By Pam Hersh
Ryan Simone reassured me that my hyperactive, noisy, and annoyingly rambunctious grandkids played no part in a life-changing decision affecting his life and the lives of hundreds of Princetonians, including Grandma Pam.
The 38-year-old Ryan and his 68-year-old father Chuck Simone have decided to end the 88-year-old life of Hulit’s Shoes at 142 Nassau St. in Princeton, a business that has been a Hulit family affair for its entire existence. (Simone is the married name of a Hulit daughter.)
The decision to pull the plug and close Hulit’s doors by the middle of November was based on logic that does nothing to mitigate the family’s emotional distress over the decision.
“We are good friends with our customers — many are like family members. I really like them,” Ryan said.
These sentiments even apply to my wild-and-crazy grandkids, who upon entering the store behave as though it were a recreational shoe-theme park. An added benefit of this shoe-theme park was Hulit’s mascot — the lovable golden retriever Sonny, who, according to Ryan, thrived on the attention and hugs from customers, both child and adult.
For the past few weeks, the merchandise clearance-sale signs have been decorating the store windows at an unlikely clearance-sale time of the year. Loyal customers filed in to ask what was going on.
Once told, they all said something like, “You can’t do this to me,” and, recounted their many decades of multi-generational shopping trips to Hulit’s. Princetonian and actress Georgine Stauffer Hall, was not acting when she told Ryan that her first shoe-buying recollection was at Hulit’s, 88 years ago.
Far less impressive is my 40 years of shopping at Hulit’s, whose sales team endured not only my kids’ and grandkids’ behavior, but also my behavior — endless angst about the pains in my arches, soles, heels, toes, and other parts of my body attached to my aging feet.
“More than anything what really has impacted all of us is the emotional attachment we have formed with our customers,” Ryan said. “Whether they are taking pictures of their children or grandchildren getting their first shoes, taking a picture in the store after returning for the first time in 20 years, or getting a picture with Sonny, people continue to tell us what the store has meant to them and their family. We have watched children grow into adults and then bring their children and grandchildren in.”
And the reasons for imposing this shopping trauma on the town “are nothing you haven’t heard already” from owners of family-owned retail businesses, said Ryan, who graduated from Widener University with an accounting degree. The bricks-and-mortar shop on Nassau Street cost a lot of money in rent and salaries, “and we no longer can do the volume to cover our costs. The online shopping is a huge factor. . . . People have come into our store, gotten fitted, copied the serial numbers of what they liked, and in some cases sat in the store and ordered the shoes online for maybe less money, but minimally less.
“People also today want immediate gratification. Although we can order anything you want, people want it overnight — and we can’t do that. Hulit’s might be able to hang on a little longer if I worked seven days a week, but that lifestyle,” said the father of a 3-and-a-half year old son, “is unacceptable to me — and ultimately unsustainable, considering that I believe the economics of the business are bound to only get worse.”
Chuck Simone is ready to fully retire, especially since the recent death of his wife Phyllis, who owned and managed the business with Chuck. Ryan at the age of 12 worked in the store and never questioned that he would become the fourth generation of Hulit family owners and operators of the store. Opened in 1929 by Warren Hulit, Warren’s children Ralph, Pete, Clara, Nellie, and Lillian were all involved in the store that was passed onto Clara Simone’s son Chuck and his wife Phyllis and their son Ryan.
Ryan acknowledged that the transition is going to be very weird for him. “I have known nothing else as far as a profession,” he said. So in addition to feeling very sad about losing the relationships with his customers and his employees (Keith Lindsay and longtime associate Dave Killeen), he is feeling uncertain about “what’s next.” He is pretty certain, however, that this is the right time for him to be making this monumental change.
I tried to brainstorm ways for him to be able to keep the store operating. Offering pedicures? Providing day care services led by Sonny? Going on house calls as Pete Hulit did for Albert Einstein?
All I can say is that Hulit’s has been a great fit for Princeton for nearly nine decades, and I thank the entire family from the bottom of my heart — and soles.
