Merchants of Easton: The London Shop

Mike Cusano owns The London Shop, 339 Northampton Street. 

"That's my father (pictured in the background) who started the business. He's name was Andrew Cusano. We started the business in 1939, and we had two different moves before we came to this location. We came to (our current location) in 1978, and this is where we've been running our business ever since. We're a full service men's store, where we sell everything from socks to shoes, suits, tuxedos. All tailoring is done in-house and we're a very upscale store and we're very happy to have the brands that we carry. All of our shirts and neckwear are either made in Italy or the United States. Anything you'd like in smart-tailored sportswear, we have. With the resurgence of easton as a city now, with all the new restaurants coming in, all new apartments, business for everybody is starting to pick up and it's good to see the revitalization. The facility we have here is 5000 square feet on the main floor and 2500 square feet on the bottom floor. We'd never get that space in a mall. The rents there are so prohibitive, you couldn't survive. And we're a destination point. We'd rather have you come into the city, park, eat, and shop in a civilized manner rather than park who-knows-where, walk a quarter of a mile, walk into a mall and you're bedazzled by, for example, 'What floor is it on?' Everything there has a sameness. There's something to be said about being in a city."
"What prompted your dad to open a clothing store in the first place?"
(Laughs): "He had to eat! Food! That was a driving force…you have to do something. My father loved to dress; he was a great dresser. We started out and it was hard. I mean, it's hard to develop a business and it's hard to carve a niche and we did it. We're still honing it. It's never complete, and we learn every day."

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