There may be a few Utahns who remember downtown Salt Lake City when there wasn't a Shapiro's store on Main Street, but after 80 years as a downtown merchant and 74 years at the same location, they would have to stretch their memories waaaayyyyy back.
And that's what many will be doing Friday when Shapiro Luggage, Gifts and Leather closes its doors at 152 S. Main for the final time at the site where it has been doing business since 1923.But if the store's closing is the bad news, the good news is that a new downtown Shapiro's will reopen Nov. 1 in the ZCMI Center a block to the north.
"The successful evolution of our stores has always been about changing and adapting to the times," said Daniel Shapiro, the youngest of three brothers who represent the third generation of the retailing family who currently operate Shapiro's six stores on the Wasatch Front and one in Boise with some 60 employees.
"Today's shoppers expect more when they walk into a store. They want a certain entertainment value, and customer service is of the utmost importance, especially in our business," he said.
Eric Shapiro, the middle Shapiro brother and an active member of the Downtown Alliance and the Downtown Retail Merchants Association, said Main Street has been a great location for the store founded by his grandfather.
"Even some of our customers who live near our suburban store locations come here for the downtown shopping experience. By moving up Main Street to a downtown mall location, we can provide better customer service because of parking availability and the one-stop shopping convenience consumers want," he said.
The new Shapiro's will comprise 3,000 square feet of space on ZCMI Center's second level, next to Franklin Quest and across from Deseret Book. The store has been designed around an airport and travel theme by Smith Layton Architects using various design elements, including continuously running videos depicting various travel destinations.
The company's origins stretch back to 1915 when Simon Shapiro, a poor immigrant who had come to America as a child from Lithuania in 1896, built custom steamer trunks and bags in a factory on West Temple where the Salt Palace now stands.
Eight years later, as travel trends changed, Shapiro's converted from a manufacturer of trunks to a retailer of luggage, hand bags and other leather goods on Main Street. Joel Shapiro, Simon's son and father of the three Shapiro brothers, helped his father build the store and still remains involved in day-to-day operations.
Alex Shapiro, the eldest of the three brothers, said the store routinely fields queries from travelers who want to buy an item they saw in New York or Chicago but haven't been able to find locally.
"To maintain that extra edge, we work with manufacturers and import directly to get merchandise into our stores before any other retailer in the Mountain West has them," he said. "Developing these types of business relationships also helps to keep our prices competitive with large national chains," he said.