Change in store for Blumenthal’s tradition

 

News & Record EXCLUSIVE
By Nate DeGraff
January - 2005

Bob Blumenthal has sold the building to a developer; he is not sure if he will reopen when he closes his downtown site. Greensboro – Blumenthal’s, a jean-selling juggernaut since 1926, will likely leave its iconic downtown Greensboro store by this time next year. Whether the business will re-open at another location is uncertain. Owner Bob Blumenthal recently sold the old building in the 300 block of South Elm Street to a development group for $700,000, property records show. It was an offer he couldn’t refuse.

‘Sometimes the window of opportunity only presents itself one time,” Blumenthal, 60, said Wednesday, “and if you don’t jump through it, you might miss it.” Blumenthal’s has been a downtown stalwart since Bob Blumenthal’s father, Abe, stopped for the night in Greensboro during a business trip from New York to Florida. He never left.

Abe Blumenthal expanded the store several times and gave his son, who earned an English degree from UNC-Chapel Hill, more than a few though-love pointers on how to make money selling jeans and work clothes.

“I didn’t learn anything until I went to Abe Blumenthal University, as far as business was concerned,” he said. Over the years, as the retailing shifted from neighborhood stores to big boxes on the edge of town, Blumenthal’s became known for its back-to-basics clothes and quirky shopping space.

It’s might be the only clothier in Greensboro with a manhole in the middle of the store, reminding visitors that part of the building was once outside. Overhead, flashing neon signs offer customers a pack of cigarettes if they’re given a sales receipt with certain numbers. Blumenthal’s stopped selling smokes years ago and now gives away bandannas instead.

“Everybody says they’re worth something,” he says, musing over the signs. “I should donate them to the museum or try to sell them on eBay.” The acquisition of the Blumenthal’s building is part of a larger plan by developers Rex Tuggle and Mark and Todd Schwarz to control the city block that includes their condominium project.

With the purchase, the developers own most of the property bounded by Smothers Place and Elm, Greene and McGee Streets. A deal on the final tract, a city-owned parking lot at the west edge of the block, should close within 30 days, Todd Schwarz said. Some buildings on the block could be torn down and replaced, but the main Blumenthal’s building, which holds several apartments, will likely remain, he said. Bob Blumenthal says it’s possible that his store could reopen somewhere else after he leaves downtown. He’d favor a location near his other store, a men’s big-and tall clothier on West Market Street.

He’s also concerned about his half-dozen employees, some of whom have worked for him for more than two decades. One worker, Carolyn H. Patterson, started work in November 1995 and planned to stay just through the Christmas season. That is, until Blumenthal asked her to stay longer.

“I took him up on his offer and I’ve been here nine years,” she said. The soft-spoken Blumenthal yearns to spend more time with his grandchildren in Georgia, which is part of the reason he hasn’t decided if he’ll reopen. He looks forward to the day when he can hang out with them for several days, not just a short weekend caused by his 54-hour workweek at Blumenthal’s. “I was told by my first wife that if she ever left me, she would name the store as the other woman,” he said.