184-year-old Maine retail chain to close
J.L. Coombs, a shoe store chain founded in Bangor in 1830, is closing its last stores in Portland and Freeport.
The company announced the impending closure on its website with tongue-in-cheek, posthumous quotes from its long-deceased founder, J.L. Coombs. The company said it will begin a “GOING OUT OF BUSINESS SALE” on Dec. 5, but did not say exactly when it will close.
“J.L.Coombs might have said it best, ‘Well Emma, ‘ tis about time we close up shop!’” the website’s announcement said. “Asked why, J.L. responded, ‘it’s just too damn hard with all this newfangled competition everywhere. And, I’m startin’ to feel a bit tired of working [seven] days a week. After all, I’m 184 years old!’”
The Bangor Daily News noted that J.L. Coombs announced the closure of its store in Portsmouth, N.H., earlier this fall. At the time, the company told the Portsmouth Herald that it decided to close the store because of “circumstances beyond our control.”
J.L. Coombs, which said it’s “probably the oldest surviving shoe company in America,” also had stores in South Portland and Newburyport, Mass., according to its website.
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