Many years ago, developer Gabe Silverman told me that he was very worried that A&N might leave downtown. I didn’t understand his concern for a big national chain, so he explained that A&N provided clothing and similar staples for low-income families downtown — there was no other place downtown since Woolworth’s had gone under. If it left, it would be yet another small blow for downtown working-class Charlottesvillians.
So today was I disappointed, but not surprised, to see that A&N’s storefront was empty, with signs up indicating that December 31 was their last day at the location, directing people to their other two locations in town. I was further surprised to visit their website and read their history. A&N was founded in 1868, immediately after the Civil War, by a Richmond couple, Mark and Lena Rose Sternheimer. Today the business is run by Mark Sternheimer and his son, Ross. They have 53 locations (well…52), all of which are in Virginia.
And now A&N is gone from downtown, in some small part because I never supported it, because I figured they were some multinational conglomerate. I suck.
I just bought a camo hunting shirt there last week for $5.98. Now there’s nothing left to tip the deer off to my presence except for the screaming orange vest that basically says ‘GUY TRYING TO SHOOT YOU OVER HERE.’
You could buy a really crappy knife there for, like, $2 that would fall apart in your pocket in 6 months. I think there’s room for that in the world. I went through 2 of them before I went back to carrying a Gerber.
A&N will be missed.
Was one of my favorites too. Have shopped there since the 60s. A great place to buy a pair of jeans, jacket, or such like at reasonable price. Actually bought my first designer jeans(Calvin Klein), at A&N.
One more place to shop for practical items gone from Downtown! At least Pantops is not too far from Downtown, but still its regrettable.
i am not surpise. It seems the Downtown mall has become more and more not friendly to non food businesses.
My memory is a little shaky on this but I think it was about 1970 that Thomas Foster, the manager of the downtown A&N, set aside a small corner of the store for hippie fashions. It was the place to buy belbottoms, beads, headbands, psychedelic posters, blacklights and other hippie fashion accessories. It wasn’t a head shop and I don’t recall any pot paraphenalia being sold there. He called it “The Secret World of Samoht Retsof’, Thomas Foster backwards.
A&N is a great place to buy cheap clothes that shrink three sizes the first time you wash them.
Waldo wrote:
There are still working class Charlottesvillians living in the downtown area? With the cost of real estate there I’m surprised they can afford it. Keep putting in those $750,000 dollar condo’s and that problem will take care of itself. Seriously though, the downtown area (and most of the city in my opinion) left the working class behind quite a while ago.
Doesn’t A&N still have a stores at Barracks Road and on Pantops? And It’s way easier to find free parking at either of those locations than it is in the downtown area.
On a side note-
Jack wrote:
I’m not a hunter, but aren’t deer supposed to be color-blind?
There are still working class Charlottesvillians living in the downtown area?
Walk south three blocks. There you are. Hundreds (thousands?) of working class Charlottesville residents live in that area.
Doesn’t A&N still have a stores at Barracks Road and on Pantops? And It’s way easier to find free parking at either of those locations than it is in the downtown area.
I can’t see how it’s easier to drive from Downtown to Barracks Road (they’ve closed that location, BTW) than it is to walk a few blocks to the downtown location. Also, driving is only useful if you can afford a car.
Yes I have many fond memories of the A&N store, and getting dragged there as a kid by my mother to shop for clothes.
However, the point I was trying to get at is unless you’re on public assistance and in subsidized housing, or have owned in that area prior to the real estate boom, it’s not cheap to live downtown. That A&N closed is, in my opinion, just a reflection of the fact that the downtown area is not, and has not been for quite a while, a friendly place for the working class. In a city like charlottesville it seems like it’s almost a “privilege” to be able to live anywhere you can actually walk to shopping and entertainment.
Additionally there’s also no grocery stores on the downtown mall but I imagine the working class are still managing to get groceries.
That A&N closed is, in my opinion, just a reflection of the fact that the downtown area is not, and has not been for quite a while, a friendly place for the working class.
Oh, certainly. I don’t chalk up its closing to any sort of evil forces. :) Its disappearance is a predictable loss as downtown real estate becomes more valuable.
Additionally there’s also no grocery stores on the downtown mall but I imagine the working class are still managing to get groceries.
Sure there’s a grocery store downtown — Reid’s.
Waldo wrote:
I wasn’t really counting that since it’s on Preston Ave, but point taken. By comparison to A&N though Reid’s is a nice long walk. Unless they still have 2 stores. Wasn’t one over on West Main? or someplace like that?
And for the record… I miss the Woolworth’s lunch counter, that and this little mennonite deli on one of the side streets. They were two of my favorite lunch spots (and affordable) the year I had a summer job at one of the downtown mall businesses (also no longer there).
I love A&N, and I’m really sorry that store closed, but I haven’t shopped down there in ages, for the same reason I didn’t shop at the other retailers who hung on: parking. The mall is nice for restaurants and walking around on Friday night, but it’s such a traffic hassle/nightmare, that I have opted for the Barracks Rd, and now Giant Shopping Center stores. Someday city council will figure out that less parking and more congestion are not the answers to insufficient parking and congested roads, although the anti-development crowd likely will not.
A little off the subject, but I won’t be surprised if a closing of the Waynesboro store is annouced soon. Since Shenadoah Harley Davidson moved from the shopping center to its own building in Staunton, it is the only thing there (aside from Willys Ice Cream stand). I never see many cars there. Across the street at the Big Lots/Dollar Tree shopping center business isn’t booming either, but maybe they could move into the empty store front there.
I’d like to try and answer TrvlnMns questions about Reid’s. There used to be a Reid’s on West Main where Under the Roof is now, next to the old Sears store that is now Stacy Hall. There was also a Reid’s on the Downtown Mall across from the parking garage. I watched it burn down from the top of the parking garage.
Another addendum: I love their men’s knit shirts – dunno where they get them, but they do not shrink three sizes on washing, are well constructed, hold up as long as Polo or Izod, are about 1/2 as expensive (or less) and best of all they don’t have a damn logo/brand name tag on them.
Cheers!
best of all they don’t have a damn logo/brand name tag on them.
See, now that’s awesome. I hate wearing logos.