For Cambridge outlet, life is too short
Life used to be good, back in the days before foreclosures, layoffs, and tanking stock prices; back in the days when a $20 T-shirt with a simplistic, carefree saying on it seemed like a necessity.
No more.
In yet another depressing sign of the times, the economy has taken a most symbolic casualty: the Harvard Square shop selling "Life is Good" T-shirts and apparel.
Known as Everything's Jake, a reference to the smiling, bald stick figure on "Life Is Good" products, the store will close next Sunday or Monday, according to a clerk. Signs in the window advertise a going-out-of-business sale.
The store is one of 115 independently owned Life is Good stores. Owner Glen Tompkins did not return phone calls yesterday, but he told the Cambridge Chronicle: "The economy has put us out of business. It's doom and gloom."
Life is Good Inc. owners, Needham brothers Bert and John Jacobs, started the business in 1994 and turned it into a $100 million a year empire. Bert Jacobs said yesterday that the Cambridge store is the first and only Life is Good vendor to close. Not surprisingly, he took issue with naysayers.
"The message isn't 'Life is Easy,' " he said. "Life is tough sometimes, but life is good."
MEGAN WOOLHOUSE
