CLEARFIELD – A favorite business has re-opened in downtown Clearfield.
In the spring of 2022, the Clearfield community was hit with the terrible news that after 74 years, the popular business, Bob’s Army & Navy Store, was closing its doors.
Bob Grimminger and his sister Patti Semelsberger made the choice to close the store founded by their parents in June 1948.
“The decision to close the store was a difficult and painful one to make, but we felt it was time,” said Grimminger, president of Bob’s Army & Navy Store, in a press release.
The store closed after a special sale, leaving everyone afraid the building would become just another empty building in the town.
Luckily, that is not how this story ended.
A new family arrived to resurrect the business and is now hoping to bring all Bob’s customers back to downtown Clearfield. They are picking up where the Grimminger family left off.
Stephanie Kline, her husband, Daniel, and sons, Andrew and Cody Reed, have been working to get the store ready since they closed the deal on the sale of the building in May.
Stephanie, who is from Clarksburg, W. Va., explained that her husband who is from Bradford has fond memories of traveling to Bob’s when he was young, to shop with his father.
He has been working in this area now for two years. When he was looking to buy some boots, he discovered Bob’s had closed. Seeing a need, his family began tossing around the idea of opening a boot store.
While Andrew was in the area in February, he scouted the building, looking in the windows and ran into the realtor who agreed to give him a tour.
“We ended up signing the papers to buy it shortly after that,” she said.
The Grimminger family was very helpful, allowing them to take over not only the name of the business, but the Facebook page and phone number.
The store which reopened in mid-October during the Fall Festival, is full of familiar faces.
“We were able to get a majority of the staff to come back,” Stephanie said.
The old employees were “extremely helpful” in getting the store ready to open.
“We couldn’t have done it without them.”
They employ about 17 people who work both full-time and part-time. This number does not include their family. Andrew is the general manager, but the others are still working their normal jobs at this point. They do assist in the store in the evenings and on weekends.
The store had the “soft opening” in October because they were getting in a lot of archery supplies and since it was already archery season, they decided to get the doors open, she explained.
“The community has been wonderful with understanding we are not fully stocked. We get a lot of foot traffic, and everyone is super excited that Bob’s has opened back up.”
They plan on having a grand opening celebration sometime in January.
In the meantime, they are working hard to fill the store with the wide variety of items Bob’s was known for carrying.
Dealing with some of the vendors has been problematic as they had to build a new relationship because the ownership had changed.
This was the most difficult piece of their business, getting their accounts set up and getting the products into the store, she said.
Overall, things have gone better than expected, even with these issues, she said.
“Bob’s had it all and there was an expectation we would too. We wanted to fulfill that and not disappoint anyone.”
Currently they have a “pretty good” boot inventory in addition to hunting clothes, fishing supplies, camping items, guns and ammunition, but a limited number of surplus items. They sell hunting/fishing licenses and even have someone who works on bows, as Bob’s did.
Getting a Federal Firearms License to sell guns was easier than getting accounts with some of the boot vendors, she noted.
“We don’t have 74 years of inventory and I probably worry more about that than I should.”
She encourages customers who don’t see what they want in the store to ask about it.
“It may be something we just haven’t gotten in stock yet.” If not, they may be able to order it for you.
Bob’s is having special sales for Black Friday including 25 percent off select clothing, footwear and gun safes. Firearms will also be 10 percent off.
They are hoping the store can continue to serve the area for many years to come.
“We want to thank the community for welcoming us. No one treated us as an outsider and we’re forever grateful for that.”
