Mark Lewis began tending to the footsteps of customers at Phil’s Shoes with a broom in his hand at age 13.
“My grandfather would take my brother and me on Sundays to help clean the floor,” Lewis said, recalling his early days at the third-generation family-owned store at 44th and Pearl streets, north of Springfield.
Those days at the almost 54-year-old institution are coming to an end, probably by New Year’s.
Lewis has been trying to sell the business since August and it’s still for sale, right up to the day he closes the doors.
That day drew nearer at 10 a.m. today, when he opened the doors at 5316 N. Pearl St. for his closing sale.
More than 6,000 pairs of women’s shoes, sizes 4-13, along with more than 800 handbags and accessories are for sale at 50 percent off the already discounted price. He will sell down to a percentage of inventory that a bulk buyer has agreed to buy.
Customers are saddened, he said.
“We’ve had everything from tears to anger,” he said. “Once I explain things, they understand.”
It’s economics. Competing with department and chain stores and with online retailers during a tough economy has been a tough footrace, especially for a small, independent shoe store.
It’s not easy to end a business that served customers that included the first ladies at area churches, prominent politicians, brides and bridesmaids, prom teens and generations of shoppers who looked for shoes of all sizes, bags and hats with flair, color, decorations and style.
“It’s a mixed bag of emotions,” said Lewis, 54, who is as old as the business. “It’s all been very, very mixed emotions."
Market changes
His customer focus is middle-income African-American and white women, and his prices and products are aimed at that shopping segment.
“That has been our niche market all these years,” he said. “Unfortunately, as the economy has gone, so has the retail soft business.”
The soft business includes clothing, fabrics, bedding, shoes and accessories.
Lewis said 20 vendors closed in the past five years, making it more difficult to fill his customers’ needs. When he started with the business full-time 18 years ago, he took just three buying trips a year to find what he needed. Last year, it was eight.
His grandfather, Phil, started the business in 1961. His father, Sam, bought it in 1975. Lewis bought it in 2006, just as the economy was peaking pre-recession for much of the country but already was creeping into his community.
Lewis, dressed comfortably in jeans and a Jaguars sweatshirt, was working Sunday hanging sale banners at the Pearl Plaza store on a clear, cool, sunny afternoon that undoubtedly made for abundant holiday shopping at malls in more affluent parts of town.
Those malls, particularly their department stores, along with national footwear and big-box stores and online retailers are the proverbial “other shoe” that dropped after 9/11 and then the 2007-09 recession.
Consumer fears after the 2001 terrorist attacks led to a 25 drop in sales that was never recovered, Lewis said. Then what has been called the Great Recession started earlier and ended later, if at all, for his predominantly African-America customer base, resulting in another 33 percent decline.
“The African-American community is always the first in and last out of any economic upheaval,” Lewis said, explaining that the recession began for his customers at the end of 2006.
With the department stores and national retailers able to offer more products, and the Internet offering shoes at no sales tax and free shipping – plus free returns for those shoes that don’t fit consumers’ feet or tastes – Lewis saw a narrower path of survival.
Shoe customers used to visit a store to try on their choices before purchasing. The free-shipping and return policies of Internet retailers stepped on that, too.
Lewis could have moved his price points up or down. If he focused on higher-priced shoes, though, his customers couldn’t afford him. He didn’t want to move the prices down because that would put him into competition with the low-price and discount stores. “I didn’t want to face those competitive pressures,” he said.
So here he is, coming off of the last of Phil’s famous “penny” sales as well as his attempt at a “retirement sale” that ended up making customers think he was turning the business over to a fourth generation. His two daughters, one in graduate school and the other a college freshman, have no interest in taking over the business.
Lewis’ grandfather started the popular penny sales, twice-a-year events allowed customers to buy a second pair of shoes for a penny. The final sale was through Thanksgiving, but this one broke tradition. It allowed customers to buy any product and a second of equal or lesser value for one cent.
It included the fancy and trendy hats, popular for church and for special occasions, which sold out.
Making a living
Despite the factors leading to the closing, Lewis said the store remains profitable, Lewis said. He almost sold it to a Texas company that wanted to open its first Florida store there, but the owner fell ill and, while recovering, opted not to pursue the opportunity.
Another potential buyer wanted Lewis to hold the financing on the business, which defeats the purpose of leaving it. “My goal is to walk out debt-free.” Another group also might be interested.
Lewis said a younger buyer with energy and time could make it work. “It’s a 54-year-old location with a stellar reputation. I think it’s an automatic business waiting to be opened,” he said.
“Somebody in their 20s or 30s could probably hang in there until the economy came back,” he said. “They for sure right now could make a living at it.”
Lewis said he is closing for three primary reasons: The economic and competitive pressures; his recognition that in October, he had been in the business for 30 years; “and I’m tired.”
“My knees and elbows in my 50s are not what they were in my 20s,” he said. He said if he were younger, he might stay.
Lewis’ career has been in shoes. After a part-time job with May Cohens, he worked as a wholesale representative and regional manager and in several other positions, including working for his father who had a separate store in Fernandina Beach. Lewis eventually opened Shoe Mart at 103rd Street and Blanding Boulevard in Westside.
He was eking out a living and his second child was just born, when his father approached him to join the business. The deal called for Lewis to take less pay and put money toward buying the business. He worked there for 10 years and then bought it.
After the store closes or, if a buyer emerges to take it, Lewis intends to continue working and might use his nonprofit involvement to help struggling organizations.
“I do know what I don’t want to do. I have worked my last day in a retail environment,” he said, unless he said it was the only way to feed his family.
Lewis said he brought his family into the discussion when he was deciding to end the business, which is down to four employees.
“There are two ways to close,” Lewis said Sunday.
“Close it when you are forced to and look ashamed because you owe creditors, or you can close it the way we are closing, over an extended period of time and the customer gets to come in and take advantage of the sales.”
That way, he said, “You can walk out with your head held high.”
@MathisKb
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