DATE: Friday, November 14, 1997             TAG: 9711120142

SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER      PAGE: 1E   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JENNIFER C. O'DONNELL, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   73 lines

A DOWNTURN OR FLUCTUATION? SHOE REPAIR IS WEARING THIN

BUSINESS HAS BEEN as flat as the heel on a comfortable pair of loafers for Charles Di Marco. Di Marco is the owner and manager of Di Marco's Shoe Repair in Chesapeake.

``The business has dropped 50 percent in the last six months,'' said Di Marco, a Kempsville resident. ``For a year and a half, it was pretty steady, then business dropped.''

And the businessman doesn't know why. Although he has a few theories.

``It's possible that Greenbrier Market Center has drawn customers away from this complex,'' said Di Marco of the Orchard Square Shopping Center where his store is located. Orchard Square is only a few blocks from Greenbrier Market Center, which houses a grocery store and several retail chains. ``But I don't think that's accounting for all my lost business.''

Even if location is a problem, Di Marco is reluctant to move his business to a more prominent spot.

``I'm not going to pack up and pay $20 a square foot when I'm not making it at $10 a square foot,'' he said.

Di Marco isn't the only local shoe repairman that's experienced a slump recently.

Vincent Pierce, owner of George's Shoe Repair in Virginia Beach, said his store has also seen a decline in customers the past few months.

``We (shoe-repair businesses) run the same cycle as teachers. Usually the third week in August I'm pretty busy, but I just didn't have the customers this year,'' Pierce said.

Pierce believes the decline in customers is just a temporary fluctuation, typical of the industry.

``This is a seasonal trade. Sometimes you just have years when you don't do much business,'' Pierce said.

The shoe-repair business in general has fallen on hard times in the last few decades, Di Marco said.

``The market out there is a cheaper market. People will spend $29 on a pair of shoes and just throw them out six months later,'' he said. ``It's just not reasonable for someone to pay to repair cheap shoes when they can buy a new pair for just $10 more.''

But Pierce says he believes cheaper shoes are not a permanent threat to his trade.

``Right now, I think cheap shoes are the best thing to happen to the repair business,'' he said. ``Once you wear a cheap pair of shoes, you know that quality shoes feel better and last longer. It's cheaper to buy a good pair of shoes and fix them than to replace your shoes every seven months.''

The trouble, says Di Marco, is that younger customers are not aware that shoe-repair services are available.

``Most of my customers are older. They are loyal, but it's not enough,'' he said.

Di Marco inherited his shoe-repair skills from his father, Charles Di Marco Sr., who opened his own store in Buffalo, N.Y., in 1955. When the family moved to Hampton Roads in the early '80s, the business came with them and a Di Marco's Shoe Repair opened in the Kempsville area of Virginia Beach. In September 1994, father and son moved the business to Chesapeake and a few months later, the elder Di Marco died.

In order to keep the family business afloat, Di Marco is now working with several Red Wing shoe stores from other states.

``They ship their shoes to me via UPS. I fix them and ship them back,'' he explained. So far, Di Marco has received business from stores in Maryland and South Carolina and he's hoping to expand nationally.

Even with the new venture, Di Marco wonders if his future is in the repair business.

``I have thought about closing the store,'' Di Marco admitted. But it's a scary thought.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by RICHARD L. DUNSTON

Charles Di Marco, owner and manager of Di Marco's Shoe Repair in

Greenbrier's Orchard Square Shopping Center, inherited the skills he

uses today from his father, Charles Di Marco Sr., who moved the

family business to South Hampton Roads from Buffalo, N.Y., in 1955.

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