A longtime staple in Great Barrington’s downtown retail mix is closing after 43 years.
Annie Minifie, owner of Byzantium, has announced that she will close the long-running women’s apparel and accessories store in January following a clearance sale. She founded Byzantium, located at 32 Railroad St., in 1979.
Minifie said the store is still doing well. However, changes in the overall business climate since the COVID pandemic, and her personal priorities, prompted her decision to close.
“It was an instantaneous decision, although I knew it would be coming for a while,” she said. “I’m not getting any younger and knew that I would eventually be stepping away from the business. Then one day, I realized that this was the time to do it.”
She noted that the pandemic, and the subsequent economic volatility of recent years, had altered conditions in the apparel industry and increased the pressures and demands of operating a store such as Byzantium.
At the same time, she has also had to focus on personal matters, including necessary repairs to her home and settling her late mother’s estate.
“The pandemic changed everything,” she said. “Before that, it was possible to work hard at the store while still having a parallel personal life. But the changes and pressures of the last three years have demanded a total immersion in the business. Also, other circumstances required my attention, and I was going in too many directions at once.”
In addition, she said she made the decision for positive reasons, including spending more time with her children and grandchildren, traveling, gardening, and focusing on creating art.
While she had originally hoped to sell Byzantium, that did not happen.
“I had prepared a comprehensive plan with all the details about the business, so a new owner could hit the ground running,” she said. “But then Covid came and knocked that plan off the track.“
The path to being a shop owner
Having grown up in Annapolis, Maryland, Minifie moved to New York City as a young adult and also spent time in Europe. She held a number of jobs, including as a model and film editor—and at the legendary nightclub Max’s Kansas City.
Eventually, looking for a change of pace, she moved to the Berkshires, which she was familiar with through visits and family connections.
After attending Berkshire Community College and graduating from Smith College, she worked for a period of time as a teacher in Dalton and also on the staff of a drop-in center.
She transitioned into retailing in 1979, noting that it resonated with a number of her own interests.
“I wasn’t really satisfied with what I had been doing, and I had a ‘Now what?’ moment,” she recalled. “I saw this building, and the space immediately attracted me. I decided to open Byzantium on a whim.”
That whim became a decades-long career.
Minifie credited her landlord Richard Stanley with helping her launch the store. “He’s been a great landlord,” she said. “When I first opened, he made sure I had everything I needed, and he’s continued to be very supportive over the years.”
Although her business has undergone many changes over time, Minifie has adhered to her original business strategy. Her approach has been to provide a varied selection of women’s apparel and accessories that meet the needs and desires of diverse customers—a mix of locals, part-timers, and tourists—for casual everyday wear, work attire, and clothing for special occasions.
She has made a point of carrying items in differing price ranges, with an emphasis on quality and value.
“We feature clothes that last and do not go out of style,” she said. “We’re not a discount store, but we offer clothing that is reasonably priced and affordable. We also offer some more expensive high-end merchandise.” She also has emphasized personalized customer service. This has led to long-term relationships with customers.
“Running a business in Great Barrington is wonderful because you’re a witness to and participant in all aspects of life,” she said. “We’ve served families for several generations. We’ve dressed customers for their everyday activities, as well as important occasions throughout their lives.”
That sense of continuity and connection also applies to her staff and the product representatives she has worked with.
She started Byzantium as a one-person operation. “It was originally just me and the inventory,” she said. “Eventually, I was able to hire part-time help and then a full-time manager, and it grew from there.”
She developed a network of full and part-time employees. During the busy seasons she has five full- and part-time people on staff, and at other times has one fill-time and one half-time person. In addition, others work on an as-needed basis.
She noted that her staff has included people who have been with the store for 15, 20, and even 40 years, and their children and grandchildren have also worked there—and all staff members have found other employment for after the store closes
“It’s been like a large family,” she said. “One of my goals when I started the store was to make it an enjoyable place to work. People were encouraged to try out ideas.”
The early days in Great Barrington
When she opened Byzantium, Great Barrington was more of an everyday working commercial center than the trendy upscale identity it would subsequently become.
“I chose Great Barrington because it was where people in south Berkshire County went to buy their necessities,” she said. “I liked that. I also saw that other interesting stores were opening up, and it could become a destination. I wanted to be part of the growth of the town.”
With that in mind, she and Barbara Watkins, owner of Evergreen Crafts, started an organization initially called the Railroad St. Association. Other merchants became involved and it eventually evolved into an overall downtown association.
“We organized marketing campaigns and promotional events,” she recalled. “The goal was to encourage people to see Great Barrington as a place where they could come and do their shopping and also to stay and do things like enjoy a meal at a restaurant. Gradually that started happening, and it took off.”
Over the years, she has had to be adaptable. In addition to keeping up with fashion trends, Byzantium has gone through ups and downs in the economy and changes in the competitive picture and shopping patterns.
“The opening of new forms of competition like the Lee Outlets and chain stores impacted the business, and I had to change my inventory and the types of items I carried accordingly,” she said. “We also survived the emergence of e-commerce, when people would come in and take photos of clothing to see if they could find them online.”
She said she learned many lessons over time. “One basic principle was the importance of always having a full inventory on hand,” she said. “I did that regardless of the economy, even if that meant I had to reduce my home food budget during difficult periods.”
One impact of the growth of retailing in Great Barrington has been a perception that the town has become gentrified and is more oriented to an upscale market than to the overall population.
Minifie acknowledged that elements of this are true, but she noted that it is not a new development, nor is it a simple situation.
“It’s been happening for a long time,” she said. “The factors that cause that type of growth are going to happen. But I believe as a community, and as individuals, we can have control over how it happens, depending on how we conduct ourselves. I’ve tried to do that in how I’ve handled my business. That’s one reason I’ve always stayed within a moderate price point. When some of my brands increased their wholesale prices year after year, I spent the time searching for comparable goods at reasonable prices.”
The impact of the COVID pandemic and subsequent changes in the economy have been an especially challenging period, she noted.
“Like other stores, we had to close in the early months of 2020,” she said. “We reopened that summer, but it took time for customers to return. By summer 2021, traffic was very good, but then there were problems with supply chains.”
Among other effects, she said, this all changed the nature of the industry, including the relationships of suppliers with retailers, and the availability of merchandise.
“Suppliers don’t know about availability anymore, “she said. “For example, it used to be that I could place an order and receive the merchandise within a week or so. Now, in certain lines, you have to commit to an order six-to-eight months before we can get it into the store.”
This unpredictability has made it difficult in a variety of ways. “In the past, I might test-market an item by placing a small order for it in the spring,” she said. “Then if the customer response was good, I could place a larger order for the busy summer season. That’s not possible now.”
Minifie said these issues will likely be resolved over time. “I’m an optimist, and I expect things will come back,” she said.
If this situation had arisen in the past, she would have done what was necessary to push the business through it. “But I don’t have the drive or energy for it now,” she said.
She emphasized that although she will miss the business and relationships with her staff and customers, she sees it as a positive step.
“I don’t have any regrets,” she said. “It’s been a great run. This business has been a gift to me, and I’m grateful. I’ve met wonderful people, and it has allowed me to do many things I would not have been able to do otherwise.”
