Michael Recht has seen sales at his Yardage Town fabric stores decline for decades.
At its peak in the 1970s, the National City chain had 16 stores all in San Diego County. But starting in the late 1980s, Yardage Town began shuttering stores amid declining sales due to working women having less time to sew and discount clothing chains creating less need to sew.
Now Recht will close the remaining four local stores. It’ll mark the end for the family business that opened its first store in El Cajon in 1953 — just a decade after its national competitor Joann Fabrics was founded.
“First of all, I’m 71,” said Recht, who lives in San Diego. “I can’t go on forever. And I have no one to leave it to. My two children are happy with their professions. But also, it’s not that profitable a business.”
The business was started by his dad, who came from Poland. He opened Yardage Town because he enjoyed buying and selling, and liked fabric and clothing.
As a kid, Recht had no interest in his dad’s fabric shops. When his dad took him to Yardage Town, he would go to the back room and read comic books. He dreamed of becoming a writer.
But he began working there full time after graduating college in 1972 and fell in love with it.
“If I make a big sale, it’s kind of a high,” Recht said. “When people come in and I have exactly what they want, it’s a great feeling. I feel bad when I don’t have what they want. I try to anticipate what to stock for customers,” many of whom have been coming to the stores with their parents or grandparents since they were little kids.
When Recht got into the business in the 1970s and through the early 1980s, he said the fabric industry benefited from a business boom.
“Clothes were still relatively expensive to buy then and so people would sew,” he said. “They taught sewing in school. It was a big money-saving thing to sew your own clothes. Now you can go to discount clothing stores instead and buy clothes really cheap.”
Discount stores like Five Below, T.J. Maxx, Marshalls and Ross contributed to a sales decline at Yardage Town. He added that it didn’t help that more women began working and had less time to sew. And fewer schools were offering sewing classes.
“We definitely had trouble paying the bills,” he said. “There were a lot of times like that.”
Why didn’t Recht leave the business then?
“I did go to college,” he said. “But this was the only thing I really knew how to do. So I just had to stick with it. And then you’re always hoping things will get better. But they didn’t.”
His sister, who still owns half the business with Recht, and nephew realized that and stopped working for the family business two years ago. Recht stayed on to wind down inventory at the remaining stores in Encinitas, National City, Vista and Chula Vista. Recht will shut down the Encinitas store, which is currently holding its going-out-of-business sale, in March when the lease is up. He’ll eventually close the three other stores housed in buildings he owns.
Owning some of Yardage Town buildings, which are relatively big, has also helped the business stay afloat this long because they didn’t have to pay rent. The National City store spans 30,000 square feet and the warehouse, which he also owns, beneath it is another 30,000 square feet. The Chula Vista and Vista stores are each about 10,000 square feet.
What will Recht do after he shuts down the business and sells the remaining buildings?
“I worry about that every day. I really enjoy coming here. I work six days a week. I really don’t have hobbies.”
So he recently asked his son to buy him golf clubs for his birthday.
“But I don’t play,” Recht said. “Hopefully I’ll like it.”
Hang Nguyen is a freelance writer for the U-T. You can reach her at [email protected].
