With one shop set to close, longtime State College business owner sees uncertain future after COVID-19
For the past two months, State College business owner Art Fine — who oversees four women’s clothing, shoe and accessory shops — felt as if time stood still.
He would enter his dark, closed stores every other day. And, every time, glancing at untouched merchandise or leaves on the floor, he would feel a sadness wash over himself. Fine, who’s been in business downtown for 46 years, wasn’t sure if the pandemic would eliminate a lot of what he’s worked for in life.
And, about a week after reopening, he’s still not sure.
“It breaks my heart because I love this place,” Fine said, referring to the community. “I always tell people; next to my family, my children and my grandchildren, my businesses are my children. I raised them from nothing. I started them with nothing. And I built them and worked and went through ups and downs, good times and bad.”
His four stores reopened May 8 when Centre County officially moved into the “yellow phase” of Gov. Tom Wolf’s three-phase plan, and all came with steep discounts. All merchandise at Barefoot is 40% off, everything at Metro and Peoples Nation is 50% off, and Sample Sale on South Atherton is advertising 75% off.
“With two months of your year missing, you got to make it up somehow,” he said.
Before the coronavirus pandemic hit, Fine anticipated closing Metro at 320 E. College Ave. — a downtown staple for about 35 years — because he couldn’t afford a new lease once the old one ends June 30. He said the landlord, whom he preferred not to name, wanted to raise his rent to more than double what it once was.
In early March, Fine’s plan was simple: Start a big going-out-of-business Metro sale once the students returned from spring break, focus on his two other downtown shops (Barefoot, Peoples Nation) and his South Atherton store (Sample Sale), and go from there. But, like most of the country’s business owners, COVID-19 threw a pile of wrenches into those plans.
Instead of opening March 16 to a bustling shop, chatty customers and ringing cash registers, everything went dark with all nonessential businesses shuttered. Students have still not returned — and now the 70-year-old Fine wonders aloud just how the fashion empire he built over the last half-century might look when the pandemic goes away and normalcy returns.
“Will retail be back anytime soon in any way that it once was? I don’t know. I don’t know,” Fine repeated. “All I can say is that I’m glad I’m at the end of my run and I didn’t just start in business. We had a great run. And we had many, many, many good years.”
For now, Fine is keeping a watchful eye on Penn State’s next move. If it reopens in the fall — like it has publicly said is the goal — then Fine said his stores will survive. Mostly. Maybe he’ll have to close another shop. Or maybe opening for shorter hours, cutting payroll and renegotiating leases will be the answer.
But if Penn State follows the lead of California universities and students don’t return to campus in the fall, he’s not sure what he’ll do. (An announcement from PSU is expected in mid-June.) Barefoot, he believes, would have the strongest chance to survive because it appeals to multiple demographics. But there are no certainties with the coronavirus.
“If there is no fall semester, I can’t tell you definitively that I would not be here,” he said, “but I would say to you it would be a very, very difficult position to remain in business August, September, October, November and December with no students.”
Fine likes to call himself a “dinosaur” of the times, a relic who thanks students for keeping him young and welcomes customers that he’s served over three generations. He laughed about his old meetings with fashion designer Steve Madden, when he was a bright-eyed 30-something with big dreams, and he decried the changing downtown as big companies continue to push out the mom-and-pop shops.
The pandemic might hasten the demise of the latter. But, whatever comes next, Fine wanted to make clear that he wasn’t bitter. He didn’t do anything wrong. He ran a good business. And he harbors no regrets.
“When you watch the news and you see these 40- or 50-year-old guys dying, you say to yourself, ‘Really, I’m going to lose sleep over my business?’” Fine asked. “The absolute worst-case scenario is I hand my keys over to the landlord. I say thanks a lot, nice doing business with you, and see you later. Hasta la vista.
“I’m glad that I had a good run. I’m glad that I didn’t make any really detailed plans on my exit strategy because it would have all been for naught. And we’ll just take it all one day at a time.”
