With an entrepreneurial spirit and grasp of six languages, Zimman was immediately successful. His first door-to-door customer spoke Russian, the second Polish, and the third Yiddish. Two weeks later, Morris opened his first store on River Street.
In 1915, he married Anna Abrams and taught her the retail business. A year later, to his wife's chagrin, he bought a train car filled with unbleached muslin. But Morris sensed he was onto something profitable. At 8 cents a yard, the entire lot sold out quickly. Customers dyed it, sewed sheets and pillowcases, draperies, and sent bolts home to relatives in the Old Country.
During the Great Depression, Morris Zimman capitalized on Prohibition by selling the ingredients needed to make distilled beverages at home. He built a separate window counter at his store's side entrance to sell hops and malts and distilling equipment. He was soon operating 11 such locations. He also began buying goods cheaply at auction or from salvage, such as the fabric retrieved from the ship Robert E. Lee that had sunk in Boston Harbor. The fabric was sold soaking wet at bargain prices.
By 1931, he hads relocated the store to McDonough Square. The couple had four sons who worked beside them. On Sundays, they would drive to auctions to purchase merchandise at deep discount.
During World War II, one son, Barry Zimman, joined the U.S. Navy after three years of medical school. Discharged in 1946, the young man returned to his retail roots armed with standardized business practices for accounting, budgeting, inventory and advertising - then considered a novel approach. Barry Zimman branched out and opened one of the country's first self-service department stores. At the time, most shopkeepers displayed their goods under glass, accessible only through a salesperson. Barry Zimman allowed his customers to openly inspect the goods. His brother, Eddie, was already prospering in Lynn, having secured the state's first liquor license when Prohibition ended and opened the U.S. Liquors store on Union Street.
In 1957, Barry Morris moved his department store to the present location of Zimman's at 80 Market St., a broad avenue and active commercial center in those days, lined with storefronts including Raymond's, Kennedy's, Sam's Town & Tweed, Baby Land, and Tri-City Sales. The business district was surrounded by apartment buildings, the tenants providing a brisk walk-in trade.
Barry Zimman, his wife, Phyllis, and their five sons were a constant presence at the store, adhering to the adage that you must be where your business is located.
ITEM PHOTO / DAVID LSICIO Michael Zimman, the present and third-generation owner of Zimman's, is shown.
In 1960, at age 70, Morris and Anna Zimman closed their West Lynn store and set up a fabric shop in the basement of their son's business on Market Street. A wave of urban renewal followed, taking with it the homes of 5,000 residents, many of them customers. Times were tough and made more difficult as customers fled to stores at the North Shore Shopping Center. Many downtown Lynn businesses were forced to close.
Morris Zimman died in 1967, but his family was determined to keep the business alive. In the early 1970s, the second floor was converted to an indoor weekend flea market. By then, Barry Morris' son, Michael, was teaching at Hillel Academy in Marblehead but feeling the retail pull. A graduate of Marblehead High School and Bowdoin College, the third-generation retailer soon realized the family store was actually a warehouse treasure trove of retro products and vintage clothing. The result of that epiphany was Grandpa's Attic, which attracted a new generation of Zimman's customers who came to buy sharkskin suits, seamed nylon stockings, and women's shoulder-padded suits.
Michael Zimman, a father of four who today lives in Brookline with is wife, Ellen Rovner, knew he couldn't compete with "the mall" so he focused on the fabric selection. An art major, he expanded the textile offerings and closed down some of the other departments. He was able to buy directly from the textile mills, cutting out the middlemen, which translated to lower customer prices.
"Fabrics are the motor that drives the whole machine," he said. "The fabric selection is what brings people here."
From the mid-1980s well into the 1990s, Zimman's continued to transform, introducing custom bedding, window treatments and re-upholstery, all natural offshoots of the fabric businesses. The national economy was booming and people were reinvesting in their homes. As word spread, international designers found their way to Lynn where Zimman's provided them with fine silks and other fabrics difficult to fine at reasonable prices. Among them were Carlton Varney of Dorothy Draper
Fame, and Susan Symonds and Sig Bergerman, who became frequent visitors.
In 1997, Zimman's opened its furniture emporium on the upper two floors, along with carpets and home accessories. Famous restaurateurs and Hollywood set designers were seen in the aisles, looking for distinctive pieces. Furniture was also rented to film production companies making movies on the North Shore such as "Ashecliffe", directed by Martin Scorcese and starring Leonardi DiCaprio, "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past" with Matthew McConnaghy, "The Women" with Annette Benning, "The Proposal" with Sandra Bullock, and actor Paul Newman's last film, "Empire Falls."
Today, Zimman's is still managed by Michael Zimman. It has 30 employees and a second store in Hudson.
For more on Zimman's, go online to www.zimman's.com.
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