Faces owner Peter Vogel to close store on Main Street in Northampton unless someone takes it over

NORTHAMPTON — Faces, the quirky Main Street shop regarded by shoppers as a downtown landmark, is scheduled to close early this year unless owner Peter Vogel can find someone else to take it over.



“Though the store remains profitable, a decision to seek other opportunities became very attractive,” Vogel wrote in an emailed statement Tuesday afternoon.



He attributed the decision to the pressures of running a large store with large staff, including “increases in non-fixed costs, such as health insurance, personnel, taxes and business insurance, major increases in electricity and heating costs.”



Vogel wrote, “It is difficult to keep from getting burned out.”



Efforts were unsuccessful to contact Vogel at the store and by telephone Tuesday evening. But in his statement, he invited anyone interested in purchasing the store to direct inquiries to him in writing at the store.



“If someone or some group would like to have the Faces experience live on, then anything is possible,” he wrote.



Faces first opened in Amherst in a former bowling alley in 1971, and the Northampton store opened in 1986. After the Amherst store closed in 1991 due to the economic climate, management shifted its focus to the Northampton location, where a second floor was added in 1994, according to the Faces website.



Customers who busily flocked in and out of the store Tuesday evening with merchandise ranging from fuzzy slippers to giant artwork were disappointed to learn of the possible closing. Locals said they enjoy coming back to the store to check out its unusual inventory, and several shoppers from out of town said the store had piqued their curiosity.



Colleen Durocher of Belchertown, who was shopping with her friend Nancy B. Whitley of Northampton, described Faces as a “Northampton landmark.”



“You go to Faces when you come here,” Durocher said, hot chocolate in hand on the chilly evening. She often goes to Faces to buy gifts. “This is where I can find that unique thing for that personality,” she said.



Whitley added that the window is an experience in itself, and that she went inside to shop that evening because of some slippers she saw in the display.



“Faces is a unique store and I love shopping there,” Whitley said.



Students out shopping Tuesday agreed.



“That’s where I get a lot of my gifts,” Sirena Phillips, 15, of Northampton said while out with friends. Phillips attends the Paulo Freire Social Justice Charter School in Holyoke. Her friend Naidelyn Cruz, 16, of Holyoke, who also attends the charter school, had just purchased a flowered shirt as a gift for a family member.



Meanwhile, Luis Miller, 17, of Holyoke said he enjoyed playing with the array of puzzles and games inside while his friends shopped. He described the store’s inventory as “modern.”



“A lot of cool hats,” he added.



No closing date has been announced.



Gena Mangiaratti can be reached at gmangiaratti@gazettenet.com.





