Somerville Icon Shuts Down

On Thursday, December 31, MacArthur’s Appliances shuttered its doors and went out of business. It was a very quiet ending for an area institution begun in 1955 by “Mac,” father of Hayes and Craig MacArthur, brothers who grew up in the enterprise and who eventually succeeded their dad. Hayes explained how, starting at 11 years old, he showed up at the store to help out after school. Together with Craig, they gradually worked their way up the ladder.

Situated on Main Street in the heart of downtown Somerville, MacArthur’s served area residents uncompromisingly; selling, delivering and servicing major home appliances and TV’s. In its heyday, MacArthur’s maintained its own large warehouse, buying in bulk ahead of customer purchases, stocking name brands like Maytag and Zenith in the days of USA-manufactured products.

But, about 15 years ago, the appliance and television markets began to change in a way that would signal the beginning of the end for stalwart businesses like MacArthur’s. National chains like Lowe’s and Home Depot would begin their encroachment into appliance retailing, while others like Best Buy and Circuit City would begin their takeover of the television market.

The advantage of national chain purchasing power, combined with large-scale advertising of American products manufactured offshore, would erode the ability of a small community business like MacArthur’s to compete.

In the 30-plus years that we have lived in Bridgewater, none of our major appliances – all of which have been replaced over time – have come from any store other than “Mac’s” place. Priscille could never see the advantage of saving a couple of bucks (peanuts when written off over the years of an appliance’s life) by jumping around from one store to another, dealing with people who would not be there the next time she entered the establishment.

When the need arose, we always showed up on Main Street in Somerville, greeted Hayes and Craig, asked one another how things were going, and got down to the business of talking appliances.

We still have an aged 36-inch Zenith console TV, the oldest of our MacArthur purchases. It needed to be repaired once, but the darn thing just won’t quit. Eventually, when we need to get that new LCD HD TV, we’ll be thinking of those two guys on Main Street, Somerville, who provided some of the best service in Somerset County.