Army-Navy Store Opens in McCandless

Five years ago, when Mark Borio was operating his City Uniforms store in Bloomfield, he started noticing a trend; more of his customers wanted military clothing, boots, gloves, and equipment.

Then West Penn Hospital closed, and his business started to dry up.

He closed the Bloomfield store, and moved closer to home, opening North Hills Army-Navy next to the Pizza Roma Restaurant at 8350 Perry Highway in McCandless.

"I always wanted to do an Army-Navy store in the North Hills, because there is none, and I always wondered why," Borio said. "People come in and tell us what they want, if we don't have it, we can order it and have it here in about three days."

Borio says his store offers products that, for the most part, can only be ordered on line.

"The hats and bags. Everybody seems to want a backpack, something they can carry stuff in," he said. "The Army boots have been selling really well for us, as well as the kids stuff. We do have kids uniforms, the top and bottoms, plus the hats."

Borio said starting over hasn't been easy, but he's up to the challenge.

"13 years in the retail business, it's day one again," he said. "Just making friends with every customer that walks in the door, it's one customer at a time right now."

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