The owners of Geiger’s, the local outdoor sporting goods and apparel retailer, have announced that they will close the store’s downtown location permanently.
The store on Euclid Avenue, next to Heinen’s, opened in 2015. It was a signal at the time of downtown’s growth as a residential neighborhood. The store has been closed since June after sustaining damage in the the May 30th demonstrations.
President Chas Geiger said that the store remains committed to Northeast Ohio, with locations in Lakewood and Chagrin Falls remaining open, and that they would consider returning downtown in the right conditions. But for now, the pandemic’s toll has been devastating and remaining open is no longer an option.
“The COVID pandemic has caused a decline for retailers everywhere,” Chas Geiger said, in a statement provided to the media, “and we’re no exception. The closing of downtown offices, lack of sporting and other large-crowd events, the shuttering of Playhouse Square, restaurant downturn and severely reduced hotel occupancy have left us with minimal foot traffic, something essential to a retailer our size.”
Geiger’s first opened in 1932 and is now run Chas and Gordon Geiger (third generation owners) and their wives, Patti and Susan. In a statement, the owners thanked their loyal downtown customers and said they hoped they still might frequent the suburban locations or online store, shopgeigers.com.
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This article appears in Jan 27 – Feb 9, 2021.
