SCRANTON, LACKAWANNA CO. (WOLF) \u2014 A longtime downtown Scranton business known for its personal touch and one-of-a-kind eyewear is preparing to say goodbye. After more than four decades serving generations of customers, Tom Grudis Optical is closing its doors in the coming months. <\/p>\n
For 45 years, Tom Grudis Optical has been more than just a place to buy glasses, it\u2019s been a fixture of downtown Scranton.<\/p>\n
Co-owner Stephanie Grudis-Whisner and her father Tom opened the shop in 1980 in the Courtyard Mall, formerly the Ritz Theater, before moving to Spruce Street, now Biden Street, just a few years later.<\/p>\n
From eyewear to unique accessories and jewelry, everything inside reflects a hands-on approach that\u2019s become increasingly rare.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou get Tom or I. You don\u2019t come in wondering who\u2019s going to take care of you. Customer service was our number one priority, and everything was done in-house. We do all the lens cutting downstairs so we\u2019re pretty hands on when it comes to people\u2019s eyewear,” said Grudis-Whisner.<\/p>\n
Over the decades, those customers turned into something more.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s scary when you think about it. We have served children who are now adults with their own children. To see the generations come in is really a testament to what we do here. You walk through the door as a customer or as a patient, but you leave as a friend because that\u2019s really the kind of vibe we have here. Everyone feels at home,” said Grudis-Whisner.<\/p>\n
Grudis-Whisner says changes in the industry and the shift toward online shopping played a role in their decision to close.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was time, 45 years. We did it. The whole industry has changed. This newer generation really has no idea what in-person selling is. They think everything should be done online and it\u2019s a dying breed, what we do here. We did it. We\u2019re on an up right now, so it\u2019s time to now just bow out gently and see what\u2019s down the road,” said Grudis-Whisner.<\/p>\n
While no final closing date has been set, the family expects to shut down within the next month or two as they sell off remaining inventory. What they\u2019ll miss most, they say, isn\u2019t the merchandise, it\u2019s the people.<\/p>\n
And despite the challenges of operating downtown, their love for Scranton never faded.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe love downtown. People say ‘Why do you want to stay downtown with parking and so forth?’ But it\u2019s the kind of business we are. We are a downtown business and we like Scranton. It\u2019s a great city. That\u2019s why we stayed for as long as we did,” said Grudis-Whisner.<\/p>\n
Tom Grudis Optical plans to remain open for at least the next several weeks. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SCRANTON, LACKAWANNA CO. (WOLF) \u2014 A longtime downtown Scranton business known for its personal touch and one-of-a-kind eyewear…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76575,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[178,180,179],"class_list":{"0":"post-76574","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scranton","8":"tag-scranton","9":"tag-scranton-headlines","10":"tag-scranton-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76574\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}