Louie Considers Closing Superette

Louie’s Superette may close its doors in the near future due to a drastic decline in business last year, according to owner Cheng-san Chen.

The convenience store near Mather House has been a popular destination for students seeking groceries, dorm supplies, and alcohol since 1987.

Chen called 2004 his worst business year in the store’s 17-year existence, citing a $150,000 drop in sales last year alone—a huge figure for a small store, he said.

If business continues at this pace, Chen said he will be forced to close the store.

“I’m losing money,” he said in an interview Tuesday.

Chen, who holds a Ph.D. in biophysics, said he partly attributes plummeting sales to a ruling by the Cambridge Licensing Commission last year that prohibited him from selling alcohol on Sundays.

Alcohol makes up about 50 percent of the store’s sales, Chen said, so he decided it would not be profitable to open at all on Sundays.

The sale of liquor on Sundays in Massachusetts is a new phenomenon. Since the revision of the “blue laws” in 2004—statutes codified by New England’s early Puritan settlers which mandated Sabbath observance, prohibited blasphemy, and forbade gaudy dress—Massachusetts businesses are permitted to sell alcohol on Sundays.

But after finding that Chen had intentionally sold alcohol to minors, the Licensing Commission ruled last March that he could not apply for a Sunday liquor license for a year.

Chen and his lawyers have drafted a petition which students can sign to help Chen acquire a Sunday liquor permit. The Commission will decide whether to grant Chen the permit in hearing on Feb. 22.

He said that the permit may be his store’s last hope. “If they don’t give me the permit, I think the store will be dead,” he said.

Chen said it is difficult to compete with stores that can sell liquor everyday.

“It’s a killer not to be open on Sundays,” he said.

Chen said that since his suspension he has stopped relying on memory to recall students’ ages, and instead rigorously checks IDs every time he sells alcohol.

He added that he even tries actively to prevent underage students from buying alcohol. Chen keeps a stack of confiscated IDs behind the store’s counter which he believes are fake.

“My job is not easy,” he said. “Harvard students come from 50 states and there are so many different IDs.”

Adiari I. Vazquez ’05, who said she goes to Louie’s at least once a week, said she usually sees Chen ask students for 2 forms of ID before selling them alcohol. “I’ve never seen him sell to underage students,” she added.

Still, many Mather residents are attracted to Louie’s because of his selection of alcoholic beverages.

Catherine L. H. Matthews ’07 said she goes to Louie’s about once a week to buy cigarettes or alcohol, and Peter J. Martinez ’07 said he intends to buy alcohol there as soon as he turns 21.

Marie E. Burks ’06 said that while the students she knows who frequent Louie’s go mainly to buy alcohol, she prefers to shop elsewhere.

“I don’t buy a lot of alcohol, and they have a limited selection of groceries,” she said

Chen also said he suspects students may be scared to go to his store after hearing about several armed robberies that have occurred there in recent years.

Yet increased police presence in the area has also scared students away, according to Neil N. “Buddy” Shah ’05, who said many students think the police go to Louie’s to make sure he is not selling alcohol to minors.

“They should try to protect [Chen], not bust him,” Shah said.

Students added they would miss the store if it closed, partly because they enjoy talking to Chen.

“I’d be upset if [Louie’s] closed…He’s a nice guy, he always talks to me,” said Matthews.

Vazquez called Louie’s “one of the best things that Mather has,” adding that Chen “is such a great person. I talk to him about world politics all the time. I’d be really sad to lose him.”