Men’s store to relocate to borough
POTTSTOWN >> Longtime downtown retailer Weitzenkorn’s men’s store has announced it will relocate to Phoenixville and close its landmark Pottstown store this spring.
Weitzenkorn’s has been a Pottstown institution since 1864 — a five-generation, family-owned business at 145 and 147 E. High St.
Weitzenkorn’s new store will be located at 220 Bridge St., in Phoenixville. It is expected to open by mid-March or early April, according to Aaron Weitzenkorn, who owns the men’s store with his cousin Adam.
Aaron and Adam Weitzenkorn purchased the business in February 2017 from Gregg (Aaron’s father), and Marc (Adam’s father) Weitzenkorn — who have since retired.
“It was a tough decision to make,” Aaron Weitzenkorn said of the decision to relocate.
Customers of Weitzenkorn’s are receiving a mailer this week announcing the move and details about a store relocation liquidation sale.
“It saddens us that we will no longer be in the store we have been in since the 1880s, and the town we have been in since the beginning of the business in 1864,” the mailed piece states. “Reality is often hard to accept, and for us, especially hard given our long history in Pottstown and our long history with you, our loyal customers. As hard as it may be, the reality of retail in 2019 requires a change in our approach, product offerings, and a change in the loca-
tion of our store front.”
Aaron Weitzenkorn said retail has changed so quickly in the last few years and now requires smaller footprints and different approaches.
“It really wasn’t something that we could do here with all this space,” he said.
The Pottstown store is more than 5,000 square feet, which includes retail space and a tailor shop for alterations. By comparison, the Phoenixville location has about 1,700 square feet.
While the brick-and-mortar location will move, the company’s online operation will remain in Pottstown, and will be located at 147 E. High St. — in what is currently Weitzenkorn’s Big and Tall shop.
“We’re not leaving completely. Our online receiving of goods and inventory and the accounts payable will be here still,” Aaron Weitzenkorn added.
Weitzenkorn’s began to put a focus on its internet sales in 2011. It currently represents about 60 percent of the company’s business, he added.
News about the relocation of Weitzenkorn’s came as a surprise to Peggy Lee-Clark, executive director of the Pottstown Area Industrial Development, or PAID, and Eileen Dautrich, president of the TriCounty Area Chamber of Commerce, on Jan. 30.
“This news is always a little difficult for people to hear, especially when it concerns a long-standing business icon for the region. We are sorry to lose their physical presence in downtown, but as a business organization that has watched multiple businesses transition with the times we wish them continued success with their online sales remaining here in Pottstown,” Dautrich said. “Weitzenkorn’s has been a longstanding member of the chamber, one of our longest, and we thank them for their commitment to the business community and the tricounty region.”
“We’re obviously disappointed at this time of great growth in Pottstown that they are moving their brickand-mortar location, but we are still happy they will have an operation here — serving customers, albeit online,” Lee-Clark said. “It will be different, and different is always an uncomfortable place to be but it doesn’t mean it can’t be better.”
Aaron Weitzenkorn said the plans for the move started to take shape last summer.
“We started seriously considering it in the AugustSeptember time frame and then started to look for some space. It kind of happened pretty quickly,” he said, adding that the Bridge Street location was one of the first places they looked at.
“On Bridge Street there isn’t a lot left, and that is a spot I really wanted to be,” he said.
Construction is underway to build out the site, which Aaron Weitzenkorn said the company is leasing.
“We are doing a total rebuild of the inside. It’s a mix between an industrial and natural feeling, with woods and plants mixed with the industrial,” he said. “It’s not going to be a super-modern, sterile store.”
He added that many of the antiques in the current store — including portraits and memorabilia will be on display in the new location.
We want to pay homage and bring that history and continue it. It was a very important part we wanted to keep,” he added.
Weitzenkorn’s was founded in 1864, when Abraham Weitzenkorn began selling bolts of cloth, shoes and work gloves from a wagon on the streets of Pottstown. The first physical Weitzenkorn’s store was on South Hanover Street, according to Weitzenkorn, about where the Sherwin-Williams paint store is today. The store moved to its current location in the 1880s, he added.
“As I have learned about the history — I learned how the business changed over time back then. What it was back then is not what it was in the 50s and not what it is today. That shows you that to survive you have to change,” Aaron Weitzenkorn said.
There will be some changes in the new store. For one thing, the store will stop carrying underperforming brands.
“The biggest change is we will no longer stock suits. We will offer suits through a custom company. We will stock sport coats and everything else,” he said.
Weitzenkorn’s is also doing away with the in-house tailor, working instead with several outside tailors in the area.
Aaron Weitzenkorn said the store add new shoe and clothing lines, watches, more wallets and bags.
He gives credit to his fiancé, Kate Morgan, throughout the process.
“She has a background in building and construction from working for her dad and other companies over the years. She has been the point person with our general contractor and has taken all of that along with a lot of other stuff out of my hands,” he said.
Aaron Weitzenkorn anticipates closing the main Pottstown store at 145 E. High Street on Saturday, March 2. Any remaining inventory will be moved into the current Big and Tall shop at 147 E. High and sold there.
There are no details available about what will happen to the 145 E. High St. building, which is owned by Marc and Gregg Weitzenkorn.