Building 19

The correct title of this article is Building #19. The substitution or omission of the # sign is because of technical restrictions.

Building #19

Industry	Discount retail
Founded	Hingham, Massachusetts (1964 (1964))
Founder(s)	Jerry Ellis and Harry Andler
Headquarters	Hingham, Massachusetts, United States
Number of locations	11 stores (2012)
Area served	New England
Key people	William Elovitz (President)
Website	http://www.building19.com/

Building #19 is a chain of discount stores in New England. The store is well-known throughout New England for selling items at drastically discounted prices, although the items are oftentimes factory irregulars or damaged in some other way. The store capitalizes on the hardships of other retailers, obtaining most of its merchandise from fire sales, overstocks, customs seizures, liquidations, and bankruptcy courts.

History

Jerry Ellis (born Gerald Elovitz) founded the original store with the late Harry Andler when the two joined together to sell a stock of appliances. The original Building #19 was located at the former Hingham shipyard, where the buildings were numbered, and the store retained the nondescript name on the building rather than pay for a new sign. In the 1980s, the original Building #19 moved to the former GEM (Government Employee Merchandise) building on Derby Street in Hingham, Massachusetts and later opened a store Building #19 1/8 in the old Stewarts store in the Harborlight Mall on Rt 3A in Weymouth, Massachusetts; later that store closed to build a Lowe's Store. The main store Building #19 moved from Derby Street in Hingham and is currently situated back in Weymouth at the old Caldor/Zayre's/Ames building on Route 18. (Ellis noted at one point he had been fired from GEM before he became part of Building #19, and that his flagship store later bought the property. "America is a great country!," he added.

In 2002, Building #19 bought out Spag's and turned it into Spag's 19.

Corporate culture

Building 19½ in Burlington

The chain is known for its often self-deprecating humor, both in their advertising and throughout their stores. Their weekly circulars often feature caricatures of founder Jerry Ellis with a number of sarcastic captions, many of which are repeated in their in-store advertising.

Each Building #19 location offers free coffee with "free fake cream." Signs near the free coffee stand warn customers not to make fun of the poor quality of the coffee, because "someday you'll be old and weak too." Their price guarantee awards a bottle of "Chateau du Cheapo" champagne if a competitor beats their price.

Jerry has two daughters (each owns a part of the business) and a son, Bill, who is the president of Building #19.

In 2006, Building #19 put a cartoon in their President's Day advertising flier showing A-shirts labeled as being "Wife-Beater" shirts. Building #19 was criticized and promptly apologized. A flier two years later poked fun at the 2006 controversy and was similarly criticized.

The main Building #19 store is located in Weymouth, Massachusetts; other stores have a fraction appended to their name (such as Building 19½, in Burlington or Building #19¾, in Norwood).

Closures

On Wednesday, August 24 2011, after 16 years of selling “Good stuff … cheap” – as the company’s motto goes – Building 19 said goodbye to Nashua NH, for now at least. The chain store couldn’t come to terms on its lease with the property owner, AS-VR Realty LLC in Londonderry NH. It announced in July that it would have sales to clear merchandise for when the last day finally arrived. Longtime and new patrons have a final opportunity to load up on useful and kitschy products, the trademark of Building 19. The store offers everything from discounted mattresses to furniture, books, toys and knickknacks you wouldn’t find most anywhere else. Chain founder Jerry Ellis said nothing has been planned yet, but Building 19 hopes to open another store in southern New Hampshire in the future. “It’s sad,” Ellis said. “It’s much more fun to open a store than close one.” About 30 employees have been laid off because the company is unable to relocate them, Building 19 officials have said. Known for its witty advertisements – often featuring sarcastic spoofs of Ellis, free coffee with “free fake cream” and amusing in-house signs promoting merchandise – Building 19 opened in Nashua in 1995. It’s unknown what retail store will replace Building 19. No development proposal has been submitted to the city planning department for the location. Walmart famously lost its bid to open a store at the 420 Amherst St. location in 2006 – while Building 19 still had a lease there. Residents and environmental groups loudly complained that the footprint of the proposed 140,000-square-foot Walmart store would exceed the boundaries of the property, potentially causing traffic jams and harming the nearby Pennichuck aquifer, part of the city’s drinking water supply. The city Planning Board agreed, and rejected the Walmart proposal. Building 19 continued its lease, until the near end of August. “Our customers are nice people,” Ellis said. “I enjoyed taking their money, and I hope they enjoyed shopping with us.” Building 19 still has a store in Manchester, eight outlets in Massachusetts and two in Rhode Island. The Nashua NH location was their 15th location.

Corporate affairs

Logos and slogans

• Good Stuff Cheap
• Suffer a Little, Save a Lot

Further reading

• Vega, Gina (May 2007). "Business succession at Building #19: overall, it is better to be the father than the son.". Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice. http://www.entrepreneur.com/tradejournals/article/164595270_1.html. 

External links

• Building #19
• Mat Brown (cartoonist for the Building #19 fliers)