Throngs of customers greeted Jerry Whitworth as he opened his doors Wednesday morning.
Many were there in search of bargains, as Whitworth kicked off his retirement party/liquidation sale at McGinty-Whitworth in downtown Iola.
Just as many others were there to share stories and reminisce, and perhaps get a hug.
Whitworth has been a fixture in the Iola retail scene since opening McGinty-Whitworth January 1970.
“I’ve loved what I was doing,” he said. “You don’t do something this long if you don’t. And I love my customers. But it’s time.”
The retirement sale means savings on pretty much every type of merchandise Whitworth sales, from clothing, shoes and jewelry and accessories, to candles, kitchenware, college items and other unique gifts.
Whitworth plans to empty his store of its merchandise, shelves and other furnishings “down to the wall,” he said.
Technically, the walls are for sale, too. (They come with the building.)
“Do you want to buy it?” he asked, tongue in cheek to one visitor. “Give me an offer.”
On a serious note, Whitworth would love nothing more than to sell the building to a merchant looking to continue a retail presence on the southeast corner of the courthouse square.
“I’ve talked to people who aren’t in this community,” he said. “I can’t get people who want to come to be in retail.”
WHITWORTH TOOK such a leap in late 1969. He’d been working at a store in Little Rock, Ark., for five years, newly married to wife Sharon — whose maiden name provides the “McGinty” to McGinty-Whitworth.
He’d seen an advertisement noting Trout’s Department Store was for sale at 101 E. Madison Ave. in Iola.
“I came up to Iola with my father-in-law to check it out,” he recalled.
They liked what they saw. Whitworth acquired the building late that year, changed out the inventory, and opened McGinty-Whitworth in January 1970.
“This is the rest of the story,” he laughed. “Forty-seven years later, here I am.”
