The Bidness Page

Today is Ash Wednesday, the day when Catholics and many Protestants never tire of hearing that immortal joke, "Hey, did you know there's something on your forehead?"

Alert Reader Tim passed along a column that appeared in the January issue of Western Pennsylvania Hospital News (motto: "One of Western Pennsylvaniaâs Great Newspapers About Hospitals") written by Jan Jennings, president of American Healthcare Solutions and a native of Our Fair City. You can read it at Jenningsâ blog, but itâs worth quoting some of it here:

There were all kinds of stores, and the city was bustling in the 1950âs. There was one store that was first among equals, at least for my family. It was the Goodmanâs Jewelry Store. It was a family business, and the senior Mr. Goodman, through my ten-year-old eyes, was probably 200 years old. He had a very serious looking and craggy face. But could he dress. To this day I always think of him as the best dressed man I ever saw. He had two sons in the business, and I suspect there were other family members involved as well. The store was always sparkling clean and lighted to show off the items for sale.

This store was special to our family. Somehow the Goodmans learned and remembered our names, all of our names. They were patient as my mother looked over all of the wonderful items we could never afford. The Goodmans had a kind and gentle spirit and found a way to steer my parents to items they both wanted and could afford. The Goodman men could wait on two or three people at one time and never seemed flustered or inattentive to their customersâ needs.

When Mr. Goodman saw one of my parents agonizing over the price of something they really wanted to buy, they almost always would find a way to provide a discount on the item. In doing so, it was always done with grace and never embarrassing to my parents. ...

My parents respected the owners of the Goodmanâs Jewelry Store because they were always treated with kindness and respect any time they visited the store, in good times and in bad. ...

There were Sunday afternoon drives when we would drive through the better neighborhoods of McKeesport and became familiar with the location of the Goodman home. It was a beautiful place, modest by todayâs standards. It is clear to me now that the Goodmans did not get rich serving that community, but they were always first to contribute to the local schools, police and fire departments and countless other local charities. They were Jewish, and we were Christian. It did not matter to them, and it did not matter to us.

There's more --- a lot more --- but those are a few choice morsels. Jennings uses the column to make points about the health care industry, but they're probably lessons we could all learn if we work in customer service:

• Remember your customersâ names
• Demonstrate civility and good manners
• Know your programs and service
• Seize new programs and services
• Price your products strategically.

That's not a bad legacy for the Goodman family to have!

. . .

For you whipper-snappers (how old am I, anyway?), Goodmanâs was located at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Sinclair Street, in the building thatâs currently occupied by the Coney Island convenience store.

The Tube City Online archives are a little thin on Goodmanâs, but according to the McKeesport bicentennial book, Max Goodman came to the city in 1907 from Austria-Hungary and worked as a door-to-door peddler. (The book doesn't say what he sold, but I suspect pots and pans and other housewares)

After a few years Goodman opened a store on Fourth Street, next to the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie railroad tracks, that sold everything from musical instruments to pistols. By 1937, Goodman's was a jewelry store (for a time they also had an optician on staff) and moved to the new four-story ãGoodman Buildingä at Fifth and Sinclair.

Lifelong McKeesporters will recall the neon sign that stretched from the fourth floor to street-level spelling out ãGOODMANâS,ä with a diamond ring at the bottom that seemed to twinkle. (I remember the sign being red, but I may be mistaken.) The roof for many, many years featured a billboard and clock for Duquesne Brewing Co., and that's visible in many pictures of Downtown.

Max Goodman passed the store onto his son Sam, whose son Bernard took over sometime in the 1940s or â50s. When I was a little shaver, Downtown sported three jewelry stores÷Goodmanâs, Morrowâs and Gala÷but old-timers will recall DeRoyâs and others.

I donât remember when Morrowâs closed, but Goodmanâs lasted until the late 1980s, leaving Gala as the last Downtown jewelry store. It hung on until 1996 or so, when it moved to Oak Park Mall.

Thus endeth todayâs history lesson in that old favorite topic in the McKeesport area, ãDefunct Businessesä÷a topic that never seems to run dry, unfortunately.

. . .

Meanwhile, in the Land of the Living: There are a couple of notable business openings to report ... it looks like The Enzone opened this week. That's the sports bar that's taken over the Lysle Boulevard space that was home to Sam's Superior Restaurant for more than 60 years.

Your editor will be paying a visit (in disguise, possibly using the name "Hedley Lamarr") sometime soon, but in the meantime, feel free to drop in and send your report. I really, really hope it succeeds, and I wish them a lot of luck --- unfortunately, in that location (with no parking and little foot traffic), I'm afraid they're going to need it, but I sure hope not.

Also, the Foodland in Great Valley Shopping Center has reopened as a "Save-a-Lot," and I understand that it's the second "Save-a-Lot" to pop up around here this week. County officials were scheduled to cut the ribbon on one in Wilkinsburg today.

Save-a-Lot is the discount subsidiary of Supervalu, the Minnesota-based grocery wholesaler that in the Pittsburgh area is best known as the supplier of Shop 'n Save and Foodland supermarkets. The nation's third-largest grocery chain, Supervalu had revenues last year (PDF) of $44 billion.

I've never been to a Save-a-Lot --- I do my grocery shopping at what my friend Dan calls "The House of Rancid Lunchmeat" near my home in North Bittyburg --- but the one up in Olympia Shopping Center seems to be holding its own. No doubt people in North Versailles and Turtle Creek will be happy to have an alternative to Wal-Mart again.

Finally, the Pizza Hut on Buttermilk Hollow Road in West Mifflin closed on Sunday after 30 years. Try to contain your grief. After all, that leaves only 33,999 other locations for overpriced, under-seasoned, mass-produced slabs of artificially-flavored pizza-like food substances.