Customers, Staff Reluctantly Say Goodby

Stores come and go. So what is so special about Henshey’s? A survey of people on both sides of the counter provides some answers.

“Henshey’s is such a nice place to work--comfortable,” said Marianne Booth, who started in gift-wrapping 26 years ago and has since graduated to accounts payable. “In other stores you are lucky if you can find a salesperson, but here there’s a special camaraderie with everyone--staff and customers. For example, when one of our girls got sick, we gave her a recovery shower.”

For Lilo Koester, a chatty native of Germany who came to America as a child, Henshey’s was a place of refuge when she came to work 12 years ago. “I had never worked in my life,” she said. “But I was in the middle of a divorce. I needed distractions. I came here to meet people, and I did. I love it here.”

Jack Cord, cosmetics buyer and advertising manager for the last eight years, is renowned among customers for his attentiveness and conscientiousness. A special order for the merest lipstick is treated with monumental courtesy and concern. What did he think of Henshey’s closing? He lifted his head to hide a momentary flash of pain.

“It’s very sad,” he said, conferring a handshake of recognition and farewell.

“This is Santa Monicans’ store and now they won’t have that store,” said Liz Roberson, a 20-year employee in the book department, which is noted for its books on local history and its book-signings by movie stars.

“I had a 92-year-old customer come into the store, and she just sat down and started crying for 20 minutes. And she said, ‘I just can’t take Henshey’s closing.’ . . .

“We take care of the blind, disabled and all the older people who need patient help to find what they are looking for,” Roberson said. “Our customers are our friends. That is not something you can get at other stores.”

Susan Pagliaro, store superintendent and an employee for 17 years, said: “I always thought I was going to retire here. The store is like family. I can’t imagine going to another retail job after this.”

And the customers?

“I’ve lived in Santa Monica for 45 years! Where am I going to shop now that Henshey’s is closing?” wailed a patron at the cosmetics counter.

Another customer waiting in cosmetics turns out to be Evelyn Boston, who worked at Henshey’s for more than 30 years. “I was a buyer in sportswear,” she said, “but I worked before that at Henshey’s in 1942, for nine months. I left to get married, but then I came back.”

So many of them came back.

We cast a last glance around--at the old-fashioned staircase, at the attendant-operated elevator and at the framed enlargement of Page 1 of the Evening Outlook reporting the opening of Henshey’s on May 22, 1925.

Finally, there is the framed tribute to founder Harry C. Henshey (Feb. 17, 1883-Oct. 22, 1957), “to whose ideals this business remains dedicated.”

True to the end.

Kathleen Kelleher also contributed to this story.