Walking the floor of Jack’s Men’s Shop on Broadway for the past 35 years, Ron Silverstein got to know his customers in the truest sense of the word.
He knew what they wanted.
He knew what would sell in Chelsea.
He knew about their lives.
And, in recent years, he had come to know successive generations of their families.
Just about two weeks ago, Silverstein announced he was closing the store this Saturday, March 8, and the calls have flooded in since then.
“Where am I going to get my clothes?” are the common refrains over the phone or from folks walking in upon see the ‘Going Out of Business’ sign.
“The secret to a small business is being on the floor talking and learning and listening to customers,” he said. “The big corporations that have 40 stores, they can try to understand by looking at papers or reading reports, but when you’re listening to the customer and getting their input and you actually know them – they tell you what you need to know. I’m not outfitting the country. I am outfitting my neighbors and my customers that come in.”
Silverstein kept things fresh with a simple formula at his one-store company. He would turn over inventory about 10 times a year, rather than the average four times a year. That kept the store looking fresh and new. He did this by buying less, going to trade shows a lot, but being disciplined and only buying the things there he knew his customers would like.
That was the case for his shoes, including the top Nike footwear and Timberland boots, as well as the street fashion, T-shirts and the traditional formal suit area.
“Know your customer doesn’t begin to describe it,” he said. “Knowing the customer is a concept. Knowing them and their family, talking to them and talking to them about the things they like, that’s a much different concept.”
Silverstein came from a long line of retail owners, with his great grandfather coming over from Russia and getting into the haberdashery business. He would sell hats, and then branched out into boots and overalls for workers – selling those items on a cart.
Eventually the family got into the retail market, having a large department store called Silverstein’s on Blue Hill Avenue in Boston. However, instead of leaving the store and his success to his children, Ron’s grandfather set them all up with stores around Greater Boston. There was one in Mattapan, downtown Boston, Dorchester, Randolph and Chelsea.
Ron Silverstein opted to open a store on Broadway Chelsea in 1986. It was a time when Chelsea was on the decline, there was rampant drug dealing, higher crime and many vacant buildings. However, Silverstein said he saw an opportunity with the Spanish-speaking immigrants who lived in the city – a group of customers that have been his staple for decades.
“What brought me here was the Spanish clientele,” he said. “We found them to be very family-oriented. A lot were church-going and friendly. When you went into a lot of other areas in Boston, it could be really rough. Here in Chelsea it wasn’t like that. People were nice. There were plenty of characters, but even they were nice too.”
He said his first customers were Puerto Ricans, many of whom would come in and spend their entire paychecks to buy clothes for a friend or family member that just arrived from the island. Slowly, they moved on and then it became a Central American clientele. Now, however, the City is gentrifying, and even the Central Americans are fewer. He said he finds Broadway becoming less active, and it was a signal that it was time for him to slow down and retire.
“Chelsea has really changed,” he said. “The customers I had for so long are not here as much anymore. The City is gentrifying and my customers are changing with that. That’s one reason I’m leaving is because there are less of my customers here. However, after 35 years, it’s really just time to retire and move on anyway.”
Since announcing the retirement and closure, Silverstein said the outpouring from the community has been humbling.
One thing Silverstein always did was hire young kids from Chelsea to work in his store. That helped to give them a good job, and helped them to put the word out about the store. It also helped keep him on the tip of the latest trends with the local young people.
One of those was Brian Rosa, a young man who came in crying last week – embracing his former boss.
Silverstein had given him his first job as a kid, and it helped him to develop discipline. He went on to college, Silverstein said, and works in biotech very successfully.
Then there are twins Carlos and Hector Iraola, who have been working with Silverstein for about 32 years.
Carlos recalled that he started working at Jack’s, but also wanted to try out for the basketball team. In order to try out, he had to find someone to work for him. Not wanting to tell Silverstein, he went and got his twin brother and had him work the shift, and no one knew. When Carlos made the team, he told Ron, who said he would have to find a replacement to cover his shifts.
“I told him I didn’t have to; that there was already a replacement,” said Carlos. “Then I introduced him to my brother Hector, who is identical to me. We had a huge laugh then.”
Added Hector, “I literally grew up in Jack’s from a young man to an adult. We were a family that shared many great times and memories that I have never forgotten and will never forget.”
Such sentiments keep rolling in from people who bought their first pair of sneakers at Jack’s, then came back and bought their children and grandchildren their first pair of sneakers there.
Few could forget the amazing window display of the latest trends, particularly at Christmas when the window was packed with shoes, shirts and hats.
“It will be sad to walk away after doing this all these years,” he said. “I always said to find one thing you can do and do it right. I think I did this right.”