Sunday, June 12, 2005

Blumenthal's finds new home on Market St.

By Donald W. Patterson, Staff Writer
Greensboro News & Record

GREENSBORO -- Blumenthal's, one of the oldest stores downtown, isn't going out of business. It's just moving.

Owner Bob Blumenthal said Tuesday he's relocating his long-time clothing store from downtown to a shopping center on West Market Street.

After Blumenthal sold his South Elm Street building for $700,000 in January, he hinted that he might close the business that his late father, Abe, started in 1926.

But Blumenthal, 61, quickly realized he couldn't retire.

Three factors influenced his decision.

"I didn't want to put my employees on the street, and so many customers called, saying, 'You can't go out of business,'" Blumenthal said. "Plus, I would go stark raving insane after two days with nothing to do."

But Blumenthal isn't thrilled to be leaving downtown.

He knows the new location in Price Place Shopping Center will offer more parking, which has become a problem downtown. But it just won't be the same.

"I've already cried once today," he said. "I am very sad to leave a place I have worked for 37 years."

In the beginning, Blumenthal's sold men's jeans, work clothes and shoes. When Bob Blumenthal took over the business, he added women's wear.

Walking into Blumenthal's is like walking into a time warp.

"It's the building that time forgot," Blumenthal said.

The high ceilings. The dim lighting. The stacks of clothes on rows of long tables. The cramped dressing rooms. The neon signs.

There's even a manhole cover in the concrete floor, evidence of a long-ago building expansion.

The new space at 4620 W. Market St. will be less than half the size of the current store. To give the place some character, Blumenthal plans to use some of the tables, the check out counter and at least one of the neon signs.

"We're going to keep all the look I can," he said. "We're going to have to cut out a lot of things."

The new store, next door to Blumenthal's big-and-tall shop, will focus on work clothes, overalls and jeans. The shoe department will be eliminated.

Employees and customers say they're just glad the Blumenthal's tradition of "We sell it for less" won't be ending.

When longtime sales associate Carolyn Patterson learned that her boss would relocate, "we jumped for joy," she said.

So did customers.

One of them, Charlie Adams, a retired golf pro from Orlando, Fla., dropped by the store Tuesday, only to learn that Blumenthal had closed for two days to prepare for an "Everything must go sale," which begins Thursday.

"This place has fond memories," said Adams, who shopped at the store years ago. "I would come here and buy my stuff when I was working on the railroad. This was a great place."

No one knows that better than Bob Blumenthal. He sometimes wonders what his father would think about the move.

"I sit down here and ask him when I am by myself," Blumenthal said. "I don't know what he would have said. I haven't gotten the answer."

Blumenthal says that when some downtown developers offered to buy his building, he accepted.

"The time was right," said Blumenthal, who noted that a smaller business will allow him to spend more time with his wife and grandchildren. "Since this wonderful opportunity presented itself, I said, 'Let's go.' "

Blumenthal expects to relocate after Aug. 15.

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