It was April when In Your Ear, a record store that had been on Thayer Street for more than 19 years, closed its doors. Just a few months later, College Hill Bookstore, a 40-year-old landmark, emptied its shelves and shut down. Then, this month, Atlas Bower, another former Thayer-area bookstore, closed after relocating last year to a Steeple Street location.
And with more independent stores closing on Thayer Street, the dynamic of the College Hill area is changing, according to some storeowners.
Chris Zingg, one of the owners of In Your Ear, said sales had dropped 40 percent in the last five years. He said Providence Place Mall and the Internet have increased competition, and both rents and taxes have increased. However, he named the lack of parking on and near Thayer Street as the main problem. People find it more convenient to go downtown, he said, and pick up everything at once.
"Thayer Street has changed a lot," he said. "Currently it looks more like Federal Hill with all the restaurants." At one point there were four or five record stores on Thayer Street, he said. Now there is only one - Tom's Tracks, between Meeting and Cushing streets.
Tom's Tracks owner Tom Farnsworth said business is not doing well, before declining to comment further.
Brown looks less attractive to prospective students with the loss of Thayer Street's independent stores, Zingg added. The stores brought vitality to the area, he said, whereas now "Thayer has four pizzerias in a two-block radius."
Zingg added that he is not sure what will be taking In Your Ear's place. He has opened a smaller record store, Zingg Music, in Barrington. He also sells a lot of music through the Internet, he said.
College Hill Bookstore faced declining sales for similar reasons. Owner Kenneth Dulgarian took over the business from his father, Earl, after college. "We had a 40-year run, and a good run at that," he said, "but nothing lasts forever."
His decision to close had nothing to do with Brown, whose students provided a "very good customer base," he said. Instead, Dulgarian said the bookstore closed as part of the evolution of small businesses. More competition came from Internet sales of books, and Dulgarian didn't have time to manage his real estate business as well as run the bookstore, he said.
Spectrum India, which sells Indian clothing, books and other items, will be moving into the College Hill Bookstore location in mid-November. The new space is larger than Spectrum India's current location next to the Avon Cinema, and owner Jagdish Schdev said he plans to expand the store's offerings to cater to Brown and RISD students.
Dulgarian's take on the changes on Thayer was different from Zingg's. "There's a trend of independent stores closing all over the country - I wouldn't attribute it just to Thayer Street," he said.
And overall, he said, the change is good. "You govern it, you as the consumer," Dulgarian said.
Dulgarian characterized Thayer Street's current condition as a "B. We strive to get an A," he said, "which involves more diversification."
Catherine Foulkrod '04.5 reacted to the College Hill Bookstore's closing by commenting that "it kind of makes the Brown Bookstore have a monopoly."
Aprilshandiin Curley '06 said the College Hill Bookstore "had more leisurely books and magazines than the Brown Bookstore." She added, "The closing limits the places to look for books."
