Fred and Adrianne Weissman of Evelyn & Arthur
are reopening their Annex in Boynton Beach.
Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
By Scott Simmons
Walk into Evelyn & Arthur’s Manalapan store and the thing that sticks in your mind is the laughter.
It’s constant.
And judging from visits to some of the eight-store chain’s other locations, it’s to be expected.
“We have great crews in the stores,” said Fred Weissman, the company’s chief financial officer and son-in-law of founders Evelyn and Arthur Lewis. “You want your customers to feel welcome in a space, and if that’s the attitude and the vibe the store is giving off, then that’s great to hear.”
Weissman met the Lewises’ daughter, Adrianne, while the two were working at Macy’s in New York. They soon married, then joined the family business.
“We moved down in February ’86 and joined what essentially was a four-store chain,” he said.
The Lewises founded the store in 1985, after Evelyn Lewis retired to Florida and found she had nothing to wear. Arthur Lewis had been in the garment business in New York.
“He figured how hard can retail be?” Weissman said.
They had opened a store in Palm Beach, and when winter season ended, they added a swimsuit shop around the corner.
“Then that led to another store at Plaza del Mar next to the Ice Cream Club,” he said.
The chain has stores along both coasts of Florida and plans to mark its 30th anniversary by reopening its Annex on Woolbright Road between Congress Avenue and Military Trail in Boynton Beach.
“We actually were there between 2007 and 2010. It’s in exactly the same spot,” Weissman said. “When the economy got a little soft we decided to pull the outlet into our Manalapan store. It did well there, but we’re ready to have it as a free-standing location. It’s exactly the same as we left it, so we’re going to move back in.”
The Annex will offer merchandise from the previous season at a discount, as well as handbags, jewelry, hats and gift items.
Evelyn Lewis died about a decade ago; Arthur Lewis is alive and well and living in Boca Raton.
No doubt both were pleased at the atmosphere their stores engender.
“I go in there as the lone guy in the company, taking care of operations and learning how to be handy,” Weissman said. “I don’t get, ‘Hello, Fred, how are you?’ I get, ‘Fred, the light bulb is out. Fred, the door handle has a problem.’ They usually see me as the guy who helps them with their problems. It’s sort of the role that I’ve taken.”
There’s that good humor again, tempered with a dose of reality.
“One of the things that we obviously recognized, was that when the store was founded in ’85, Evelyn was about the same age as Adrianne is now,” Weissman said. “People today, even if they’re 70 or 80, don’t think of themselves as old. They don’t aspire to look matronly.”
He’s proud of the quality of the company’s clothing lines.
“One of the things we do hear back from folks is, ‘Your clothes last too long,’ ” he said.
That longevity is part of what keeps customers coming back, along with that good-humored staff.
“One of the gals in Manalapan predates Adrianne and I by a month,” Weissman said. “We really are very fortunate. We have quite a few of the people in the stores pushing 10, 12, approaching 20 years.”
That’s another part of what makes him happy to visit the stores.
“I like to hear stories about good experiences with customers or good experiences with products,” he said. “The girls always talk about someone who came from out of town and brought a mother or a daughter and found something totally appropriate for them.”
Why wouldn’t they?
“It’s a place they feel good being in, and I think that’s the best we can do.”
Look for Evelyn & Arthur’s 1,400-square-foot Annex to open in early September at 3495 Woolbright Road in Boynton Beach. Info at evelynandarthur.com or 572-0900.
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