Gigi Fashion Apparel at 86 Main St. will soon close its doors
for good.
“I had it in my mind last fall (to close),” owner Theresa Bond
told The Era Thursday. “I didn’t buy spring merchandise in the
fall. Now we would be buying fall merchandise, and I didn’t do that
either.”
Bond said little foot traffic is one reason for closing.
“We just don’t get people coming in,” Bond said when asked why
she decided to close down the women’s clothing shop she has
operated at that location for nearly eight years.
“I was going into my own personal expenses,” she said,
explaining she was losing money on the store the last couple of
years.
Each year when her accountant would file her taxes, she said, it
came to her attention that she just couldn’t afford to keep the
store open.
“You can’t stay in business in the red,” Bond said.
“Local people don’t shop downtown,” she said. “They make money
in Bradford, but they don’t spend it in Bradford. They go out of
town or shop on the Internet.”
Bond went on to say she thinks the mindset of many locals is
that the items in her store might be too expensive, and they never
actually come in to see what there is to offer.
She said she is more than 65 years old and will now dedicate her
time to visiting her grandchildren and great-grandchildren who live
out of town. She said she was raised in Bradford, has lived most of
her life here and has no intention at this point of relocating or
opening another business.
Bond said the storefront she rented at 86 Main St., is a “very
nice storefront and right on Main Street … not a bad location,” and
it will be open for rent again when she leaves, she assumes.
She went on to say, however, that she does not have a concrete
day in mind to close officially. She said she intends to try to
sell the majority of the merchandise she has now in the store –
some things for all four seasons, she said – and will close soon
thereafter.
“I wish I could keep it open,” Bond said of the clothing store.
“It’s just not possible.”
Diane Sheeley, executive director of the Bradford Area Chamber
of Commerce, said Thursday night “it’s always tough when a small
business owner arrives at the decision to close.”
Sheeley said Gigi is a “long-standing retail operation in our
community … it will be missed.”
Main Street Manager Diane DeWalt was not immediately available
for comment Thursday.
After numerous business closings, openings and re-openings on
Main Street in 2005, downtown merchant activity had pretty much
stabilized through 2006. John Kohler opened a furniture store at
the former Angells Family Entertainment Center at 45 Main St. late
last fall; Jeff Mutzabaugh opened the Plaza Buffet at 119 Main St.,
and closed it a few months later; and a fingernail salon opened
last summer at 115 Main St.
