By Sharon Oliver, Contributing Writer
REGION – The discount retailer Building #19 was known just as much for its quirky comic book style signs as for its “good stuff cheap,” which were often buried beneath a maze of messiness stuffed inside boxes. Operating since 1964 and with a chain of 13 stores spread throughout New England, Building #19 sold an assortment of factory irregulars and discontinued items. It amassed its stock from bankruptcy courts, customs seizures, fire sales, liquidations and overstocks.
Colorful co-founder made shopping fun
Owner and co-founder Jerry Ellis, whose colorful character helped make shopping at the emporium a fun adventure, was frequently featured in ad circulars as a caricature accompanied by witty captions. In fact, he wrote most of the ad copy himself. Cartoonist Matthew Brown created the iconic drawings for the weekly ads which playfully poked fun at Ellis, the customers, the store, and its merchandise. Brown answered an ad placed by Ellis in 1967 and was soon hired to create the popular artwork for $5 an hour. Already a math teacher at Scituate High School, he accepted the job as part-time work, and it would be years later before Brown learned he had been the only cartoonist who applied for the gig.
Each location offered customers free coffee with “free fake cream” and signs strategically placed, warning them to not make fun of the coffee’s poor quality because “someday you’ll be old and weak too.” It would be hard to forget the store’s black and white prison sneakers, the husband’s bench, Building #19 theater or not chuckle at old familiar slogans like:
- “Good Stuff… Cheap”
- “Suffer a Little, Save a Lot”
- “Support the three-day work week”
- “America’s messiest department store”
- “Please leave with at least as many children as you came with”
- “Our business is like sex. When it’s good, it’s wonderful. And when it’s bad, it’s still pretty good.”
- “Free admission on all days ending with the letter Y”
The stores’ numbering system was quite unique as well. The main Building #19 store was located in Hingham; other stores had a numerical fraction appended to their name (such as Building #19½, in Burlington or Building #19¾, in Norwood).
New Englanders still have fond memories of the place. In an old WCVB video clip, one customer theorized, “It’s always been a fun place to come to. We’ll miss it but I guess it’s a sign of the times.” Also featured is Jerry Ellis who admits, looking back, they probably should have done some things differently like adapting better to the internet. For the sake of nostalgia, there is still an old Building #19 Facebook page for all to see.
Internet competition led to bankruptcy
Unfortunately, Building #19 was forced into bankruptcy in 2013, citing internet competition and a lack of working capital for new inventory as the reason. Other factors included overseas manufacturing, and, ironically, better fire protection systems for warehouses, which decreased the number of fire sales. Born Gerald Elovitz, Jerry Ellis died at his Dedham home in 2017. He was 90 years old. During that same year, his daughter Linda Elovitz Marshall published a book “Good Stuff Cheap,” detailing the story of her father and Building #19.
According to Elovitz-Marshall, her father was nearly destitute after getting fired from his job as an appliance salesman and failed inventor. Things changed when Ellis was propositioned by his soon-to-be business partner Harry Andler who came upon an opportunity to purchase salvaged goods, including a boxcar load of doll eyes that opened and shut and ended up selling all of them. The partners opened their first store in 1964 in Hingham Shipyard in building number 19 and the rest, as they say, is history. Nearly all building locations have been demolished or refashioned into other discount stores, supermarkets, or storage facilities.
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