Building 19
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- The correct title of this article is Building #19. The substitution or omission of a # sign is because of technical restrictions.
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Building #19 is a chain of discount stores in New England. The main Building #19 store is located in Weymouth, Massachusetts; other stores have a fraction appended to their name (such as Building 19½, in Burlington or Building #19¾, in Norwood). The original Building #19 was located at the former naval shipyard in Hingham, MA, where the buildings were numbered, and the store retained the nondescript name on the building rather than pay for a new sign. In the 1980s, the original Building #19 moved to the Harborlight Mall in adjacent Weymouth. From Harborlight they moved back to Hingham, to the former GEM (Government Employee Merchandise) building on Derby Street. The main store is currently situated back in Weymouth at the old Caldor/Zayre's/Ames building on Route 18.
The store is well-known throughout New England for selling items at drastically discounted prices, although the items are sometimes damaged in some way. The store capitalizes on the hardships of other retailers, obtaining most of its merchandise from fire sales, overstocks, customs seizures, liquidations, and bankruptcy courts.
The chain is also known for its often self-depricating humor, both in their advertising and throughout their stores. Their weekly circulars often feature caractures of founder Jerry Ellis with a number of sarcastic captions, many of which are repeated in their in-store advertising. Each Building #19 location offers free coffee with "free fake cream." Signs near the free coffee stand warn customers not to make fun of the poor quality of the coffee, because "someday you'll be old and weak too."
In 2002, Building #19 bought out Spag's and turned it into Spag's 19.
Mottos and catchphrases: "Good Stuff Cheap," "Suffer a Little, Save a Lot." Their price guarantee awards a bottle of "Chateau Cheapo" champagne if a competitor beats their price.
Movie reference: The character played by Burt Reynolds furnishes his entire new apartment in one trip to Building #19 in the movie Starting Over (1979).
[edit] In the news
In 2006, Building 19 put a cartoon in their President's Day advertising flyer showing A-shirts labeled as being "Wife-Beater" shirts. Building 19 was promptly criticized and its management (and Mat Brown, the cartoonist who drew the ad) later apologized.
