After 82 years, Geneva’s Merra-Lee closing down

After 82 years as a shopping institution in Geneva, the Merra-Lee Shops Wednesday began a going-out-of-business sale.

“It’s very emotional, for both the staff and customers,” said Denise Harshbarger, manager and buyer for the shops.

She said customers told her the closing “was putting a hole in to where they can buy their fashionable things.”

Harshbarger has worked at Merra-Lee Shops for 15 years, since she was 15.

“I started just steaming the clothes when they would come in. ... This has been like my family for so long,” she said.

Owner Mike Simon said last week the shops on the southeast corner of State and Third streets no longer are profitable.

“Eighty-two years is a great life cycle,” he said.

The 12,000 square feet of shops include Merra-Lee, The Meeting Place, Boutique 15, The East Room and She She.

Simon had remodeled the anchor store, Merra-Lee, this spring. Business was going well until September, he said. Overall, the shops’ uncertain economics got to him. “It was just too much of a roller-coaster,” he said.

Simon also owns the 36-room The Little Traveler store on South Third and wants to assure its fans that it is in fine shape.

“The Traveler is really a destination. It is an entertainment venue ... and it makes people feel good,” he said of the maze of themed rooms.

Harshbarger said some lines from the Merra-Lee shops, such as Naot shoes and a breast-prosthetics line, will move to the Little Traveler.

Simon said he would redevelop the Merra-Lee Shops properties.