Landmark Woburn Business Moore & Parker Marks Last Day

Moore & Parker, the Woburn newsstand which has been open every day since it was founded in 1894, closed for good Tuesday after four generations of family ownership. For many Woburn residents, the store was a hub of social activity or the place where they got their first job delivering newspapers. But changes in daily life finally caught up with Moore & Parker said Thomas Parker WilIkie Jr., whose great grandfather founded the business.

“It became a social gathering spot over the years with hundreds of people coming in every day,” he said Tuesday, which was the last day the store would be open. “People today, with technology are more introverted socially. The whole social aspect is waning, at least with young people….By all rights we should have been out of here years ago, but we tried to be a dedicated local business.”

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Willkie said the store had evolved over four generations to become a place where people could grab coffee, a newspaper or a cigar while also getting a dose of the latest local gossip. His father, who is the current owner of the business, is 76 and had worked at the store everyday for the past 51 years.

“People just don’t realize how hard it is to run a small business….Woburn is a blue collar town and we were trying to keep prices low when Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts kept raising them,” WilIkie Jr. said. “It’s hard to be chasing nickels in a world where everybody else is throwing around hundred dollar bills.”

The building that housed the store at its prominent location at 375 Main Street has been acquired by the owners of the Brickhouse Restaurant next door. WilIkie Jr was not sure if the new building owners were planning an expansion of their existing restaurant or something else. A representative for the Brickhouse was not immediately available for comment.

Newstand photo by Melbeans via Wikimedia Commons.