What’s a true bargain hunter to do along increasingly uptown Route 9 now that even Building #19, the home of “Good Stuff Cheap,” can’t make a go of it?
A group of regulars at the quirky discount chain’s Natick store pondered the question last week, when they greeted news of the retailer’s plans for one final fire sale with a mix of shock, sadness, and nostalgia.
Building #19’s longtime owners filed for bankruptcy protection on Nov. 1, and announced the Hingham-based discounter will close all 10 of its stores next month. The hit list includes the company’s decades-old Natick store, tucked away at the rear of the Stop & Shop-anchored retail plaza at the intersection of routes 9 and 27.
“Route 9 is just becoming all high-end,” said Sandi Newcomb, who tends bar at the local Elks Lodge on Speen Street. “Everything is far too expensive at the mall.”
As they absorbed the news, some longtime Building #19 customers wondered where they will go now to find the bargains that have kept them coming back year after year.
A number of discount chains have vanished from Route 9 over the years, including Caldor, Bradlees, and Zayre.
In Shrewsbury, the one-of-a-kind Spag’s Supply Inc. store became part of the Building #19 family about a decade ago, but it closed earlier this year.
As bargain-hunters’ delights have disappeared, the densely packed shopping corridor has gone upscale, with the Natick Mall sprouting high-rise condos and even changing its name for a time to the Natick Collection.
The plaza hosting Natick’s Building #19 has not been immune to the trend, with a Panera Bread restaurant and, more recently, a fashionable burger place and a frozen yogurt shop opening up almost next door.
While some bargain spots remain, such as Savers and Christmas Tree Shops outlets also just off Route 9, it just will not be the same, said Building #19 regulars like Newcomb, whose daughter makes a pilgrimage to the Natick store each time she is in town from Colorado.
Longtime customers who heard the news about the bankruptcy showed up in Natick last week, each with a story about a phenomenal find at the store.
For Newcomb, it was a framed Boston Strong photo that she snapped up for $32.99, or about a third of what she saw it selling for at the mall. She also marveled at a $19 pair of Calvin Klein jeans.
Elinor Beatrice, who runs a home day-care business in Newton, approvingly eyed the price tag on a large area rug she was looking at to help keep little feet off her wall-to-wall carpet. It had been marked down by half to $20.
She used to go to A.J. Wright in Waltham, but that closed, she said.
“It just seems like they are squeezing it all out,” she said of the area’s disappearing bargain stores.
Clarinda Pouliot’s eyes grew bright when she talked about the 99-cents-a-bottle dish soap she found at the Natick store. She drove all the way from Worcester to stock up.
“They closed the one in Worcester last year,” she said.
And Andele Novak, who lives in Natick and has been shopping at the store for 15 years, expressed a doubt that Building #19’s longtime owners are likely to hear often in the days and months ahead.
“I can’t believe there isn’t more interest in keeping it afloat,” said Novak, looking at toys with her grandson. “It filled a wonderful niche — it is going to be a real loss.”
The short answer is that while bargain hunting is far from dead, much of it has moved online, making it difficult for brick-and-mortar retailers like Building #19 to compete, company officials said in announcing the bankruptcy filing. It is especially true along increasingly expensive and high-rent retail corridors like Route 9.
The economic realities offer little consolation for Building #19 devotees like Mario Taricano.
Sporting a Boston Strong cap, the retired landscaper and Marine Corps veteran from Brighton has made Natick’s Building #19 practically part of his daily routine.
He said there is nothing better than grabbing a free cup of coffee — one of the chain’s longstanding perks for its customers — and sifting the bins, racks, and shelves for bargains.
“It’s like a giant flea market; you never walk out of here empty-handed,” he said.
But it is more than just Building #19’s promise of “Good Stuff Cheap” that kept Taricano and others coming back, they said.
The store also served as a place to hang out with old friends and make new ones, not just fellow shoppers but store employees as well.
Newcomb talked about how she made a cake for the wedding shower of one longtime Building #19 employee she got to know over the years.
As if to prove the point, Newcomb soon struck up a lively conversation with Taricano, the retired landscaper.
“Everything I am wearing I bought in here,” Taricano said. “I love this place.”
Scott Van Voorhis can be reached at sbvanvoorhis@ hotmail.com.