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The Business Is Over, But Its Legacy Lives On

Those who knew me growing up remember the family business, especially the blue-and-gold building on Route 1 in Saugus across from Kappy’s Liquors. The business is closed, but it leaves a lasting legacy.

Mood music:

I’ve been helping my father manage the realty trust that’s been part of the family business, with the objective of selling the building. His eyesight is bad, so I frequently read documents aloud to him. Yesterday was one of those days, and my younger son was there, listening as I read a document that essentially described the history of the business.

On the way home, he said something that floored me: “It seems like such a waste, getting rid of an entire family business.”

I thought about it for a few minutes. Then I told him that some businesses go on for generations, while others have more limited lifespans. But like people, they leave something behind, no matter how many years they were around.

Our family business wasn’t going to go on for generations, as it turns out. None of us kids wanted to take it over. I forged a path in journalism and Internet security; my siblings took their own routes, as well. And with the advent of online shopping, our family business suffered the same fate as many other family operations, as people stopped going to mom-and-pop stores and started spending their money online.

But it wasn’t a waste. It provided the family with a living when it was needed and helped us shape the futures we wanted.

For me personally, the business produced the resources my parents needed to get me the medical care I needed as a child. Later, it provided me with the resources to go to college. I met Erin at college and studied journalism there. Erin and I got married and had kids, and my career is still going strong, 20 years later.

Without the resources of the family business, chances are that none of that would have happened.

The business gave a lot of long-time employees a living to raise their own families with, too.

The stuff my father and stepmom sold — headwear and footwear for weddings and proms, party supplies, wedding invitations, favors, and so on — gave countless customers what they needed to build precious memories.

A waste? Hardly.

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The Importance of Family in a Family Business

For as long as I can remember, it hung on the wall outside the front offices of the family business, right next to the timecards: a memorial plaque for the company’s founder, the man I’m named for: William J. Brenner.

I always found the plaque somewhat disconcerting to look at because there was my full name and the “In Memory of …” I’ve gotten creeped out in similar fashion whenever I’ve visited the grave.

Mood music:

He founded Brenner Paper Box Co. in Chelsea, Mass., in 1922. The original building was one of the last to burn in the Great Chelsea Fire of 1973. My grandfather had died four years earlier, in late 1969, and my father had taken over the business. After the fire, he moved it to Saugus and transformed it into a store for party supplies and, later with my stepmom, he made expanded it into a business for all special occasions: birthdays, weddings, proms, you name it. The only occasion not represented was funerals, though I’m sure the main store had something even for that in one of the aisles.

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I practically grew up there, stealing the little toys we sold for birthday party goody bags and, later, hiding behind boxes in the warehouse smoking cigarettes and listening to the Mötley Crüe cassettes I liked to load into my Walkman.

I didn’t take over the business for my father, but the building continued to be a family gathering point long after I had forged my path in the world of journalism. Now the company is closing and the building is being sold. My father had the plaque removed and gave it to me yesterday. I’ve given it a new home on my office desk.

In some ways, it’s a strange place to keep it. In other ways, it’s entirely appropriate.

The company I work for is one of the critical pillars holding up the Internet and making it run smoothly so other companies can safely do business there. I’ve long believed that the Internet played a role in the slow death of the family business. Like many mom-and-pop companies, Brenners struggled to keep customers in the stores as more people went online to buy things. But while the company couldn’t survive as it had, the family lives on and has found ways to thrive in cyberspace.

My father and stepmom had already started figuring out the business potential of the Internet some years ago, and I know from talking to them that they’ll still be busy with business ventures, and a lot of it will take place online.

Now the memorial plaque can sit here and observe how business is done in the 21st century. You could say it has a ring-side seat. I’m honored to be chosen as its keeper.

Brenner Memorial Plaque