Head of Town's First Gay Community Event Announces Store Closing

Owners of the Duross & Langel specialty soap and body product store on Kings Highway East announced they will shutter its doors on Christmas Eve, giving up on downtown Haddonfield less than a year after it opened.

Co-owner Steve Duross said Thursday he decided to close because he had lost faith in the Partnership for Haddonfield, the borough’s tax-funded business improvement district and its director, Lisa Hurd.

“I absolutely, positively know that Haddonfield is not for us,” said Duross, whose flagship store in Center City, Philadelphia has operated successfully since 2004. “If I can’t pay my bills, there’s no reason being open. We just didn’t fit.”

Duross said Haddonfield’s main business district on Kings Highway doesn’t draw enough foot traffic. He said Haddonfield is a town with lots of potential but is not being served well by the PFH and Hurd.

Duross organized the LGBT Summer Block Party last week to attract the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community to Kings Highway. He did it without asking for PFH help and took exception to Hurd characterizing it as a “dining and shopping event.”

“Looking at our attempt to welcome the LGBT community as only a 'shopping and dining' event is a particularly craven way of viewing our motives,” Duross wrote in a Haddonfield Patch comment box on July 20. “Shame on you Lisa. This is why so many of us merchants are deeply troubled by the Partnership for Haddonfield and their approach to our businesses.”

Hurd defended herself and the PFH on Friday.

"I am disappointed by Mr. Duross’ attacks,” she said. “I don’t see a need for the personal attacks. I think they have a great business here and still have an opportunity for it to work, but he has to stop sniping and get to work.”

Hurd said her role as the retail coordinator of PFH is to attract business to Haddonfield that she thinks will be a good match. Once here, she said the businesses need to be “firing on all cylinders.” She said Duross admitted to her that there were some things he could have initially done at launch that he didn’t.

But Duross points to awards such as Best of South Jersey from South Jersey Magazine and an award for his business from Philadelphia Magazine as an indication he has done his part to get his business off the ground in Haddonfield.

“I loved the seasonal charm of Haddonfield,” Duross wrote in his blog on July 23. “I loved the location. What I did not love was the reality of Haddonfield. Service businesses do much better than retail in Haddonfield. It's not a shopping destination as I was led to believe. The 'events' are cheap and attract cheap people who have little respect for what it is we are trying to accomplish.

“It's a beautiful little downtown that comes to life every so often like the mythical brigadoon. For the most part, it quietly exists for the schools and the pretty houses. The shopping district, not so much.”

Borough Commissioner Jeff Kasko, who oversees the PFH for the Board of Commissioners, said he recently reached out to Duross after hearing of his plans to close the shop. He was still awaiting a response on Thursday.

“Don’t know what his expectations were,” Kasko said. “There may have been a misunderstanding or a belief that expectation weren’t met. I think business conditions here are good, but could be better if we were under better economic conditions [nationally].”

Privately, other business owners are also grumbling. Some have told Haddonfield Patch that they wonder what they are getting for the mandatory tax imposed on them to fund the PFH. Others complain that stores that offer similar services move in after they set up shop and cannibalize customers. One restaurant merchant with successful stores in other South Jersey towns openly wondered why his Haddonfield location did not do better.

Hurd said she has also heard the grumbling.

“We encourage merchants that have concerns and want to see a change to  come to our board meetings,” Hurd said. Meetings are generally held on the first Wednesday of each month at the Municipal Hall. The next meeting is this Wednesday, Aug. 3 at 8:30 a.m.

“At some point, you have to take responsibility for your own success; have to be flexible, nimble, get involved, be positive. There are numerous opportunities to get involved.”

Duross seems more interested in getting out than getting involved.

“We have had so many wonderful new customers in Haddonfield that I want to make this, our one and only holiday season there, a wonderful experience and a magical memory,” he wrote in his blog. “Running a business, any business is about risk vs. reward, and it is about taking responsibility for when it all goes to hell.”