Like a number of larger retail stores, Stein Mart was unable to weather the crippling economic effects of the Chinese virus. It announced bankruptcy just this week. They will close all their stores. I was devastated. Stein Mart had become my personal favorite place to shop.
I don’t buy a lot of clothes, but when I do, I like classic styles and colors and I like fair prices. Stein Mart had both. Specialty stores like Eljo’s have great looking clothes, but awfully steep prices. I don’t want to spend $75 to $100 for a dress shirt. And stores like Belk’s are often overpriced unless you hit one of their major sales. The problem with Belk’s is they don’t sell you one pair of pants for maybe $30. You often have to buy three pairs to get a reasonable price. I liked their belts, but you had to buy two or three at a time and I didn’t need three belts. So for the past five years, for my personal shopping choices, or for gifts for others, I went to Stein Mart – easy parking, friendly people, fair prices.
It’s been easy for our government leaders to snap their fingers and close down businesses they thought to be non-essential, but it’s not going to be easy to snap their fingers and bring them back. I will really miss Stein Mart.