Author Topic: Then and Now: Womrath's book store  (Read 6432 times)

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Then and Now: Womrath's book store
« on: February 24, 2013, 12:12:08 PM »
From today's Record:

Then and now: Womrath's bookstore in Hackensack

Bookstore was on Hackensack's "Miracle Mile"

Sunday, February 24, 2013    Last updated: Sunday February 24, 2013, 10:30 AM
BY  BILL ERVOLINO
STAFF WRITER
The Record


Love!

It's a word North Jerseyans often use to describe shopping destinations that are no longer around. The place where we loved to buy our winter clothes. Or pick up just the right home furnishings. Or, where we spent untold hours browsing the bookshelves.

For the latter, Joyce DiMaggio of Lyndhurst, said, "I loved Womrath's," the bookstore on Main Street in Hackensack that closed in 2001.

"In fact," DiMaggio added, "the last time I was there, I asked if they would ever close, considering all the competition at that time. And they told me 'Absolutely not!' But, soon after, when I returned, they were gone."

The store, replaced on its corner by Some's Uniforms Inc., had been part of a legendary downtown shopping area that, by the 1990s, was undergoing a radical transformation.

"Once called the Miracle Mile," The New York Times wrote of Hackensack's Main Street in 2001,"...now more in need of a miracle."

When I began working in Hackensack in 1990, Womrath's, Packard's market and Prozy's Army Navy were among my favorite stores on Main Street. And, in 1997, when my book "Some Kind of Wiseguy" was published, I had my first bookstore event in the lower level at Womrath's.

The book signing occurred during a rainstorm so ferocious that almost everyone who showed up that afternoon was soaking wet. And at least one attendee found this amusing.

"Did you know this space used to be a swimming pool?" she asked.

As I later learned, the store, opened in 1949 by Harry Kutik, a disabled World War II veteran, had once been a Vic Tanny health spa. And the downstairs area, known affectionately as "The Pit" was where the pool had been.

Womrath's, later run by Kutik's son Robert, was among the stores that The Record's former managing editor James Ahearn paid tribute to in an op-ed column he wrote last April, headlined "It's A New Day in the Neighborhood."

The beloved bookstore's biggest problem, Ahearn wrote, "was competition. First, chain stores like Kmart started selling books in addition to furniture, clothing and toys. Then came Barnes & Noble, the book superstore. Then came the Internet and Amazon. com, which, starting with books, expanded to 31 categories of stuff for sale on-line, from bicycles to shoes to power tools."

By the time Womrath's closed its doors in 2001, Packard's was long gone. It closed 10 years earlier, and eventually met the wrecking ball to make way for a massive Target store.

Three years after Womrath's left, Prozy's departed as well, replaced by a colorful, though short-lived gourmet grocery.

Today, those who recall lunch hours spent browsing at Womrath's are in good company.


Friendly, cozy store

As Janet Creange Lennon of Midland Park remembered: "I grew up in Bogota and loved going to Womrath's. It was so friendly and cozy and I always wanted to open a store just like that. I took private painting lessons at an art supply store a few doors down. And three of my brothers worked in Stelgie's across the street. I was very sad to see it go."

As a youngster, Fran Giannini Leonardis of Ringwood lived with her family in Cliffside Park. "But Womrath's was the go-to store when I was in high school," she said, "This was the 1980s. If a teacher assigned a book, Womrath's was the place to get it."

Womrath's is where Joann Patire of Lodi saw chef Emeril Lagasse, "before he became so famous!"

Jeanne Keating of Lincoln Park saw Legasse there too, a week after trying, unsuccessfully, to see him at his Louisiana restaurant.

"We went to New Orleans and ate at Emeril's in the hope of seeing him there," Keating said. "We didn't. But when we got home the next week, Emeril was doing a book signing at Womrath's so we wound up seeing him right here in Hackensack."

In 2002, 10 months after closing the Hackensack store, The Record reported that owner Robert Kutik bought "the Tenafly Womrath's, an independent franchise ... and has spend four months recasting the store in the image of the Hackensack outlet."

The Hackensack store had 10,000-square-foot showroom and 80,000 titles. The Tenafly store was significantly smaller: about 2,500 square feet. At the time, Kutik said he was prepared to jump back into the ring with competitors Borders and Barnes & Noble. But, a lot has happened since then.

In 2011, as e-books became increasingly popular, Borders applied for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and began liquidation. And, two months ago, in an effort to avoid a similar fate, Barnes & Noble announced it would be closing between 150 and 200 of its stores over the next 10 years.

Against all odds, smaller stores like Womrath's continue to hang on. And feel the love.


Email: ervolino@northjersey.com


Then & Now (1973 and today):





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