DATE: Tuesday, October 7, 1997              TAG: 9710070248

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: 1D   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY IDA KAY JORDAN, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH                        LENGTH:   59 lines

QUALITY SHOP TO CLOSE IN PORTSMOUTH, AFTER 80 YEARS

The Quality Shop, a downtown landmark since 1917, is closing its retail men's clothing store.

``We are closing the Portsmouth store to concentrate our business in Norfolk and Virginia Beach,'' Reid Rapoport, grandson of the business' founder, said Monday.

``We've been monitoring sales here, and we're just not getting what we needed. We believe we'll be able to serve our loyal customers in the other locations.''

The Quality Shop's closing contradicts a statement Rapoport made last spring. At that time, the building was undergoing some structural repairs, and the front entrance was blocked. He said the store was not closing, although he admitted that ``downtown Portsmouth was not easy.''

``We may have overstayed our time here,'' Rapoport said Monday. ``But we stayed out of loyalty to our city.''

Reid Rapoport, 48, and his brother, Steve Rapoport, 39, own the retail store. They occupy a family-owned building in the 300 block of High St., where the business started.

``For the time being, we'll continue to use the building for our offices, receiving and warehouse operations,'' Reid Rapoport said.

``This is a sad day in downtown Portsmouth,'' said Elizabeth Psimas, chairman of the city's Chamber of Commerce and a Portsmouth native. ``I really hate to see them leave here.''

Psimas owns Travel Designers, a block away from the Quality Shop. She does not anticipate that the closing of the store will hurt other businesses downtown.

``They have their own clientele who come to shop at their store,'' she said. ``Most of them are not going to shop in the other businesses.''

``It does make me sad to close this store,'' Reid Rapoport said. ``We grew up in the business here, and I came to work in 1971. There's a lot of sentiment about this place, but you can't let that influence your business judgment.''

Morris Rapoport started the business as a men's hat shop in 1917 in leased space near the present location. Within a few years, he had expanded to sell all kinds of men's business clothing.

Herman Rapoport joined his father in the business and, until his death at age 64 in 1984, was very active in national haberdashery organizations. He and his father opened the Norfolk store in 1963 at the corner of Bank and Plume streets.

At one time in the 1970s, three generations worked together: Morris; his son, Herman; and his grandsons, Reid and Steve.

Even after their father died prematurely, the brothers had their grandfather as a mentor until 1987, when he died a few days before his 91st birthday.

In 1993, Reid and Steve opened a third store, at Hilltop in Virginia Beach. It is more relaxed than the other two locations and geared more to younger customers.

The Portsmouth store will be closed today in preparation for the start of a closing sale Wednesday. For the first week of the sale, the store will be open 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday; 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday; and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu