Recently, I had the opportunity to shop for some short-sleeved men’s dress shirts that I could wear to work. I say opportunity, since it really was not a burden.
I am not a great shopper, I prefer to go in knowing what I want, purchase it and go home. I tend to take an exception to this case, when it comes to looking for clothes. I will be honest, I like to have a variety of dress clothes, as well as casual wear.
This brought me to thinking on the way home with my most recent purchases about the stores of yore that have gone by the wayside. I can just hear some of you saying, “You know years ago we had a lot more stores to buy … (insert whatever category you think appropriate).”
In most instances, including this one, you would be correct. The area had a larger number of stores, with many specializing in just one or two things, rather than what is called the big box stores that carry a few of many things.
I decided to peruse the 1964 city directory for this area to gather how many clothing stores there were in the Binghamton/Johnson City/Endicott area 60 years ago.
If you were just looking at the mere numbers, the list would include 35 stores in Binghamton selling men’s and women’s attire, 10 such stores located in the village of Johnson City, and 18 clothing stores in the village of Endicott. That is 63 clothing stores throughout the Triple Cities.
There is a bit of a caveat, in that a store such as McLean’s is listed twice since it sold both men and women’s clothing, but the large number remains a bit awe inspiring.
Even more interestingly, there is only one store of the 63 stores that is still open in 2024. That is Sall-Stearns men’s shop located on Court Street in Binghamton. The rest have closed over those six decades.
I cannot say that I was ever in every one of them. That is particularly true with the women’s shops as my mother tended to shop at McLean’s and Fowler’s Department stores, J.C. Penney, and occasionally W. T. Grant’s. I can recall being in Drazen’s City of Fashion located with entrances on both Court Street and State Street only once. My mother commented that it was too expensive for her.
There were, however, so many other women’s stores in the three communities at that time. There was Resnick’s, Tri-Phi Shops, and Barbara Moss in Binghamton. In Johnson City, you could try Hancock’s Apparel, Four Seasons Fashions, or Purtell’s Ladies Shop. If you traveled further west to Endicott, there was Esther Immerman, the Deb Shoppe, Modern Dress Shop, and the Cinderella Dress Shop – to name a few.
The men should not feel left out of this list, as it was equally as long. In Endicott, men looking for clothes could go to Alexander Harvey, Schapiro’s Men Shop, Vaughn’s Clothing, or Max Levinson, as well as several others.
If you preferred to go to Johnson City to shop for your clothes, you might stop at Ben’s Clothes Shop (where this writer purchased a couple of suits through the years), Bernie’s Army & Navy Store, Hike’s Men’s Shop, or, perhaps, Men’s Quality Shop.
Lastly, if you went to the city of Binghamton, there was the largest number of stores for men’s clothes.
You could shop at Compton-Dunn (I shopped there), Grube & Smith, Haggerty & Forbes, Robert Hall with its slogan of “Where the Values Go Up, Up, Up…,” The Prep Shop, and, of course, Sall-Stearns, which has been the recipient of many of my dollars over the decades.
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There are many others that I did not mention in this article, and some will have greater meaning to the readers than others. Sixty years is a long time, and many of today’s shoppers will purchase items online. I still prefer walking in and looking for myself, while being acknowledged by the sales staff. That personal touch often makes all the difference on where I shop.
Yet, even this writer sometimes buys online, since I cannot find what I want in the local stores. So, it goes.
This article originally appeared on Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin: Remember these 60 clothing stores in Binghamton area? Spanning Time
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