CHICOPEE, Mass. - After more than 45 years of business, the Herbarium in downtown Chicopee will be closing its doors on Sunday, Dec. 31.

Owner and manager Jonathan Evans said the store faced several long-term challenges.

"Since the pandemic, we have struggled to try and get the business back online, get things back organized," Evans said. "And between shopping habits changing, between supply issues, changes to some of our suppliers, changing payment schedules, things like that.”

The store offers an assortment of herbs which can be used for culinary and medical use as well as hygiene products like natural soap.

Evans said during the pandemic the Herbarium saw a surprise boost in sales, particularly with online shopping, but traffic drastically slowed down as businesses started to reopen and customers started using other options.

"'Well I'll just shop online,' or, 'I'll get something close to it, it's almost the same,' and it turns out it's not," Evans said. "And they found that out later, and then they came back to us. Well unfortunately, you need a steady flow of people, and when you can go times where business dropped so dramatically it was frightening."

Evans said the Herbarium had been looking at several ways to keep the business going, including finding new management.

"It came down to the idea of trying to sell the business," he said.  To hand it off to a new group and continue what we've been doing and expanding, and five times they fell through."

Evans said coming to the realization over this last month has been very difficult for himself and his family. While he said business has picked up of late with news of the eventual closure, it will unfortunately not be enough to keep the establishment open.

"As my attorney told me sometime ago, 'you’re a business, you’re not a philanthropic society,'" Evans said. "Yes, you care about your people. Yes, you care about helping them. But at some point, I still need to pay the electric bill. I still need to pay the rent."

Evans said he is unsure of The Herbarium's future after it closes, but advises people keep tabs on the store's Facebook page for updates. Customers will have until Sunday afternoon to make their final purchases.