Phil and Cathy Ellis say what they will miss most about their business on West Park Avenue, Phil’s Squire Shoppe, is their customers.
“That is probably our favorite thing, being with customers and visiting with them,” Cathy said. “We have watched families grow up.”
The couple, both 68, announced the first week of March that they will be retiring from the full-service menswear store — one of the few men’s retail stores in Greenwood for the last 25 years.
They hope to spend more time with their family, they said.
Three of their granddaughters — triplets Emily, Rebecca and Sara Hayden Archer of Louisville, Kentucky — will be starting college in the fall in Mississippi, split between rival schools Mississippi State University and the University of Mississippi.
“We need to see these people and go visit them,” Phil said. “That is what we are all about at this point in our lives. We call it successful. We have enjoyed it, and we are going to miss it. It’s time to let someone else step in here.”
Although their customers have been understanding, it also has been hard for some of them to let go. “They were so happy for us, but they have been sad,” Cathy said. “We’ve had several tears in here shed from different customers, but they are happy for us.”
For the couple, it has always been about making customers feel good about what they are wearing, they said.
Phil’s father began the business in 1952, known then as Star Tailor’s, on the bottom floor of the Midway Hotel building in downtown Greenwood. According to Phil, his father first heard about the business opportunity while he was working for the hotel. He bought the business for $5,000 and gradually expanded it over the years.
The original Squire Shoppe was in the back of Star Tailor’s in a small area with all red carpet, designed to give the menswear stocked there an added panache. Back then, the store sold penny loafers, navy blazers and white collared button-down shirts.
In 1965, the Highland Park Shopping Center was built, and several Greenwood merchants including Phil’s father, moved over there, although he continued to operate the downtown location as well.
Phil’s Squire Shoppe is the last of the original Highland Park merchants, Phil said.
In 1992, the decision was made to close the downtown store, and everything was moved to the 6,000-square-foot building on West Park Avenue.
“We fixed it up with merchandise, fixtures, salespeople —everything we had,” Phil said. “We started again.”
Phil’s Squire Shoppe has been an institution for menswear, drawing customers from all across the Delta and surrounding area. The shop offered everything from suits and tuxedoes to socks and underwear, along with an alteration service.
“We have tried to stock our shelves and racks with everything a young or old guy would even imagine buying, in not just one of his sizes but a bunch,” Phil said.
At one point, the business had 38 sizes in pants and shirts and 31 sizes in suits and sport coats. Since the sale, the couple have significantly reduced the amount of merchandise in their store, noting they went from 900 neckties to 150.
Cathy said she thought their hottest item to sell, when they marked down prices storewide after announcing their retirement, would be Polo shirts, but rather it’s been suits and sport coats because of the store’s alteration service.
The store’s last day open will be Aug. 31, when the building’s lease is up.
“We would like someone to take over our men’s business, but I don’t think that is going to materialize at this time,” Cathy said.
Phil joined his father in the business in 1973, a year or so after graduating from Mississippi State. He and Cathy began dating in high school, when she was a junior and Phil a senior at Greenwood High. She joined in the business in the 1980s, after their two girls, Meg and Amy, went to school.
“People always come in here and say, ‘How do you work with your husband?”’ she said. “I don’t think anything about it. On my day off, I actually miss him because we are so used to being with each other.”
The business has always been a family affair. Their daughters would help gift wrap around Christmas and Father’s Day. Other teenagers whom the store employed — the girls who pitched in seasonally to wrap presents and the boys who waited on customers — began to feel like family, they said.
When asked if the couple had any favorite memories in the store, the two agreed if they had three or four days, they could write at least 500 unusual, funny, sad and happy stories.
nContact Lauren Randall at 581-7239 or lrandall@gwcommonwealth.com.
