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Aaron Hats Store in No. Conway is GONE!

Winsor

Winsor

New in Town
Messages
23
Location
Marblehead, MA
I went to the Aaron Hats store in No. Conway, NH today and its GONE! Emptied out, cleaned, no note on door. Does anyone here know what happened? I emailed Aaron at his store address and it bounced back. I checked his website and its dead. Does anyone here know what happened to this business?
Thanks,
Winsor
 
Tomasso

Tomasso

Incurably Addicted
Messages
13,719
Location
USA
That doesn't look good.

I just checked and he hasn't posted on the FLounge in over a year.
 
tonyb

tonyb

Messages
10,592
Location
My mother's basement
A call to the number listed for Aaron Hats in North Conway, NH -- (603) 356-5551 -- is answered by a recording that acknowledges that the retail store is closed but that hats can be ordered on the website.

I wish Aaron well.
 
Firemanpc

Firemanpc

New in Town
Messages
22
Location
New Jersey
I have often thought how someone could make a living selling hats. It is becoming clearer and clearer to me that perhaps it is not the most lucrative of businesses. I personally love finding a hat store to go into and try on hats. Buying on line is what we are reduced to in this day and age. I can’t tell you how much money I have spent on returned shipping when your hat is delivered and it doesn’t fit properly or it’s not the color you thought it would be or it just doesn’t look good on you.. I guess there is not much we can do about it. It’s called supply and demand and obviously we at the Lounge are the only ones demanding.
Sorry to see another shop closing it’s doors.
 
Spats McGee

Spats McGee

One Too Many
Messages
1,039
Location
Arkansas
I'm sorry to hear this, even though the odds of my ever actually visiting the brick-&-mortar store are somewhere between extremely slim and none. Good luck, Aaron!
 
tonyb

tonyb

Messages
10,592
Location
My mother's basement
Firemanpc said:
I have often thought how someone could make a living selling hats. It is becoming clearer and clearer to me that perhaps it is not the most lucrative of businesses. I personally love finding a hat store to go into and try on hats. Buying on line is what we are reduced to in this day and age. I can’t tell you how much money I have spent on returned shipping when your hat is delivered and it doesn’t fit properly or it’s not the color you thought it would be or it just doesn’t look good on you.. I guess there is not much we can do about it. It’s called supply and demand and obviously we at the Lounge are the only ones demanding.
Sorry to see another shop closing it’s doors.
Click to expand...

In Seattle, the Byrnie Utz store has been plugging along for more than 70 years. It is, alas, the only exclusively hats retailer in the entire region, and, if fairly recent history provides a clue, one store is about all the region, of some millions of people, will support. (I've seen others come and go over my years out here.) I suspect that the folks who run the place could do as well or better in another line, but hats are in their blood.

There were once several hat stores in the area, which was typical of cities of a similar size. And department stores typically had hat departments. I doubt any of us will live to see the market ever return to those levels.

As you said, it's great to have a place to try on the merchandise before buying, and online shopping has its hazards, as you also enumerated. But I have to part company with you at that "we at the Lounge are the only ones demanding" point. Most hat buyers aren't going to be nearly so invested (financially and emotionally) in their headwear as we are. If Byrnie Utz were entirely dependent on guys like us, that decades-long run of theirs would quickly come to an end.
 
Joeyeah_right

Joeyeah_right

New in Town
Messages
27
Location
Hove, UK
tonyb said:
In Seattle, the Byrnie Utz store has been plugging along for more than 70 years. It is, alas, the only exclusively hats retailer in the entire region, and, if fairly recent history provides a clue, one store is about all the region, of some millions of people, will support. (I've seen others come and go over my years out here.) I suspect that the folks who run the place could do as well or better in another line, but hats are in their blood.

There were once several hat stores in the area, which was typical of cities of a similar size. And department stores typically had hat departments. I doubt any of us will live to see the market ever return to those levels.

As you said, it's great to have a place to try on the merchandise before buying, and online shopping has its hazards, as you also enumerated. But I have to part company with you at that "we at the Lounge are the only ones demanding" point. Most hat buyers aren't going to be nearly so invested (financially and emotionally) in their headwear as we are. If Byrnie Utz were entirely dependent on guys like us, that decades-long run of theirs would quickly come to an end.
Click to expand...

