For real pinwheels on your toothpicks and the perfect-sized Chinese take-out box for your craft sale, or other goodies you never knew you needed, your store of choice is celebrating its new move.
Thirty-one years after the very weekend he opened his paper, invitation and party goods store in Wyncote, Barry Schwartz intends a new grand opening around February 16. SGS Paper Company has been perched since 1980 in a warehouse along the railroad track crossing where Rices Mill Road blends into Highland Avenue. Its new home is Glenside, only 1-1/2 miles northwest on Mt. Carmel Avenue, just before it hits Limekiln Pike.
Listening to Schwartz carry on about the festivities for the upcoming kickoff, you’d think he was planning a party for his beloved grandkids. Which may be the case as well. Afterall, the letters S.G.S. represent their mother’s name. Stephanie Gwen Schwartz, daughter of Barry and his wife, Monna, was very little when her eponymous store was born. (There is also a son, who became a graphic designer.) SGS remains a mom and pop place, a family enterprise, at which Stephanie now also works. Monna is the bookkeeper, who is joined in the office at least once a week by Schwartz’s 92 –year-old mother. “Her mind’s great, she looks fantastic and she still drives,” he said.
Other employees he considers family as well. “Dedicated, wonderful. No attitudes, no ego problems. We weeded all those out,” Schwartz laughed.
“It’s going to be a huge grand opening,” exuded Schwartz. “Free food, entertainment for the kids – a caricaturist, animal balloon specialist, face painters, maybe even a dunk tank! Remember those old booths you could go into, make a face and get a bunch of photos fast? We’ll have one of those,” he continued, on.
Then, he said, after they’ve re-opened, they’ll try to have these celebrations once a month. “We’re more than just a party store. We’re a fun place for children.”
Sometimes Schwartz teases that SGS means “specializing in great service.” Which is also true. Service seems to account in great part for the success of this retailer, when so few others remain standing past the first few laps.
“We try to listen to the needs of the customers. If they ask for a different line, or a particular theme, we’re happy to bring it in,” said Schwartz. “I like to think it’s the customers’ store.”
Over the years, for instance, SGS was increasingly stocking a wider selection than their competitors, and adding accessories and novel items to coordinate with an expanding array of party themes.
“You want Tikki Bar, we’ll get you your lighted palm trees,” Schwartz nailed his point.
SGS Paper typically fills 1000 helium balloons a week, he said. They do a lot of wedding invitations. They sell every imaginable size cooking tin made. Piñatas dangle from the ceiling to remind you how easy it is to party.
“We can’t make it on price alone, when there are mass merchandisers like Target, Costco and Sam’s Club,” he started outlining his apparently successful business strategy. “We need to be able to provide people with every possible color napkin, table covering, utensils, florals. Every kind and size of plastic wine glass – bowl, fluted, stems … If we don’t have it, you don’t need it.”
Another facet of his strategy is volume. Schwartz acknowledges the impact of the recession, which has cascaded from corporate downsizing and streamlined habits down the chain to caterers, restaurants and households. He says his own costs are “out of control,” with suppliers suddenly charging 15 percent more than six months ago for paper bags and some utility expenses jumping from $1600 to $2400 a month.
So he’s trading in what he calls the “air space” of the warehouse for a brighter, more accessible venue for merchandising. Most important, he’s abandoning a parking nightmare that accommodates five cars in exchange for a well-designed parking lot that holds closer to 50.
Schwartz started out working for Sweetheart paper manufacturer in Philadelphia. He eventually decided he wanted to do his own thing and started SGS Paper, aiming at both commercial and retail paper goods. Over the years, he said, he recognized an under-tapped market for retail party goods. Although he still delivers paper and cleaning supplies to commercial accounts and serves a substantial number of commercial caterers and restaurants, now 80 percent of his business is cash and carry.
This 64-year-old businessman has no plans to retire. “I love the interaction. Every day is different. It’s exciting to go to work every day.” He expects to play a larger role in the local chambers of commerce groups. And Schwartz concedes that he’s a pushover when schools organizations and scouts approach him for advertisements and donations.
“They help us make a living. We try to give back to the community,” he said.
It takes Schwartz little time to learn his customers by name, and he rarely forgets. “We are so grateful for the loyalty of our customers. I’m sure you remember your friends’ names,” he noted. “My customers are my friends.”
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