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When did your relationship to Allston begin? My family bought a hardware store, paint and hardware store at 99 Harvard Avenue, right up the block on the corner next to Blanchard’s Liquor, and we bought that in 1966 and we were a paint and hardware store. 

In the early ‘80s, I came into the business 1980 and I continued as a painting hardware store, and we did, we moved down to this location at 151 Harvard Ave.

So since 1980 in 2026 we’ve had a 46-year run, and I started out as a hardware store and paint store, continuing what we had at 99 Harvard Avenue, it was called Boston Paint and Supply Company. And then aisle by aisle of hardware disappeared because I actually enjoyed the furniture business more. 

Describe the evolution of BASICS Paint & Furniture business, By about 1986 or ‘87, I had turned the entire paint and hardware store into completely a furniture store in Master Store, and since then, we have had a great customer base with the college kids and young working people who moved in every September, and that was a major business going forward, and things have changed, because the last three to four years, customers in the age bracket of 20 to 30 have changed their buying habits, and everything is online, everything is Amazon. You can buy a coffee table at 2 ‘o’clock in the morning, even in a drunken state. 

So that has changed the game. Therefore, we don’t have the volume of people walking through the doors anymore. Therefore, we decided to leave and just work out of our warehouse with our existing commercial account.

There was no need to rent a brick and mortar place when the customers are not coming through the door, because everything is done by computer at any time of the day, nothing to do with store hours anymore, right?

I want to go to the beginning. We grew up on the North Shore. We would commute here, but then in my later years I lived in the Metro West area.

Why did you guys choose Allston? We chose Allston, because at the time my father was in the wholesale hardware business, and he used to visit all the hardware stores, selling but selling them wholesale. When he saw the opportunity to buy his own store at the age of 45 it’s either now or never, when you’re 45. So he chose to buy the store as opposed to salesman selling them, and he could become his own boss. That’s where the family business began.

How has your consumer base evolved over the years? My consumer base is the same, it’s the same people, only the faces change, but their habits have changed, like I explained years ago, before the internet, in September, we would have 100 people at a time buying, and they could only get their keys on September first, and start to buy things for their apartments.

if you look around the streets of Boston, there’s not that many furniture stores, not that many furniture stores. There used to be six on this street alone, six. Now there are not, because of the buying habits of the people. It’s a very simple thing. 

Did you get regulars? Well, yeah, but no one that’s going to rely on furniture, you don’t rely on, you know, so we do have the people who we’ve known for years who come in and out, and we talk to them, and we’re friends with all the other business owners. I don’t find there’s any loyalty to stores anymore, and in your age bracket, no one cares. There’s just no care on that.

From decades of working in this industry, what has been most fulfilling about it? Dealing with people 20 years ago, not now, and that’s why we’re moving on, because I don’t want to be here on a daily basis. Where it used to be fun to be here, and people used to count on us. Parents used to call me when their kids were moving on September 1. We just make sure the mattress will be delivered for their son, and make sure all the items will be there, and they counted on us, depended on us, that has changed drastically.

Estimate how many workers have worked here. We don’t have a changeover, workers, because we treat everybody good. So I had the same, like four people here for 30 years. Before that, there was another group of three people who were there for 20 years. There’s no turnover here.

We’re still going to be in business. We have our accounts who count on us, like Pine Street Inn and homeless shelters, who use our furniture, and that’s very gratifying. That’s what we enjoy doing, but we don’t enjoy having a — once in a while person coming in off the street, and they’re not even that serious about purchasing anything.

What are your favorite memories from running this store? Just the people who especially olden days, back in the late ‘60s, ‘70s, when we were a paint store, so anyways, back then we had painters, and these guys were characters. 

These were unique individuals that do not exist anymore. They were wonderful people, and it was just so much fun to deal with day laborers, painters, wallpaper hangers. They were all characters. There are no characters. That has disappeared, and I know that’s probably very sad for you to hear, but guess what, it’s true. Those days have changed. 

Reflect a bit more on your time in Allston. When I travel down the road, it’s always gonna be fun to go by the store and see what has transpired since I know everybody on this block for years, so it’s always gonna be interesting to see what Harvard Avenue will be in the future. That’s always going to be interesting. Just like when you have homes to live in, and you move to another house, you always go back to that neighborhood, take a drive around. It will be nostalgic, but it’s time to move on. 

You once said in an article that “You can’t run a business with fear. You have to go with the flow and keep going.” It’s just not going to be the same customer base, but we’re doing great. We work hard, my guys work hard, and we have to move on, because your age group does not come through the retail doors anymore, and, to turn it around on you, when you purchase things, I’m just guessing you probably do some online shopping when you purchase things, so you are the product of your own generation, which means the retail brick-and-mortar stores are a dead breed. Only you have to be a service, or else you can’t exist anymore. It’s 365 days in a year, and you’re paying rent. You can’t just live off a September move-in, which is half of what it used to be, and then, if no one’s coming through the doors, who’s paying the rent?

As much as I’ve always loved it, and it was fun to hang my hat, have a cup of coffee here in the same place, it was a sign for me to move on.

What should readers know about the Norwood location? We’re just going to work out of a warehouse, keeping our wonderful accounts, most of them are homeless people transitioning into apartments. We really enjoy doing that. They are so grateful for what they get when we deliver the furniture, and they always thank the Lord. They thank us, and those are the people we want to work with now, and we don’t have another customer base, because they’ve disappeared.

When did that partnership begin? About ten, 12, years ago, and it just coincided coincidentally, with our dropoff in regular retail. That increased our good fortune, maybe our luck, but that worked, and we have been paying much more attention on a daily basis to delivering our accounts, which we get orders almost every day.

It’s just a wonderful, gratifying thing, because these people are the most grateful people that there are, the ones who are the least fortunate, always the most grateful.

What do you hope Allston neighbors and residents would remember about this place? About my business? Everyone has said that we’re leaving, like my co-owners of these businesses in the building, they can’t believe we’re actually leaving. Those are fond memories and great bonds, because there’s the people in this building, we have a very tight relationship, so I’m going to miss that, and they’re going to miss me not being here, but in reality, and let’s talk reality, the owners of the stores in this building are upper age, most of them are over 60, and you have a couple people at a young entrepreneur, entrepreneurs, but ten years later — and I hate to say — nobody is going to know that Basics Furniture was here, and nobody’s going to care, and that’s the cruel truth of it. 

And you can’t expect it to be any other way. I don’t take it personal, but it’s not going to be remembered ten years from now. 

The only way for it to be remembered are the people who know us and who will continue to be here, but in ten more years they won’t be here, so BASICS Furniture as we know it, since 1966 also known as Boston Paint and Supply, will never be remembered, only by family members — maybe in me coming down the street, but in the community there’s no way in heaven that people are going to remember this door ten years later, and you can’t expect it to be remembered 10 years later. 

True words, but almost sounding cruel, right?