is building 19 . the substitution or omission of the is because of technical restrictions . building 19 building 19 in burlington massachusetts in april 2010 industry discount retail fate bankruptcy ; 2 stores reopened as the rug department founded hingham massachusetts 1964 1964 1 founder jerry ellis born gerald elovitz harry andler defunct 2013 headquarters hingham massachusetts united states number of locations 10 stores 2013 2 area served new england key people william elovitz president 3 revenue 79.2 m 2013 3 website www.building19.com building 19 was a chain of discount stores in new england that operated from 1964 until they declared bankruptcy in 2013 4 at which time they closed all 13 stores . the same family that owned the chain later reopened two of the former locations as a part of a new business the rug department that was limited to rugs and related merchandise . 5 the closeout stores had been known throughout new england for selling an eclectic assortment of items at drastically discounted prices as well as self effacing advertising that made fun of the founder jerry ellis . many of the items were factory irregulars discontinued models post expiration date damaged or less than perfect in some other way but some new merchandise was offered as well . the stores capitalized on the quick cash flow needs of other businesses obtaining most of their merchandise from fire sales overstocks customs seizures liquidations and bankruptcy courts . contents 1 history 2 corporate culture 2.1 slogans 3 corporate affairs 4 see also 5 references 6 further reading 7 external links history edit jerry ellis born gerald elovitz founded the original store in 1964 with harry andler now deceased when the two joined together to sell a stock of appliances . 2 4 the original building 19 was located at the former bethlehem hingham shipyard where the buildings were numbered and the store retained the nondescript name on the building rather than pay for a new sign . harry andler was doing surplus and salvage business in the shipyard for several years . the unique combination of ellis advertising flair and andler s expertise in finding and buying distressed merchandise accounts for the early success of the business . aldler bought good stuff cheap and ellis let everyone know about it with amusing advertising . in 1971 when the windows began to fall out of the john hancock tower in boston jerry and harry were offered and bought the defective window panels that were scheduled to be installed . this got the company national press and attention . 2 4 6 in 1979 retailers building 19 and bloomingdales both appeared as contrasting locations in the movie starting over starring burt reynolds candice bergen jill clayburgh and charles durning . the movie was directed by alan pakula . in the 1980s the original building 19 moved to the former gem government employee merchandise building on derby street in hingham massachusetts . later building 19 1 8 opened in the old stewarts store in the harborlight mall on rt 3a in weymouth massachusetts ; still later that store was closed to build a lowe s store . the main store building 19 moved from derby street in hingham and was situated in weymouth at the old caldor zayre s ames building on massachusetts route 18 . in 2002 building 19 bought out the independent discount store spag s in shrewsbury massachusetts and renamed the acquisition spag s 19 . 7 the store format and configuration were changed after the purchase to more closely resemble the other building 19 operations . however the store was closed in may 2013 . 8 corporate culture edit the chain was known for its often self deprecating humor both in their advertising and throughout their store interiors . their weekly ad circulars often featured caricatures of founder jerry ellis with a number of sarcastic captions many of which were repeated in their in store advertising . 4 9 the early circulars featured the free spirit ellis sternly commanded to work harder by the skinflint andler . as of 2012 update ellis still wrote most of the ad copy used in the ad flyers . 10 each building 19 location offered free coffee with free fake cream . signs near the free coffee stand warned customers not to make fun of the poor quality of the coffee because someday you ll be old and weak too . 10 their price guarantee awarded a bottle of chateau du cheapo champagne if a competitor beat their price . in 2006 building 19 put a cartoon in their president s day advertising flier showing a shirts athletic style undershirts labeled as being wife beater shirts . building 19 was criticized and promptly apologized . 11 two years later a flier poked fun at the 2006 controversy and was similarly criticized . 12 the main building 19 store was located in hingham massachusetts ; other stores had a numerical fraction appended to their name such as building 19 in burlington or building 19 in norwood . 13 building 19 1 9 in pawtucket rhode island used the old grandstand portion of narragansett park a former horse racing venue that had closed in 1978 . slogans edit good stuff ... cheap suffer a little save a lot the humble department store 9 support the three day work week america s messiest department store please leave with at least as many children as you came with corporate affairs edit on friday november 1 2013 building 19 inc. and a number of affiliated companies voluntarily filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the united states bankruptcy court for the district of massachusetts . 14 founder jerry ellis said that the business had been on a downhill slope for 10 years and attributed its failure to internet competition overseas manufacturing and improved fire protection of warehouses . the latter two factors reduced the supply of salvage and surplus products to sell while increased competition caused the number of their store customers to drop . 6 15 see also edit christmas tree shops ocean state job lot the akron tuesday morning references edit goodison donna l. 2001 05 11 . king of cheap . boston business journal . founded in 1964 building 19 is now a collection of 13 stores in massachusetts new hampshire and rhode island . a b c building 19 about us . building 19 . archived from the original on 2014 05 14 . a b profile building 19 inc. . hoover s. a b c d luna taryn november 5 2013 . the fun runs out at building 19 . boston globe . retrieved 2014 09 20 . herman colman m. january 25 2014 . bankrupt building 19 reinvents itself as a rug store . boston globe . retrieved 2014 09 20 . a b ramos dante november 17 2013 . building 19 twilight of the mishap based economy . boston globe . retrieved 2014 09 20 . building 19 to buy spag s . boston business journal . 2002 10 09 . nicodemus aaron may 15 2013 . building 19 to close former spag s store . telegram & gazette . a b wojahn ellen june 1986 . the forces of conformity . inc. magazine . p. 119 . a b derr greg february 15 2012 . jerry ellis of building 19 still loves a bargain after all these years . enterprisenews.com . gatehouse media inc. retrieved 16 march 2013 . flier describes t shirts as wife beaters . wcvb tv . 2006 02 21 . archived from the original on 2012 03 06 . building 19 again apologizes for ad . wcvb tv . 2008 04 16 . archived from the original on 2012 03 06 . good stuff cheap or free the building 19 story . the shoestring . 2003 10 17 . building 19 new england discount store chain files bankruptcy plans liquidation and going out of business sales . chapter 11 cases . november 2 2013 . herman colman november 12 2013 . building 19 owner looks back ahead . boston globe . retrieved 2014 09 20 . further reading edit vega gina may 2007 . business succession at building 19 overall it is better to be the father than the son . . entrepreneurship theory and practice . john wiley & sons . 31 3 473 488 . doi 10.1111 j. 1540 6520.2007.00183.x . external links edit building 19 mat brown cartoonist for the building 19 fliers retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title building 19 & oldid 734557335 categories companies based in plymouth county massachusettseconomy of the northeastern united statesdefunct discount stores of the united statesretail companies established in 1964companies that filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2013hidden categories articles containing potentially dated statements from 2012all articles containing potentially dated statements navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 15 august 2016 at 03 52 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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