'Educated Consumers' Clear the Racks at Syms

There was almost nothing left to save on by 2 p.m. Thursday as the signs on the door blared "Last 1 Days" and the "Going Out of Business" banner above the door fought a stiff winter wind.

Inside, behind the signs and banners, stood three racks of clothes. One had men's clothes, including a size 60 tuxedo, a bright lemon yellow tuxedo vest (size 5x), a bright pink tux vest (size 56), several black and caramel colored pleated formal shirts and a pristine pair of boxer shorts, too big for Santa and perhaps even too big for Blitzen's bottom.

The offerings for women were just as sizeable, but a little more colorful. Tops of pink and patterns and a bland muave acrylic sweater hung on one rack. Dark blue and black pants (it appeared that no cotton plant or sheep were injured in the making of these synthetic slacks) were all that was left after a month of "educated consumers" scooping up everything in the store.

While the styles were not the top choices, the prices were rock bottom. The tuxedo went for $11.85, the men's shirts $1.99 each. The gigantic white boxer shorts, at just 49 cents, were a tougher sale. As one educated consumer was checking out with everything on the men's rack except one caramel colored tux shirt and the enormous boxer shorts, a semi-serious salesman approached the registers holding the boxers on their hanger. "Just your size," he said, using the line he had used on every customer in the store about every single item of clothing on the three remaining racks.

At the cash register and on the sales floor, employees were resigned to the fact that this would be their last day, or next-to-last day working in the giant warehouse-like building that had housed Syms since 1985. 25 people will ring in the new year out of work (at least work at Syms). Some were full time, some were part time. Nobody was in the mood to talk about it Thursday as the last of the men's clothes were being rung up and the women's fashions were clearing out a few pieces at a time.

Syms receipts always printed out how much an "educated consumer" saved on their purchases versus retail prices. For the 12 items purchased to clear off the men's rack the receipt read "You saved $789.12."