Doretha Brown found the black crocodile-pattern dress shoes she wanted Monday at Phil’s Shoes, intending to wear them at Christmas events and after-five occasions.
As a regular customer for at least 10 years, the retired trauma center nurse from UF Health Jacksonville was shopping at Phil’s in Northwest Jacksonville for its last Christmas in business.
“I’m just so sorry because of the fact I love their shoes,” said Brown.
Now she’ll have to shop at another store, meaning a farther drive for the Northside resident, or buy online.
Phil’s, which opened about 54 years ago and is in its third generation of family ownership, started its store-closing sale Monday morning. The store operates 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Saturday.
Owner and President Mark Lewis, who at 13 swept the floors there for his grandfather, decided in August to sell or close the store at 44th and Pearl streets, north of Springfield. It’s for sale up until the day it closes, which Lewis expects to be by New Year’s.
Customers arriving soon after opening Monday said they found out about the closing from one another or through a Sunday newspaper ad. Banners and signs also announce the sale at the 5316 N. Pearl St. business in the Pearl Street Plaza.
“We’ve had everything from tears to anger,” Lewis said. “Once I explain things, they understand.”
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 prices. Lewis will sell down to a percentage of inventory a bulk buyer has agreed to buy.
It’s economics. Competing with department and chain stores and online retailers has been a tough footrace.
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.
U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown, a customer and supporter, said she was disappointed and sad the store is closing. “As long as I can remember, Phil’s Shoes has been one of my favorite places to shop,” she said.
Brown said she would take friends and visitors, including movie stars, to the store, which would open up late for her and her guests. A few years ago, she took U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi.
State Rep. Mia Jones, a customer for more than 20 years, said Monday she was shocked when she learned it would close.
“Some things you just never think will go away. They were a staple,” said Jones.
Jones said knowing Lewis and his father, Sam, “I really thought they would be able to maintain and continue to thrive within the community.”
She said the closing was bittersweet. “Bitter because we will lose them as an anchor in our community but sweet knowing they as a family have come together to decide this is what’s best for them,” she said.
Jones said she and state Sen. Audrey Gibson have sponsored a formal resolution from the House and Senate acknowledging the service provided by Phil’s Shoes. “We will know for many years to come that they were here.”
Market changes
Lewis’ customer focus is middle-income women and his customers primarily are African-American.
“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.
His grandfather, Phil, opened 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 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 the 2007-09 recession.
Consumer fears after the 2001 terrorist attacks led to a 25 percent drop in sales that never recovered, Lewis said. Then what has been called the Great Recession started earlier and ended later, if at all, for his 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.
With the department stores and national retailers able to offer more products, and the Internet offering shoes with 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.
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 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 that allowed customers to buy a second pair of shoes for a penny. The final penny sale was through Thanksgiving.
Making a living
Despite the factors leading to the closing, Lewis said the store remains profitable. He almost sold it to a Texas company that wanted to open its first Florida store, but the owner fell ill and opted not to pursue the opportunity.
Another group 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.
He 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. His dad, Sam Lewis, spent much of his time in the business, too.
Lewis, 73, owns Pearl Plaza and his office is there. He said he bought the shopping center three days after he retired, having sold Phil’s Shoes to his son.
He wasn’t planning to buy the strip center, but he learned a potential acquirer was going to take control and would close the shoe store.
“My wife had the travel brochures out,” Sam Lewis recalls of Ann, his business partner and his wife of 54 years. “She wasn’t pleased.”
The family has been involved in several shoe business ventures, but the heart has been Phil’s Shoes and Pearl Street.
Mark Lewis said he brought his family into the discussion when he was deciding to close the business, which is down to four employees. On Monday, Wallace Fletcher, a 17-year employee, said he would work in online retailing and building websites. Linda Rowe, a two-year associate and almost 20-year customer, said she would look for part-time work.
Asked his emotion about the closing, Sam Lewis called it “a certain sadness because they filled a void in the marketplace.”
“I don’t see anyone stepping up to fill the space,” he said.
After the store closes or, if a buyer emerges to take it, Mark Lewis intends to continue working, possibly in nonprofit work.
“I do know what I don’t want to do. I have worked my last day in a retail environment,” he said, unless it was the only way to feed his family.
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.”
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