After over 50 years in business, Berk’s Shoes & Clothing store on Thayer Street will close on Jan. 25. J Life Mart, Thayer’s go-to for Asian snacks, will be soon to follow.
Thayer has seen high turnover since 2020, with many pointing to lingering pandemic costs and inconsistent foot traffic, The Herald previously reported.
Stephen Berk, who owns the shoe store along with his daughter Lauren Berk, shared that the closure comes as a relief to both of them. “It just seems the time,” he said.
The closure results from lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, construction on Thayer hindering street parking, the closure of the nearby Washington Bridge and the significant drop in foot traffic, Stephen Berk said. “It was just one bad thing after another,” he added.
The business dates back to the early 1900s, when Stephen Berk’s grandfather started a shoe cobbler repair store in Pascoag, Rhode Island. The family business has since turned into a general clothing and shoe store. In 1974, Stephen Berk opened the Thayer Street location.
Stephen Berk emphasized the importance and strength of his working relationship with his daughter, adding that every employee “was like part of the family.”
Rhode Island does not have many businesses where shoppers can say “I’ve been coming here since I was a kid,” said Alia Del Borgo, a Berk’s employee of almost three years. For her, getting to know the customers who frequent the store made the job worthwhile.
J Life Mart — College Hill’s Japanese convenience store — also plans to close. Jason Chou, the store’s current owner, wrote that the business will officially shut its doors once the space finds a new owner.
J Life opened in April 2021 with the intention of providing students with somewhere convenient to pick up snacks and drinks during the busy school day, Chou said.
He added that while closing the store may seem unexpected, it would not be economically feasible to keep J Life open. “Competition and weak economy” have poorly impacted business over the past six months, Chou said.
Due to high rents, most restaurants “cannot make it,” said Paul Boutros, who co-owns East Side Pockets with his family. Having been in business on Thayer since 1997, the restaurant has seen many businesses struggle over the years.
Thayer used to have “tons” of foot traffic, which has since plummeted, said Stephen Berk. According to Boutros, this was due to a combination of post-pandemic difficulties and the rise of mobile shopping, making it very challenging for small businesses to operate.
Boutros said that many local businesses have shifted to food delivery apps like Grubhub since the pandemic. But mobile ordering apps can be expensive for these businesses. East Side Pockets lost 25% of their margin in recent years, Boutros shared.
In an increasingly digital, fast-paced world, “people don’t shop out like they used to,” Boutros said.
The loss of Berk’s is “tragic,” Del Borgo said. She added that she “wouldn’t be surprised if there was a domino effect with Berk’s going.”
