Yale-Genton Closing Shop

Yale-Genton, the 86-year-old men’s store in West Springfield, Mass. is closing. After a couple of months of rumors and an attempt to liquidate and restructure the inventory, owner Mark Berman says he’s started his going-out-of-business sale this morning.

Speaking to MR today, Berman explained the factors that contributed to the store’s demise. “I think it’s a combination of the fashion change, the size of our facility, our inability to relocate because of lease obligations and the restrictions that the socio-demographics and economics in our marketplace place on us.”

The 20-employee, 28,000 square foot store carried brands like Canali, Corneliani, Hickey Freeman, Joseph Abboud, Burberry, Jack Victor, and Hart, Schaffner & Marx. Inventory ranged from regular sizes up to big and tall. Yale-Genton also had a women’s section and a formalwear rental department.

“Western Massachusetts is a middle-of-the-road market and [that] is a tough place to be,” Berman said. “When tailored clothing started to decline, it negatively impacted on our store and the market here is not affluent enough for us to trade significantly up to the elite level of sportswear. People in this market are very price conscious and that puts you in the business head-to-head with chain operators and it’s very tough there.”

Yale-Genton was founded in 1921 as a dry cleaning and tailoring shop in Holyoke called Yale Clothing Company by Gus Berman. It moved to West Springfield shortly after that. Milton Berman, Mark’s father, opened Genton Clothing in 1947. The two stores merged in 1957 after the Yale store was destroyed in a fire. The current Yale-Genton store was built in 1964. The Bermans sold the business to Eagle Clothes a few years later. Milton Berman bought it back from Eagle in 1977 and Mark Berman, who joined the business that same year, bought it from his father in 2004.

“It’s become a very tough business,” Berman continued. “In our community, at one time there were multiple men’s stores all doing well and all being successful. Today the owner-occupied type of businesses – they’re just very few and far between. I think that stores that exist in very affluent markets have an opportunity. Stores that exist in destination markets have an opportunity. But out in regular America in the secondary and tertiary markets, we exist in the middle and the middle is not a good place.”

When asked about the possibility of opening a smaller store in a different location, Berman said: “I’m certainly not going to rule out any opportunities in the future. My current intention right now would be not to do that.”

For now, he’s concentrating on shutting down the business. “I feel a real strong obligation to make sure that the store is closed up to the best of my ability and responsibly as it can be to our banks, the trade and our employees.”

What’s next for Mark Berman? “A Vacation!” he laughed. “Some time off!” The store will officially close in mid-February.