After 41 years, brothers Arsak and Sahan Markaryan are closing up shop for good on Oct. 31.
It feels like the end of something.
Maybe it’s too much to say it’s the end of an era, but there’s no question that Sherbrooke St. W. in the heart of N.D.G. will simply not be the same without the presence of Harvard Stationery, or if you want to be official, Papeterie Harvard. Those of us who live in the neighbourhood have been walking by that faded-looking storefront at Draper and Sherbrooke for 36 years and for five years before that when it was located just a little farther east at the corner of Harvard.
Brothers Arsak and Sahan Markaryan, who are originally from Istanbul, are always there, always in the same positions. Arsak is behind the counter at the cash and his younger sibling, Sahan, is intently working the photocopy machine. You often see them dining together after work at the table by the window of the Star of India restaurant right next door. It’s going to be weird, and a little bit melancholic, to walk by with my dog Friday morning and not see them working at the store.
The Markaryan brothers are closing up shop for good at 5 p.m. Thursday after just over four decades in the hood, and there has been an outpouring of affection for the brothers and their store ever since they announced a few weeks back that they were going quietly into the N.D.G. night.
Filmmaker and photographer Ezra Soiferman was one of many who posted on Facebook, saying “I’ve been a happy customer since I moved into N.D.G. in 1996. One particular thing I loved about their shop was that they sold beautiful handmade greeting cards made by local artists. Thank you to these N.D.G. mainstays for serving our community all these years! Their hard work, community dedication and big smiles will be missed. Wishing them a wonderful retirement!”
Under his post, local musician and Canada Post employee Lorraine Muller wrote: “I will miss the brothers. They have been so good to us at the N.D.G. Postal Depot (which itself is slated to permanently close on November 18th 
).”
Talk about the neighbourhood changing!
Visiting the store just after closing hours Monday, Arsak was showing me all of the cards they’ve received with affectionate messages and the goodies they been given by their faithful customers, everything from flowers to bottles of wine.
The brothers themselves are a little embarrassed by all the attention. They’d turned down a few other media requests and only agreed to ours because I’m a regular customer. On Monday, Arsak said to photographer John Mahoney that I always buy two packs of reporters’ notebooks and 10 black Bic pens.
Sahan was visible unhappy when we arrived, saying he hadn’t agreed to this interview and that he was too busy to talk. He walked straight to his photocopier and got back to work. Funnily enough, he ended up talking just as much as his brother.
Arsak, 71, and Sahan, 65, are hanging up their notebooks for good because they feel they’ve put in their time. Business is still good, even in a world dominated by big-box stores like Bureau en gros. In fact, they say the staff at Bureau en gros often suggest people go to Harvard Stationery for more specialized printing jobs.
The bottom line is they’re tired after 41 years, and who can begrudge them that?
“You have to stop at one point,” Sahan said.
Added Arsak: “You can’t go on forever.”
“It’s so busy and it’s so overwhelming and I’m on the edge of insanity,” said Sahan, with a little laugh. “This printing is non-stop, literally. I don’t have lunch. It’s not fun any more. That’s why I told you I don’t have time to talk. It’s not good for my mental health.”
Arsak and Sahan don’t have any particularly grand retirement plans, and they are fine with that.
“I won’t be bored at all,” Arsak said. “I’ll rest and watch soccer.”
Arsak’s team is Arsenal, and so he’ll get to watch his beloved club more often.
They do know they’ll miss their customers, though.
“N.D.G. has its own character. It wouldn’t be the same somewhere else,” Sahan said. “The thing about N.D.G. is people live here for a long time. Like on my street. I’ve lived there for years and it’s all the same people. It’s like a village type of thing. So we have so many regulars who’ve been coming here since the early ’80s and now their children and grandchildren are coming. It’s two or three generations now. That’s why we have so many gifts and wine. This wouldn’t happen downtown. If a store closes, no one notices.”
When it’s suggested to them it must be nice to have such a strong reaction to the closure, Sahan begs to differ.
“I prefer to not have so much attention,” he said. “But what can we say? People are so nice. I can’t say ‘Go away’.”
The funny thing is they say they sell more paper and pens than they did 20 years ago, in a world that is often described as a paperless universe.
Sahan has fewer big printing jobs these days. He says they used to do 80,000 copies a year and now it’s not even 40,000. But he specializes in small jobs, many for local artists.
“It’s more time consuming and labour intensive,” he said.
At that point in the conversation, the brothers politely usher us out of the store, telling us they have too much work to do to sit around chatting any longer.