Though tamer, JH sales still pack in the shoppers

0 Comments | Milwaukee Journal, The, Apr 3, 1995 | by Doris Hajewski

The Journal Sentinel staff

A lot of things at JH Collectibles have changed over the past 50 years hemlines, the location of the clothing manufacturer's headquarters, even the old Junior House name.

But the Junior House sale endures.

The company holds the event three times a year to sell off unused fabric, zippers, thread, buttons and unsold or flawed clothing.

As 37-year-old Bruce Ross prepares to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the business his grandfather founded in 1945, the granddaughters of William Feldstein's customers stand in line, as ready as their ancestors to snatch up bargains.

For them, the sale is more than just a place to snag a bargain. It's a family affair, a generational thing, a place to make friends female bonding at its finest.

Saturday morning, Mollie Bucek, 72, of Wauwatosa, sat on a folding chair, looking out on a sea of shoppers as she waited for her daughters and granddaughter to shop. She's been coming to the sale since they started 49 years ago.

Back then, Junior House sold only fabric at the sale, so longtime customers are accomplished seamstresses who now Leg 1 ends here buy the clothing, too.

"We love it," Bucek said. "My granddaughter is a buyer for Boston Store, but she buys her clothes here."

Beside Bucek sat one of her "sale friends," Jazzmin Turner, 13, of Country Club Hills, Ill. Jazzmin, whose task was to guard mounds of clothing surrounding her for further consideration by her family, has been coming to the sales since before she was born.

"I was pregnant with her," explained her mom, Deborah Turner Lewis, who started shopping the sale 20 years ago. Lewis' family and Bucek's family, like many others, got acquainted while waiting in the line that forms hours before the doors open.

Ross, who is chairman and chief executive officer of Ross Enterprises, the family-owned holding company for JH, said the sale is a little tamer now than in the old days.

"We used to have people sleep out," Ross said. "You'd think it was the Super Bowl."

That was before the advent of the outlet mall. Like other manufacturers, JH disposes of overstocks all year long at 32 outlet stores around the country.

Still, nearly 30,000 women show up for the sales, held just Leg 2 ends here before Easter, at the end of August, and in late November at the company's headquarters, 200 W. Vogel Ave. The mailing list for the sale includes customers in Iowa, Indiana, Michigan and Minnesota. Some arrive in tour buses. The line starts forming around 5 a.m.; the doors open at 8.

Ross's earliest memory of the sale was as a young boy, when it was held at the original Junior House headquarters at 710 S. 3rd St.

"My grandfather was standing at the rope that held the crowds back," Ross remembered. When the rope was dropped, "I'd stand out of the way."

The sales still use crowd control, but Ross doesn't do it himself.

Kenneth Cummings, JH security director, said the sale shoppers are such a caring group that they've never had a lost wallet or credit card that wasn't returned by another shopper. Still, the morning crowd can get pretty unruly when the rope comes down.

"We once had a woman fall over and people wouldn't even stop," Cummings said. "They just stepped on her and broke her leg."

Ogling Ended in '80s

Leg 3 ends here The introduction of a dressing room and mirrors about eight years ago also tamed the sale a bit.

Before that, women were faced with the prospect of having to guess at their size and not being able to return a garment if they guessed wrong. For some, the choice between ending up with an outfit that doesn't fit and being seen in public in their underwear was an easy one.

Pretty soon, helpful husbands began accompanying their wives to the sale. Some brought mirrors that they held for their wives. Others didn't bother with the mirror. And one guy brought a mirror, but no wife. He just stood there all day, holding the mirror.

"Let's put it this way," Ross said of the men. "They didn't come to look at clothes."

So signs went up, warning women not to disrobe in the aisles. It didn't help.

"Some people have no shame," Ross said.

The last straw came in the late 1980s when Bob Watchman, a JH vice president, brought his then 15-year-old son to the sale.

"There was a young woman who was trying on sweaters," Watchman said. "She had nothing on underneath."

So Watchman, who is in Leg 4 ends here charge of running the sale, took a cue from Loehman's and set up a large screened area where women can try on the clothing with no privacy from each other but away from the scrutiny of men.

It's here that female bonding has its finest hour. Hundreds of women, in various stages of undress, provide advice with unflinching honesty to friends and total strangers.

Does this top match the skirt? Too big? Too small? Where did you find that? What size is it? An eight? Can I have it if you decide not to take it?

The shoppers themselves are the best sales force.

Aimee Henry, of New Berlin, admired an outfit under consideration by her friend, Jenifer Wyssling, of Waukesha.