NORTHAMPTON — At the same time the city mourns the loss of Serio’s Market, another institution readies to close its doors later this spring.
Ben and Bill’s Chocolate Emporium at 141 Main St. will end its 26-year run in downtown Northampton at the end of May.
Owner Ben Coggins, 62, said the decision to close came because “it was time.”
“The business is fine, we’re not closing for reasons like Serio’s,” Coggins said. “I’m closing because I’m too damn busy — I’d be a liar if I said anything other than that. I just don’t have time to do the things I want to do.”
He said the family’s other three locations in Falmouth, Martha’s Vineyard and Bar Harbor, Maine, will remain open.
“The other three stores by design are way more profitable, but this one always made money and paid for itself,” he said.
Coggins said seven years ago he got into property development as a means to make enough money to purchase each of the family’s storefronts outright, which he eventually did. He said he’s been successful enough at it that he’d like to get that business to a point where he can leave it to his children.
“It’s turning into a full-time job,” he said.
Coggins said he’ll retain ownership of the building that houses the storefront, which he’ll lease to a new tenant.
And after all these years in the chocolate business, he hasn’t lost the taste for it. He said he’ll most miss his chocolate-dipped Oreos, of which he typically has three for breakfast.
“I eat it everyday. I really can’t say that I don’t,” he said. “It’s actually good — my doctor says keep doing what you’re doing.”
With Ben and Bill’s leaving, Shop Therapy owner Ronny Hazel readies to broaden its Northampton base.
Penny Lane, he’ll call the new store he plans to open in the Ben and Bill’s space, will offer more of the family business’ clothing lines in a more family-friendly setting. Penny Lane, he said, won’t have any of the tobacco products and sex toys the other two shops have.
Ronny Hazel’s son, Adam Hazel, opened The Vault — the family’s first downtown foothold — about six years ago.
“As far as settling in a second home, Northampton was a perfect fit,” Ronny Hazel said, explaining that a large portion of their Cape Cod customer base came from western Massachusetts vacationers.
Hazel, the brunt of whose business is in wholesale goods, said there simply isn’t enough room in the existing downtown spaces to boast all their wares.
“We’re crammed and it’s safe to say there’s a million things that just don’t fit,” he said. “Penny Lane will carry what people need the most and we’ll move them in and out.”
Because of changing laws around flavored tobacco products, Adam Hazel recently had to get a tobacconists permit to sell e-juices and other flavored products.
And tobacconists’ permits are only granted to stores that predominantly offer tobacco products, meaning many of the clothing and other items that had been at The Vault — products Hazel said were all conceived through the family’s growing wholesale business — had to go.
“It’s a small shop, but we have the power to fill it immediately,” Erica Cole, manager at Shop Therapy, said of the Ben and Bill’s space.
Ronny Hazel said there wasn’t enough room inside Shop Therapy, 189 Main St., to take in all the orphaned items.
“It’s a no-brainer for us,” said, adding his international wholesale business creates jobs. “The more we can get to our customers the more we’re able to support our people around the world.”
The velvety smell of chocolate teased the nostrils upon entry into Ben and Bill’s on Tuesday, and the air about the place was bittersweet as regulars recounted their favorites. The shop’s fudge and chocolate-covered pretzels appeared to be frequent flyers.
“It’s so depressing,” said Samantha Sullivan, who joined colleagues at Hampshire Family Dental in expressing their devastation at the nearby shop’s closure. Still, she said there are some vacant storefronts downtown so “I’m glad someone’s taking it over.”
Manager Colleen Wickland, 56, said the chocolatey aroma has become so commonplace for her after 16 years that she barely notices it.
“You get used to it,” she said. “I can’t really smell it like you would, but I sure can taste it.”
Wickland enjoys working at the chocolate shop so much, she brought her daughter on board, who’s also worked there on and off for more than a decade. She first began working there when she was in high school.
“It’s like a second home, you know?” Emily Clark said.
“We’re all very close,” her mother agreed. “I’m sad to see it end.”
Amanda Drane can be contacted at adrane@gazettenet.com.