Downtown clothing business won’t be downtown much longer

Price Stores in downtown Dayton reopened Monday morning after a four-month hiatus due to the coronavirus, but it won’t remain in downtown much longer.

Price Stores at 52 S. Jefferson St. will close likely in mid-September and relocate to Centerville, said Edd Wimsatt, the owner.

Wimsatt, 70, who has owned the business since 1970, said he needs a smaller and more efficient space.

The five-story Price Stores building has been purchased by Windsor Companies, the developer of the Fire Blocks District, who plans to convert it into new uses.

Price Stores, which originally opened in 1950, is offering 25% off on all merchandise right now, and customers can buy two items and get one free, Wimsatt said.

There are also close-out prices on the tuxedo inventory, which includes models and types of product that Price Stores will no longer offer, Wimsatt said. Pants, coats, vests and other items are on sale at clearance prices, he said.

The store sells thousands of items, and the “huge discounts” are intended to help with the move, Wimsatt said.

“The more we sell, the less we have to move,” he said.

Price Stores’ planned new home in Centerville will be much more suitable because it will be a retail center, Wimsatt said.

The Jefferson Street building needs a substantial amount of restoration and upgrades, Wimsatt said, noting that the building closed for 10 months in 2017-2018 because of water damage from flooding caused by a burst pipe.

Price Stores, which has about a dozen employees, closed its doors in March as part of the coronavirus shutdown.

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