Sam Zackowitz, a longtime entrepreneur in the Army Navy store business in Broward County, is turning in his boots for casual shoes after over four decades in the business. He has sold his surplus outlet at 1701 S. State Road 7 in North Lauderdale and it will close in April. While he is looking forward to a new phase in his life, he has some misgivings about leaving his lifelong passion.
Zackowitz bought his first military surplus outlet in 1979 after he and his wife moved from New York. They were looking for a warmer place to live and ended up finding a new way of making a living.
“Thirty-five years ago, I was working in New York as a salesman for Lee jeans,” he said. “I was very successful. But when I was 30 years old, my wife suggested that we move to where it’s warm all the time.”
After they moved to Florida, he continued as a salesman with Lee. But his attention was drawn to a business for sale that would change his life.
“I saw that there was an Army Navy store, located at Broward Boulevard and Seventh Avenue, that was for sale,” he said. “I talked with the guy there and he said the owner had a heart attack and needed to sell the business. I told him, ‘OK, I’ll take it’. I bought the business from him and the rest is history.”
Zackowitz found the experience of running his own business fulfilling.
“I had more satisfaction in six months running my own business than I did in 10 years as a salesman,” he said.
Over the decades, Zackowitz has had four surplus stores in Broward County, which have been bought and sold. The North Lauderdale store that is closing is the only one left in Broward. He also has one in West Palm Beach, which will be up for sale soon.
While Zackowitz has had much success over the years with his businesses, there was one event that shook up his world for a time. The North Lauderdale store burned to the ground from an electrical fire on the day of New Year’s Eve in 2000. It wasn’t fully rebuilt until 2003.
The other challenge he faced came at a time no one could have predicted.
“I had four stores in the 2000s that were very successful and I was doing very well,” he said. “It was all good for a very long time until the recession of 2008. That was the straw that broke my back. We have recovered, but my revenue dropped significantly.”
Since the recession, Zackowitz has been able to keep his employees but because of the high overhead for the stores, he’s only been treading water financially for his own needs for years.
Another retail challenge of the last decade, for his and other military surplus stores, is that there are no major wars going on that require large-scale production of outfits, boots and supplies for soldiers in the field. The production numbers have gone way down, resulting in few items available for sale and, consequently, higher prices and lower profits.
Over the years, his four Broward stores narrowed down to the one in North Lauderdale.
Recently he discovered that the real estate for the store is extremely valuable, and that was the catalyst for his decision to sell.
The origin of Army Navy stores
Zackowitz tells the story of the history of the Army Navy business in a way that isn’t always obvious to the average consumer. That history also helps to understand the decline of the same businesses today.
“The Army Navy industry started right after World War II,” he said. “The industrial complex pushed out merchandise after the war because the conflict ended abruptly and they didn’t have anything to do with the goods.”
When the U.S. defeated Japan in 1945, the government instantly had tractor trailers and carloads of merchandise to sell, he said. They had to decide between putting it in a warehouse or getting rid of it.
“At that point, enterprising people went to the government to say they would take things off their hands for an amount of money that they would offer,” he said. “The government just wanted to get rid of the stuff. At that time, enterprising people would buy a bunch of the surplus items, then they would open a store to sell it.”
The retail outlets became known generically as Army Navy stores. Since the Army and Air Force were combined and the Marines were part of the Navy, there was no need to mention all four branches of the military in the names. Zackowitz said that the individual store names could be duplicated or changed because there were no trademarks or laws associated with the outlets.
“There are a couple of old-time ‘grandfather’ surplus stores that started the trend,” Zackowitz said. “The first ones were in Philadelphia, New York and Chicago. And then it started spreading out all over the country to where there used to be 3,000 stores nationwide. The numbers are much smaller today, however.”
The ups, downs and the future
For most retail stores, there are seasonal sales spikes. But for Army Navy stores, sales are even all year with some small increases for back to school and Halloween, Zackowitz said. But the only time there is a definite spike is during hurricane season when it looks like a storm may make landfall.
Over the years, Zackowitz said that the staples that have been consistently strong for his Army Navy stores are both surprising and not.
“One of the foundations of my store is footwear,” he said. “We’re one of the largest shoe stores in Broward County. Nobody knows that. We are a big supplier for shoes for police, firemen, paramedics and workers.”
In the post-Army Navy store phase of his life, Zackowitz still has energy to burn. He’s not looking to be the shy, retiring type. He plans to attend trade shows, mentor youth, do part-time community policing and even give free retail and economics lessons to colleges.
