Uniform of Day Is Always Waiting for Police at Shop

An outdated poster announcing a Border Patrol recruitment exam hangs in the window next to a colossal pair of khaki pants with a 70-inch waist. The pants bear the slogan, “Every Small Should Come in Different Sizes.”

Inside Albert’s Uniforms, the shelves that line each wall are crammed with shirt boxes, catalogues and odd scraps of paper. Racks of leather belts and olive green polyester pants fight for space with two black treadle sewing machines and huge spools of khaki, beige and blue thread. The only mannequin--perched on a gray file cabinet--is an upper torso sporting a bulletproof vest.

Jerry Albert, owner of the store on 6th Avenue downtown, has survived and thrived in the narrow and cramped quarters for almost 40 years, during which he has become a virtual institution in the uniform business nationwide.

From holsters to dress uniform gloves, Albert has been outfitting San Diego police officers, sheriff’s deputies and Border Patrol agents from coast to coast since joining his father’s business in 1950.

“You have to have lots of stamina in this business,” Albert said. “Competition comes and goes. You have to wait it out.”

Albert is living proof of that. At 84 years old--”That’s the age I go by,” he says--the white-haired, bespectacled shopkeeper has taken only four vacations in 40 years, and spends every day in his store, waiting on customers or offering someone a cup of his famous coffee.

Albert refuses to accept any contract orders, preferring instead to deal with his customers on an individual basis. With no more than word-of-mouth for advertising about his custom-made wool pants and shirts tailored to fit, Albert has served law enforcement officers along the southern border from here to Miami. Police Chief Bill Kolender, Sheriff John Duffy and new Border Patrol Chief Dale W. Cozart are all longstanding customers.

With hundreds of uniform supply shops in the country and a couple just around the corner, Albert says his popularity comes from one simple formula: “We do something no one else can do. We can completely outfit someone in one day. No one else in the country can do that.”

That’s no idle boast. Lt. John Tenwolde of the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department remembers back to 1970 when his first day on the force was fast approaching, and he went to Albert’s for his first uniform.

“He had me outfitted by the time I had to report for work two days later” instead of the week it can take to assemble and fit uniforms in other stores, Tenwolde said.

Perhaps one of Albert’s most enduring customers is Kolender, who has been shopping at the store for 30 years and also remembers buying his first uniform there.

“I’ve been shopping there since we (Albert and him) were both kids,” Kolender said. “We’ve been friends for years.”

Over the years Kolender has kept going back to Albert’s for both his regular and dress uniforms because, he says, he likes the service and the people.

“It just stuck,” Kolender said of his patronage at Albert’s.

Gene Smithburg, assistant chief of the Border Patrol and an Albert’s customer for the past 19 years, recalls coming over from El Centro with his academy class on a bus to buy their uniforms from Albert’s.

“Albert’s was the only Border Patrol uniform dealer in the area,” Smithburg said. “He would take our measurements and tailor our uniforms right there. When we walked out of that store we were ready to get on the bus.”

Once, Albert took the entire academy class out to lunch while they waited for their uniforms, Smithburg says.

A single phone call to Albert, Smithburg says, would put a uniform order on the Greyhound Bus bound for the El Centro Border Patrol station 125 miles away.

“He would bill us later. We wouldn’t have to pay then,” Smithburg said.

Albert’s affection for the Border Patrol extends beyond business. He says he admires the family-like bond the agents have for one another.

“I’m working on my third generation of Border Patrol agents,” Albert said. “They are close knit. They take care of their own.”

Although his father was a tailor by trade and owned a uniform shop, Albert insists that he stumbled into the uniform selling business.

“It was an accident. I was selling shirts, socks and ties in the men’s furnishing department at Harris and Franks when the manager of the uniform department quit. He asked me if I wanted to manage the uniform department and I said, ‘Hell, I don’t know anything about it. Let me learn.’ ”

A determined Albert stowed away in the locked store every night so he could analyze and redo the uniform inventory. When the store reopened in the morning, Albert says, he would run home, shower, shave and come back to start his day’s work.

“I was working ‘round the clock for two weeks before the manager realized what I was doing and gave me a key to the shop,” Albert said. “That meant something to me. It meant he trusted me.”

That was in 1946. After three years with Harris and Frank, then the only uniform supply shop in San Diego, Albert went to work at Sears Roebuck in the San Fernando Valley for one year. But he soon returned to work in his father’s uniform shop.

“My father worked until he died at 89,” Albert said. “And he was the boss at 89.”

Albert’s wife of 36 years, Reine, began working at the store in 1983 after managing Bernard’s, a uniform shop on 10th Street owned by Albert and named for his brother, Bernard Schechter.

“I couldn’t handle the competition,” Albert joked. “So I closed it down and packed everyone up and brought them over here.”

With Reine came seamstress Myrtle Randall and salesman Harry Schutzman, who have worked for Albert 10 and 8 years, respectively.

This makes it a little crowded at the sewing machines when tailor Moses Gonzalez and seamstresses Saba Berasqui and Natalie Chairz are on duty. Although officially retired after 35 years behind the sewing machine, Chairz still comes in one day a week to do alterations.

Salesman Eddie Binder, 78, has been with Albert 20 years and manager John Davis is the newest addition to the family, having worked there one year. Brother Bernard does the accounting and owns 15% interest in the store.

“Bernard would never let me completely own the store because he still wants me to listen to him,” Albert said.