted on the store read yesterday. "Thank you for your patronage." The sign referred customers to the Strawberries outlets on Memorial Drive, in Kenmore Square in Cambridge, in Watertown and at the Downtown Crossing shopping district in Boston.

Employees at other Strawberries stores in Boston declined to discuss the closing, referring all calls to Paul Grosso, Strawberries' director of media and sales.

Grosso did not return calls yesterday.

An employee answering the phone at Strawberries' Fleet Center store said he was not allowed to comment on the outlet's closing.

"I can't talk about it for penalty of losing my job," he said.

The employee referred inquiries to his manager, who directed all calls to Grosso.

"The company is reorganizing and we are staying here," said woman who refused to give her name, but identified herself as the manager of Strawberries on Memorial Drive.

According to Jaben L. Wyneken assistant manager at rival Newbury Comics on JFK Street, a sign on the door of Strawberries last week said the store had been closed for inventory.

"Then a truck came and took everything away," said Wynekan.

A customer at neighboring shoe store Allston Beat, who identified himself only as Bob, said he knew both the manager of the JFK Street Strawberries and people in the company's management.

He said he had been told that the company was in financial trouble because of excessive overhead.

The Strawberries three-story megastore on Boylston Street in Boston also closed earlier this year, Bob noted.

"That whole dungeon scene wasn't their vibe," said Bob, referring to the store's underground and windowless location.

"If they had painted it black and had really weird people working there, people would be like, 'Wow,' and would come to see it," he added.

But as it was, the store "was like any mall store," Bob said.

Several business people pointed to rising costs and economic pressures facing many stores in Harvard Square.

"There's so many record stores around here, how do they expect to do well?" asked Craig Welsch, assistant manager of neighboring Buck-A-Book.

Wyneken said he believed the Strawberries store had not been popular.

"Every time I've been down there, nobody was there," he said.

A manager at HMV on Brattle Street was busy with an in-store concert given by James, and could only say that HMV was "sorry to lose a competitor, because it's good for the business."

He said business at HMV was thriving.

A cashier at Tower Records on Mt. Auburn Street, Andrei Smaranboiu, also said his employer was doing well

"That whole dungeon scene wasn't their vibe," said Bob, referring to the store's underground and windowless location.

"If they had painted it black and had really weird people working there, people would be like, 'Wow,' and would come to see it," he added.

But as it was, the store "was like any mall store," Bob said.

Several business people pointed to rising costs and economic pressures facing many stores in Harvard Square.

"There's so many record stores around here, how do they expect to do well?" asked Craig Welsch, assistant manager of neighboring Buck-A-Book.

Wyneken said he believed the Strawberries store had not been popular.

"Every time I've been down there, nobody was there," he said.

A manager at HMV on Brattle Street was busy with an in-store concert given by James, and could only say that HMV was "sorry to lose a competitor, because it's good for the business."

He said business at HMV was thriving.

A cashier at Tower Records on Mt. Auburn Street, Andrei Smaranboiu, also said his employer was doing well