Popular Shoe Repair Business to Close Due to Owner’s Notice to Quit

BENSALEM, PA. – A longtime shoe repair business in Bucks County will close its doors at the end of the month. The owner says it’s not by choice, but he’s now considering the possibility of what could happen next, after five decades in business.

Customer Jay Sklarow said, “It’s a rare art that he does. »

For more than half a century in business, Dominic’s Shoe Repair customers share why they keep coming back. Sklarow continued, “He’s very talkative and he’s a really nice guy and he does a great job. I guess the most important thing is that you trust that he’ll do a great job on your shoes.”

Navy veteran Dominic Mormando followed in his father’s footsteps and continued the legacy of Dominic’s Shoe Repair. He says that on average, in a year, he serves 10 to 25,000 customers.

For him, running a good business means building a relationship of respect over time. One photo shows Mormando’s shop as a local hangout in the 1980s.

“I have a big following. I have people who come here from Maryland and Virginia,” Mormando said. “You just do your best and try to please people. When you deal with the public, you have to give them what they want.”

There are only a small number of shoemakers left. Mormando says that’s because most shoes today are not made to be repaired, but thrown away after being worn. And now Mormando is getting ready to leave his store. The landlord gave him notice to leave because he is under a month-to-month lease.

Mormando started Dominic’s Shoe Repair in 1970. He moved to the current location on Street Road in the mid-1980s. His last day is November 30.

“Keep your phone number, my phone number and we’ll see what happens. If I can find a place with reasonable rent and a decent location – not in a high crime area or anything like that – then I “If I can’t, then I don’t know what else to do,” Mormando said.

In the store, there is a photo of Mormando’s third son, Jim, working as a third-generation shoemaker in the 1990s. There is another photo with his daughter, Cheryl, in the 1980s. Mormando, today aged 83, has several grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

He hadn’t planned to retire so soon and hopes he can find somewhere else to run his shoemaking business. “Once we fix them, they come back, you know, they want more.”