DETROIT _ This has been an unexpectedly busy summer for Paul Wasserman, owner of Henry the Hatter, the nation's oldest hat retailer. He announced earlier this summer that his iconic business would close its Detroit store in early August after losing its downtown lease. Sales have been surging.
"We've been unbelievably slammed," said Wasserman, 70.
The rush of visitors has included Chris Frank, 58, who eyed the dozens of hats on display in the store's front window on a recent afternoon before heading inside. He said he already had seven hats at home. But considering the recent news, perhaps it was time for No. 8?
"This is the only hat shop I shop at," Frank said.
For those who might view the traditional hat business as hopelessly anachronistic, in the same category as pager stores or typewriter shops, the buzz these past weeks inside Henry the Hatter would be a mind-blower.
Even after the store closes on Aug. 5, the fact metro Detroit will still have three men's hat shops _ and a smattering of others that make hats for women _ is a testament to customer loyalty, entrepreneurial persistence and the benefits that come to the last ones standing in niche businesses that others have given up on.
Henry the Hatter, which opened for business in 1893, will still have a suburban location after the Detroit store, which dates to 1952, closes.
The other two hat businesses _ both smaller in size _ are City Hatter in suburban Southfield, whose roots can be traced to Detroit's bygone Black Bottom neighborhood, and Hats Galore & More on Detroit's east side, which is the last storefront in an otherwise demolished block.
One of the biggest names ever to shop at Hats Galore was tenor Luciano Pavarotti, who bought a cream-colored, Dobbs-brand El Dorado hat there that he would later wear to his December 2003 wedding.
The Italian superstar visited the store while in Detroit for a Three Tenors concert, said Hats Galore's owner Bob Yeargin. A subsequent newspaper clipping with Pavarotti wearing the hat is on display by the cash register.
"He came to the 'hood and got his hat that he got married in," Yeargin said. "What would be the odds of that?"
