"And, remember, you'll save money."

The old Spag's buildings on Rt. 9 in Shrewsbury will likely be torn down and the property developed for residential and retail use.

In 2002, six years after Anthony "Spag" Borgatti's death, Building 19 bought the Spag's business. Jerry Ellis, owner of Building 19, said, “It just didn’t work; not everything does." Because the business was neither Spag's nor a true Building 19, both groups of customers stayed away in droves.

Spag's was, in marketing parlance, a destination. In the 80s, my father went on a canoing trip in northern Maine. When the guide saw the Massachusetts license plate, he asked my father, "You shop at Spag's?" The guide and his family would drive the 300 or so miles to Spag's a few times a year and load up their cars with camping gear, laundry supplies, and Cheetos.

It was nearly impossible to buy only the thing you came for. I'd go to Spag's to get Wolf's Head motor oil for my three-cylinder, two-stroke, mix-oil-with-the-gas Saab and return with the oil, writing pads, sneakers, a couple pounds of coffee, and a catnip mouse.

My favorite suspenders, the red paisley ones, cost me five bucks at Spag's.