New name for new generation in clothing business

Mason’s on Main is the new name of the former mens-only shop downtown. The business will now carry clothing for both men and women in an attempt to broaden the apparel store’s clientele, according to owner Nancy Imhof, whose family has operated the store for three generations.

Imhof’s maternal grandfather Harold Morse opened Harold’s Mens Store in the 1930s. He ran the mens store and an adjoining womens store called Harold’s for Him and Harold’s for Her through the late 1950s in two sections of the downtown building where Mason’s on Main is today.

Imhof’s father, Don Mason, started work for his father-in-law, Morse, in the late 1950s. Mason took over the shop when Morse died, Imhof said.

In the early 1980s, when the Boise Cascade’s Insulite line shut down, the store closed temporarily and then reopened in the same location as Mason’s Mens Shop. The store has carried the Mason name since.

In July 2008, Imhof took ownership of the business from her retiring father.

“I think it’s a little rare these days to get to the third generation and still have the business operating. In this market, with Internet sales and all this competition in retail now, to get to three generations and still be running is a pretty big deal,” Imhof said.

And with the change in ownership has come a change in name and merchandise.

“I just really felt the need to expand my customer base, and so over the last 2 1/2 years I’ve built on that and started with just a few fleece pieces,” she said of again offering womens clothing in the shop.

Imhof calls her womens clothing, which she has been slowly expanding for the last few years, “casual separates.” She noted that one of the staples of her womens clothing is Silver Jeans.

“It (Silver Jeans) covers a good age range from the young girls to older than myself,” she said.

“Mens hasn’t changed all that much. I still offer a good selection of casual and dress clothing,” she said. “A big part also of the mens business is the tuxedo rental and that season will be starting to pick up now in the next couple months with proms and weddings.”

She said she came up with the new name to better reflect the product that she’s selling.

“It’s a little misleading when you see Mason’s Mens Shop outside on the sign,” she explained. “It took me a while to come up with that name because I didn’t want to change it too much. Mason’s store has been around for so long that I didn’t really want to change the Mason’s name because people have identified with it for a long time.”

“Things have changed over the years several times, not a whole lot, but the last change with the lady’s stuff is significant in that it brings a new interest to the store.”

For success, businesses need to have more than one reason to bring a customer into the store and owners can’t limit themselves, she said.

Imhof started working for her dad 17 years ago after the birth of her son, when she was looking for part-time job. She said she had no intention of being “the one” to inherit the shop at that time.

However, Imhof’s propensity to carry on in the steps of her father and grandfather caught on, and she began going to market and has been selecting merchandise for about 10 years.

“The transition for me into ownership was not a big thing because I have been here for the last 17 years or so, and people are used to seeing me,” Imhof said.

She further explained that the years of working for her father have taught her the tools of the trade and made for a seamless transition.

“I used to laugh because when I first started working part-time for him and my mom, and a man would walk through the door and maybe need a sport coat or shirt and tie and my dad would eyeball him up and say, ‘You must be a 16 1/2, 34-35 sleeve or a 42 regular’ or whatever and I thought, ‘How does he know that just like that?’ And now I can pretty much do the same thing. Between him teaching me and the years of experience ... it does turn into a natural thing.”

Imhof noted the difference between smaller downtown shops and larger chain stores and department stores. She goes to market and hand-picks every items in the store, instead of having a national or regional buyer deciding merchandise for the Borderland market.

“It’s way more personal ... There’s even times when I’m thinking ‘So-and-so would like this in that size and that color,’” Imhof said. “The customer service and personal attention is the most important thing. It means a lot more to you personally. Granted, I can’t stock everything a big store can stock, but what I do stock, you put a lot more thought into it.”

Mason’s on Main is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and is located at 339 Third Street in downtown International Falls. The phone number is 283-9750.