In store for something different

Today’s supermarkets and big-chain retailers provide everything you need under one roof, but see if their employees can identify you by name.

Gone are the days when specialty stores filled the landscape. Providing goods and services, these shops offered polite service in addition to what their storefront signs said they had for sale.

Faith Stahl and her husband, Adolph, acquired ownership of Louisa’s Variety Store, Second and Moore streets, in 1958 from Stahl’s sister-in-law. The store is named for the latter.

While it sold items such as candy, greeting cards, magazines and school supplies, the store specialized in Mummers paraphernalia. The members could snatch up made-to-order wigs, gloves, makeup and umbrellas.

Evidently, New Year’s Day was one of the store’s busiest times with party favors and Mummers supplies predominantly displayed near the entrance.

"On New Year’s Day, we’d close up part of the store and just do Mummers business because the place was so hectic," said Stahl. "Somebody always needed safety pins or white gloves or a stick of makeup."

Stahl’s granddaughter, Heather Driscoll, enjoyed staffing the cash register during the festive day.

"The crowd was big. They would be in a rush to come in, go back out and get back down Two Street," recalled Driscoll, of the 300 block of Ritner Street.

To accommodate the masses, Stahl said she opened at about 5 a.m. and closed at 7 p.m. Stahl, now 67, and her family would emerge from the toasty establishment as the parade came down the street, but, once they passed, the group headed back inside the building.

After the store closed each New Year’s Day, the family would chow down on comfort foods such as vegetable soup and hot dogs topped with sauerkraut.

Food is something that calls Anna Maria Vona back to her childhood. The resident of the 1500 block of Forrestal Street fondly remembers the unforgettable taste of "Lit Brothers pretzels," which came from a concession outside of the shopping center on Oregon Avenue, 20th to 24th streets. Thoughts of the crispy and glazed treat still can make her mouth water.

"If I was with my mother and I was being bad, she wouldn’t let me get a pretzel," Vona said.

After acquiring a quarter for her allowance, Vona would venture into Murphy’s, a five-and-dime she describes as selling "junkie junks." The youngster would snag some waxed lips, candied bracelets and necklaces, Sweet Tarts and Pixie Sticks.

"We went to Murphy’s once a week," she said. "My mom would take us until we were old enough to walk ourselves."

In the 1970s, Vona remembers purchasing makeup and a color-changing Mood Ring with her friends.

Taking trips to the clothing stores on the 1600 block of East Passyunk Avenue was common for Vona, who remembers Fudgy’s Shoppe and S & R Fashions.

"You were the cat’s meow if you got your clothes from them," she said.

While she is pleased the area has numerous shopping choices in the form of big retailers, she feels it is "the homogeneity of society."

Joseph Ali, originally from 15th and Reed streets, remembers a butcher, shoemaker, candy store, grocery store, fruit store and tailor within one square block of his home. His family used the "barter system" to help pay for certain items and services.

The tailor "would come [to our house] to get a half-gallon of wine and he’d bring over the three pairs of pants that he sewed," he said.

Ali remembers establishing close-knit relationships with the storeowners, including one who owned the White Star Fruit Store near his house.

"It wasn’t just going to the store," he said. "You went into the store and it was ‘How’s grandma? How’s grandpa?’ There was a bond and a kinship for these people that weren’t your blood relatives."

While in the process of downsizing Louisa’s Variety Store in July 2000, Stahl and her family suffered a tragedy. The building collapsed and Adolph was killed in the wreckage. Driscoll, now 16, was at day camp when she heard the news.

"I just didn’t know what to say," she said. "I just grabbed onto my sister and just cried."

Ironically, Stahl now works for a company that would have been considered a competitors: she joined the A.C. Moore staff, 1851 S. Columbus Blvd., four years ago.

Preferring the neighborhood stores to the larger retailers — "I went into the Ikea and I couldn’t get out," she noted — Stahl said she would always have a place in her heart for her old customers.

"They were fantastic," she said. "We saw the same people everyday, day in and day out for years. I miss all that."