Marty Goldman still remembers his first day on the job at The Liberty Store.
At 12, he and his older brother began in the basement of the menswear shop on the corner of East Genesee Street and Seminary Avenue in Auburn, cleaning rubber footwear with turpentine.
"There was no ventilation down there," he said, smiling as he recalled the strong smell of pine. "I remember it like it was yesterday."
From there, Goldman worked his way upstairs, learning his way around the store, and eventually he started selling its clothing. Then, after a brief stint in college, he decided to take over, buying the business from his father, Charles, in 1985.
Now, three decades later, Goldman still owns The Liberty Store a fourth-generation family business celebrating more than 100 years.
The men's clothing store opened its doors in May 1915 as The Liberty Underselling Store, Goldman said. His great-grandfather, Israel, launched the business after emigrating from Poland.
"(Israel) originally owned a dry goods store on State Street," Goldman said. "My grandfather Sam worked for my great-grandfather but wanted to branch off on his own, so he opened up the clothing store on Genesee."
For the grand opening, The Liberty Store advertised a sale in The Citizen-Advertiser, and promised to provide a full refund if its prices were not lower than the competition's. Men's work shoes sold for $1.98, boys' knee pants for 43 cents and socks in all colors for 6 cents.
Within a year, the shop had expanded to the adjacent storefront space. In 1977 when Goldman's father, Charles, owned the store it nearly doubled in size, obtaining 20,000 square feet from the Speno Music store next door.
"It's always been at this location ... and it's always been in the family," Goldman said. "My older brother and older sister we all worked here over the years. And I chose to stay with it."
While The Liberty Store grew in size, it also grew in sales, expanding its merchandise from workwear to tuxedo rentals, dress shirts and casual clothing. In the 1960s, Goldman said, business really took off when the store was asked to handle a large order for inmate clothing at Auburn Correctional Facility.
"For years, we carried everything in menswear ... everything a man could wear on his back or on his feet," Goldman said. "Then, we began working a lot with fire, police, law enforcement and jails and we covered 30 states online, so it kept us really, really busy."
Now, one month after quietly observing its 102nd anniversary, The Liberty Store is beginning to downsize not because of a lack of customers, Goldman said, but because of a lack of time.
Goldman's wife, Wendy, said she and her husband first began thinking about downsizing last year. The couple who have no children immediately dismissed the idea of selling the store, but agreed that something needed to change.
"We just wanted more time for ourselves," Wendy said.
"People think it's a 9-to-5 operation, and it really isn't it's so much more than that," Goldman added. "When we get home at night, my wife is sewing emblems and doing paperwork and I'm online trying to find more bids or reconciling the ones we already have."
That's why Goldman said the store is limiting its retail hours to daytime during weekdays only: The Liberty Store is now open from10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays.
In addition, he said the store will no longer sell dress clothes or rent tuxedos, focusing on work-related items and competitive bid contracts instead.
Still, despite the downsizing, Goldman said the store will stay on the corner of Genesee and Seminary for the foreseeable future.
"We're not going away and we're not closing our doors," Goldman said. "We're still taking care of the people of Auburn and surroundings, just as we have for the last 100 years."
Staff writer Megan Blarr can be reached at (315) 282-2282 or megan.blarr@lee.net. Follow her on Twitter @CitizenBlarr.
See more here: