Tales Of A Fourth Generation Textile Executive: Fortunoff’s The Source vs. The Fortunoff’s Of Fabrics
I recently had the opportunity to travel through Florida with the local Studioe sales rep. As we were driving down the street in Boca West we happened to have passed a store called Fortunoff’s. The rep pointed out the store and asked me the question that I have been hearing for my entire life. “Do you own that store?” I chuckled.
I presume at this point that all of my blog followers know that my last name is Fortunoff. Most people from New York are well aware of Fortunoff’s the retail store that has been around since 1922 selling anything from jewelry to outdoor furniture.
The Fortunoff’s of fabric (think Studioe, The Blank Quilting Corp., Henry Glass, A.E. Nathan & Fabric Editions), my immediate family, have nothing to do with the retail store. We also have very little to anything to do with the “real” Fortunoff’s (lol) that own that store except for the fact that we are distantly related and share a last name. There really aren’t that many of us with that name especially because some family members along the way changed their last names. I think they too got annoyed being asked so many times if they owned the store. Just a little side note, one family member changed his name to Fortune and the joke was that his wife was known as Miss-Fortune (ha, ha!).
So anyway, I wanted to relay a funny experience that I had related to my last name. When I was about 15, my immediate family and I attended a family member’s wedding. It happened that those “real” Fortunoff’s were also in attendance. So I did have the opportunity to meet the real owners. We chatted for a little bit and then I mistakenly told Mrs. Fortunoff that sometimes when people ask me if I own the store, I tell them that I do. She said that she already knew that. Hmmm, I wondered what she meant.
Then Mrs. F. proceeded to tell me how her son was working the counter at the Fortunoff’s jewelry store one day. He was working with a customer who wanted to make a large purchase. The friend found what he wanted and was getting ready to pay and here comes the funny part. My friend (to this day, I still don’t know who it was) proceeded to signal to the salesman to come closer like he had a secret to share.
Psst! Psst! As the salesman moved in, my “friend” said, “Hey, I am a friend of Scott’s, can I get a discount?” Needless to say, no discount was given and I was pretty embarrassed.
Until Next Week,
This is Studioe Scott and not Scott the Source