Kippys closing is not just about a brick and mortar falling victim to retail in the digital age. It marks one of the last vestiges of a Coronado that used to be.
A time before family-owed small shops and markets gave way to chains, banks and real estate offices: The Coronado Department (RiteAid), Free Brothers (Chase Bank), Day and Night Market (Wells Fargo Bank). Despite the easy access to big box stores and malls in San Diego that came with the bridge, Kippys held on and even thrived with unique, trendy merchandise, personalized service and creative marketing spearheaded by Bob Kipperman, who took over the business from his parents Cecelia and Lou.
In its heyday from the mid-1950s to the 1980s, the store took up almost an entire block, 6,000 square feet. “Back then it was a real department store. They sold lingerie, shoes, evening wear, swimsuits, even menswear,” said Carina Kipperman, the daughter-in-law of Cecelia and Lou Kipperman, who opened Kippys in 1948.
Part of the shop’s longevity can be explained in part by the Kippermans ability to reflect and change with the times.
The 1950s and early 1960s clothing lines included the button-down look of Brooks Brothers and Ladybug. “The 1970s were the flower power days, everything was maxi and mini,” remembers Carolyn Murray. “Bob had an eye for quality. We couldn’t get enough of it.”
As word spread that Kippys was closing, people rushed in to take advantage of the sales and to say their goodbyes to a store that had been a part of Coronado for 68 years. Its Christmas Open House sales last week were the best in years,” Kipperman said. “It was like the old days.”
Many speculated that the shop was closing because of a rent increase. Kipperman denied that out of hand. “The Perleys and Greens have been terrific,” she said. “Its just time, we’re getting old and we’re tired. Bob will be 75 and I’m 70.”
Over the years there have been financial challenges. Business was rocky in the late 1970s and early 1990s, not to mention the market meltdown in 2008. The Kippermans weathered all of these and worse.
In 1984 Bob Kipperman was in an automobile accident and for a time could no longer run the business. To keep busy he began to craft belts studded with rhinestones, creating a look that grew to include jackets, jeans, shirts, even key chains that garnered a following around the world.
“Bob was always a big presence in the store,” said Pat Flynn. “It would seem that whenever my girl friends and I would go into Kippys to see what was new and wonderful, he would be more than happy to help us bring clothing items to the dressing room at the back of the store.”
She remembers too the “fabulous ladies that worked in the store: Rita, Gretchen and Bob’s mother Cele – they were ‘just the best of the best,’ ” Flynn said.
Kippys didn’t just set trends or excel in customer service. Bob Kipperman was a master marketer. He didn’t wait for customers to come into the shop to see the latest fashions, he brought them to the people.
Every spring and fall Kippys showed off the new collections at fashion shows around town — the Shores, the Golf Course and in Tijuana. These grew out of the fashion teas Cele Kipperman held at her house on Ocean Boulevard.
“Bob put a different spin on it,” said store manager Rita Wadleigh, who organized the shows. “They took on some of the glitz of a Paris or Milan couture show, but with locals striding down the runway.”
For a few years there were lingerie shows where there was food and drink along with scantly attired young ladies. “The men loved it, but the wives were against it,” said Wadleigh.
Then there was the conveyor belt, the kind seen at dry cleaners. “I used to love to stand outside the store and watching the clothes go round and round,” said Jenny Portelli.
One day the belt proved just as alluring to an adventurous two-year-old who grabbed a hold of a dress and was lifted aloft with the dress. Wadleigh saw the child, but there was no way she could stop the belt. Instead she followed him around, her arms outstretched so if he lost his grip and fell she would catch him. He didn’t.
Wadleigh worked at Kippy’s for 45 years. When the store closes it doors for the last time Christmas Eve, she will miss it.
Carina Kipperman won’t. To her it’s just “a place of business, not the business.”
The business is not going away. Kippys has a website and a factory just across the bridge. “If people need something they can go there or to the factory,” she said.
Kippys is located at 1114 Orange Avenue in Coronado.
