| Industry | Discount retail |
|---|---|
| Founded | Hingham, Massachusetts (1964)[1] |
| Founder(s) | Jerry Ellis and Harry Andler |
| Headquarters | Hingham, Massachusetts, United States |
| Number of locations | 13 stores (2009) |
| Area served | New England |
| Key people | William Elovitz (President) |
| Website | http://www.building19.com/ |
Building #19 is a chain of discount stores in New England. The store is well-known throughout New England for selling items at drastically discounted prices, although the items are oftentimes factory irregulars or damaged in some other 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.
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Jerry Ellis (born Gerald Elovitz) founded the original store with the late Harry Andler when the two joined together to sell a stock of appliances. The original Building #19 was located at the former Hingham shipyard, 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 former GEM (Government Employee Merchandise) building on Derby Street in Hingham, Massachusetts and later opened a store Building #19 1/8 in the old Stewarts store in the Harborlight Mall on Rt 3A in Weymouth, Massachusetts; later that store closed to build a Lowe's Store. The main store Building #19 moved from Derby Street in Hingham and is currently situated back in Weymouth at the old Caldor/Zayre's/Ames building on Route 18. (Ellis noted at one point he had been fired from GEM before he became part of Building #19, and that his flagship store later bought the property. "America is a great country!," he added.
In 2002, Building #19 bought out Spag's and turned it into Spag's 19.[2]
The chain is known for its often self-deprecating humor, both in their advertising and throughout their stores. Their weekly circulars often feature caricatures of founder Jerry Ellis with a number of sarcastic captions, many of which are repeated in their in-store advertising.[3]
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." Their price guarantee awards a bottle of "Chateau du Cheapo" champagne if a competitor beats their price.
Jerry has two daughters (each owns a part of the business) and a son, Bill, who is the president of Building #19.
In 2006, Building #19 put a cartoon in their President's Day advertising flier showing A-shirts labeled as being "Wife-Beater" shirts. Building #19 was criticized and promptly apologized.[4] A flier two years later poked fun at the 2006 controversy and was similarly criticized.[5]
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).[6]