Thanks for mentioning this hat store Tonyb. I shall be in Seattle in September (on my honeymoon - taking an Alaskan glacier cruise departing from Seattle and then spending a couple of extra days in Seattle when we get back, before flying back to the UK, and now we have a hat store to browse in while we are in the city :) )
 
tonyb

tonyb

Messages
10,592
Location
My mother's basement
Joeyeah_right said:
Thanks for mentioning this hat store Tonyb. I shall be in Seattle in September (on my honeymoon - taking an Alaskan glacier cruise departing from Seattle and then spending a couple of extra days in Seattle when we get back, before flying back to the UK, and now we have a hat store to browse in while we are in the city :) )
Click to expand...

It's at 310 Union St.

If your bride-to-be is an avid shopper, well, the flagship Nordstrom department store is within walking distance.

You're coming during what is normally a pleasant time of year out here. Hope that holds true this year.
 
Joeyeah_right

Joeyeah_right

New in Town
Messages
27
Location
Hove, UK
tonyb said:
It's at 310 Union St.

If your bride-to-be is an avid shopper, well, the flagship Nordstrom department store is within walking distance.

You're coming during what is normally a pleasant time of year out here. Hope that holds true this year.
Click to expand...

Thanks Tonyb, i hope the weather stays nice for us when we are in Seattle, but I shall be wearing my FedIV in any case, so hopefuly it will cope with the expected rain that I hear you get a lot of :)
 
Tango Yankee

Tango Yankee

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,433
Location
Lucasville, OH
tonyb said:
But I have to part company with you at that "we at the Lounge are the only ones demanding" point... If Byrnie Utz were entirely dependent on guys like us, that decades-long run of theirs would quickly come to an end.
Click to expand...

Indeed, Tony, you hit the nail on the head with that one. We on the Lounge collectively purchase relatively very few new production hats. There is a bias against new hats as most consider them inferior to vintage. My impression is that among the current brands available Akubra tends to be the one most often purchased by members here. Even that does not translate into brick-and-mortar store sales as they tend to be purchased online.

Of course, there is also the consideration that relatively few of us live near an actual hat store. If I want to go to one I have a 2-hour drive ahead of me and since I usually have no other reason to go to Cincinnati I just don't get there. At that, I'm probably a lot closer to a hat store than a lot of our members.

Also, how many things can one buy on impluse at a hat store? Many BMW motorcycle riders will stop buy a BMW dealership just to say hello, see who all is there, and perhaps some little accessory, tool, shirt or what have you will catch their eye and they'll buy it. It may not be a big profit for the dealer, but lots of such visits add up. With a hat store you're pretty much either buying a hat or you're not. If you've had hats for a while you're probably fairly well set for accessories to take care of it, so no temptation there.

No, it's obviously a tough business to try to keep afloat even in good times. I'm sorry to hear about any business closing, but at least Aaron's online store seems to still be in operation. It's a loss for those who live around his shop who might have used it, but there's gotta be enough people coming in the door and buying to keep it open. I hope he's able to keep his online business going.

Regards,
Tom
 
mayserwegener

mayserwegener

Messages
17,222
Location
Maryland
Although I am mostly focused on vintage I still buy the ocassional new production hat. I want to help keep the industry going while acknowledging the past.
 
tonyb

tonyb

Messages
10,592
Location
My mother's basement
There obviously is some demand for new hats. And some hat purchases are impulsive: a guy goes out looking for new shoes or a shirt or something and he sees a hat and buys it.

There's an old-school sort of men's wear store in downtown Olympia that carries Bailey hats. Baileys aren't hats to impress us kinda people (indeed, I find them decidedly inferior overall), but I doubt the shopkeeper would devote any of his precious floor space to merchandise he couldn't sell. And he's been selling these hats for at least a couple of years that I'm aware of. So people drop these hats on their heads and think, Heck, not bad. I'll take it.

So it's something of a chicken-and-egg scenario. Why did so many men wear hats 60 and 70 years ago? Because so many men wore hats 60 and 70 years ago. There's always that tension between fitting in and standing out.

As to Aaron, though -- I applaud him for keeping the store open as long as he did, and I wish him every success in whatever direction he takes himself and his enterprise. And I'd certainly welcome hearing his voice around here again.
 
besdor

besdor

Vendor/Sponsor
Messages
1,727
Location
up north
The hat business is indeed a tough business to be in . Unless you specialize in a specific group of people such as western or the Orthodox jewish market , it will be tough. Most major cities such as Chicago, Detroit, St Louis have only one hat store and that is all that is needed. In New York , we have a few stores but I think there will only be one left (JJ's) in a couple of years.


Steven
www.bencrafthats.com
 
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