Building 19
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 | This article possibly contains original research. (September 2007) |
Building #19 is a chain of discount stores in New England. 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). The original Building #19 was located at the former naval shipyard in Hingham, MA, 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 Harborlight Mall in adjacent Weymouth. From Harborlight they moved back to Hingham, to the former GEM (Government Employee Merchandise) building on Derby Street. The main store is currently situated back in Weymouth at the old Caldor/Zayre's/Ames building on Route 18.
The store is well-known throughout New England for selling items at drastically discounted prices, although the items are sometimes damaged in some 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.
The chain is also known for its often self-depricating humor, both in their advertising and throughout their stores. Their weekly circulars often feature caractures 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." Ellis (born Gerald Elovitz) had founded the original store with the late Harry Andler when the two joined together to sell a stock of appliances at Building #19 of this Hingham shipyard.
In 2002, Building #19 bought out Spag's and turned it into Spag's 19.
Mottos and catchphrases: "Good Stuff Cheap," "Suffer a Little, Save a Lot." Their price guarantee awards a bottle of "Chateau Cheapo" champagne if a competitor beats their price.
Movie reference: The character played by Burt Reynolds furnishes his entire new apartment in one trip to Building #19 in the movie Starting Over (1979). The scenes were filmed in the Lynn, MA store. In early 2009, it was announced the Lynn store had lost its lease and would be closing soon.
In the news
In 2006, Building 19 put a cartoon in their President's Day advertising flyer showing A-shirts labeled as being "Wife-Beater" shirts. Building 19 was promptly criticized and its management (and Mat Brown, the cartoonist who drew the ad) later apologized. Jerry has two daughters (each owns a part of the business) and a son, Bill, who is the president of Building #19.
A major college did a case study on the Building #19 business, entitled, "Building #19 - Better to be the father than the son."
B19's legendary laxness with their vendors and books made headlines a few years ago, when a buyer and warehouse worker from B19 were indicted on charges of stealing millions from the salvage specialist over several years. Apparently a rug vendor generated phony bills of lading and invoiced Building 19 for rugs they never received. These invoices were paid, and the rug vendor split the money with the two inside guys.