Business World

Nichole Carter of Chesterfield says she has a passion for shoes. So much so that if a heel became badly damaged she used to pitch the pair and buy something new.

But the economy has put a stop to that. Now she takes the shoe to a cobbler to see if it can be repaired.

"As much as I love shoes, they aren’t as important as food and gas," she said.

Carter is among a growing number of consumers tightening their belts by pumping new life into a range of older items instead of spending money on higher-priced replacements. The result is that all sorts of repair shops are seeing a boost in business.

"I’m so busy I can’t even see straight," said John Glover, who has owned Brentwood Shoe & Luggage Repair, 2314 South Brentwood Boulevard, for 14 years. "It seems people are trying to get everything fixed. I’ve never been this busy before."

Jeff Lipson, one of the owners of Cobblestone Quality Shoe Repair, tells a similar story. He said business at Cobblestone, which has locations in Creve Coeur, Chesterfield, Ladue and Town and Country, is up about 30 percent over this time last year.

"There’s been a dramatic upcharge primarily in the last six weeks," he said.

The repair business is booming across the country.

Louis Johnston, an economics professor at the College of St. Benedict and St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minn., has analyzed U.S. Department of Commerce data on repair service expenditures and found increases during tough economic times.

He said there was a big spike between 1980 and 1983 and smaller spikes around 1990, 1991, 2000 and 2001.

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"We see the percentage of what consumers spend on repairs goes up when the economy is in a recession," he said. "People cut back on durable goods and put more into repair services."

Jim McFarland is spokesman for the Shoe Service Institute of America, a trade group whose members are retail shoe repair operators, their wholesaler trading partners and suppliers health insurance plans. To hear him tell it, his business is the business to be in.

"Shoe repair is nuts," he said.

McFarland, who owns McFarland’s Shoe Repair in Lakeland, Fla., said there are about 7,000 repair shops in the United States. At his store, there are so many pairs to be fixed, he’s run out of space.

"They’re all over the floor," he said.

This "run" on repairs has pretty broad reaches — from fixing up appliances to getting clothing mended.

At Authorized Appliance and Repair, 2355 Hampton Avenue, service manager Dave McCormick said business at his store also was up. Previously, a consumer might pitch a $300 microwave that needed a $150 repair, but that’s not as likely to happen now, he said.

Darko Simic, a tailor at Sadie Alternations at 7612 Wydown Boulevard in Clayton, said he had been seeing an increase of older clothing coming in for alterations recently.

"We are busy," he said. "When the economy is up, you see new clothes. When the economy goes down, we alter older clothes. I can definitely see it."

James Morley, an economics professor at Washington University, said it would make sense that when there was a pickup in repair services there would be a corresponding decline in the purchase of new items.

U.S. retail sales fell for a record fifth consecutive month in November, and the tumble continued this month. Sales at stores open at least a year fell 0.4 percent in the seven days through Dec. 13 from a year earlier, the International Council of Shopping Centers and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said Tuesday.

"It’s cheaper to get things fixed," Morley said.

And that’s what folks are doing at Meyer Appliance in Belleville. Business has been increasing in the past few months, said owner Bill Meyer.

"This time of year, around Christmas, it’s usually a slow time, but we can’t say that’s so now," he said.

gappleson@post-dispatch.com

314-340-8331

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