'No place like this': Love can't save Roberts Shoe Store

"Hardly a foot we can't fit." That's been the motto of Roberts Shoe Store in south Minneapolis. With 20,000 pairs in stock and sizes ranging from women's 5 narrow to men's 20 extra wide, the shop never had much trouble fulfilling that promise.

But after 77 years in business, the family-run institution is closing its doors and the neighborhood is struggling to accept the news. Nearly every encounter lately ends with "why," as in why is Mark Simon shuttering the shoe store?

"Some answers are not satisfying to most people," the store owner said on a recent Sunday afternoon as the noise of East Lake Street poured in through the store's open door. "They don't like certain answers."

• Photos: As store closes, shoppers scramble for final bargains

The easiest answer is that Simon is tired. Customers, he said, seem to accept that he needs a break.

It's harder trying to explain that Roberts Shoe Store can't match the Internet's shoe selection or that Simon, who joined the staff in 1982, wants to get out with his business still in the black.

Simon's late father-in-law, Nate Roberts, founded Roberts Shoes in1937. Back then, customers were primarily Scandinavian immigrants in need of work boots. As the neighborhood changed, so did the inventory. Roberts kept Latino couples in church-appropriate footwear and African-American kids in shiny new school shoes.

Now, it's everything-must-go time.

Customer Joseph Pruitt scanned the super-sale rack, which included mismatched pairs of high-end athletic shoes.

"One might be size 12 and one might be size 7," he said. "If I put 'em on, the more I'm looking at 'em like they fit. Now they're starting to look right. Wait, no, they ain't right. But maybe I can play it off."

Before the sale, the walls were a mosaic of Nike, Reebok and Converse. For nearly 20 years, such styles made Roberts a go-to destination for customers like Bert Cambridge. He recalled the weekends he spent lining up for the latest releases.

"They always had new sneakers on Saturdays, the newest pair of Jordans or Nikes," he said. "This was before online presence was relevant. You wait, you get the kicks you want, and you're on your way."

Longtime customer Wabash ("That's just Wabash) is partial to "the snakes, lizards and gators," some of Roberts' custom offerings. He imagines a future of tip- toeing around or whatever it takes to preserve the fancy footwear he's purchased from the iconic shoe seller.

"I don't wanna wear the bottom of the shoe out cause I can't get no more. I gotta be careful how I wear em," he said.

"We have a lot of customers, the ones that have the big feet, they have a hard time buying shoes," said store employee Inez Jimenez.

It's particularly true for older customers, Jimenez added. "There is no shoe place like this. They like to be waited on and that's one of the main things here. It's like you're at a restaurant, but these guys are waiting on you for your shoes."

Worker Rene Dennis Thompson said he's met customers who are 80, 90 years old who [have] come here since they were in their twenties — people who get married and they still have the shoes they bought here for $3 or $4. It's amazing."

On a recent afternoon, Simon said he was straightening a row of leather boots when he was distracted by a commotion outside. He found a lone individual shouting from the street corner.

"He was looking directly at our store and he was yelling, 'How could you do this to me?'" recalled Simon. "It was in frustration that we were closing."

For the past three months, Simon has been working seven days a week, from open to close. It's a schedule he'll keep until the beginning of November, when Roberts Shoe Store shuts the doors for the final time.

"It's the last shot," he said, "And I want to see everything that goes on and I want to be involved in it."