When Julie Kubsch started selling eyeglasses out of the trunk of her Volkswagen Beetle — with the license plate BUGEYZ — in 1998, she did not imagine she would still be in the business nearly three decades later.
Specs Around Town, one of Downtown Bloomington’s longest-running retail businesses under one owner, will soon be under new ownership.
Kubsch is retiring and has sold the boutique eyewear store to Jenna Bixby-Nehl, who will take over Jan. 6.
“I’m not getting any younger and it’s a perfect fit with the new ownership,” Kubsch said of Bixby-Nehl, who is owner and CEO of Bixby Eyecare in Peoria, which has also acquired two optometrist offices. “It’s going to be very much what you are used to at Specs.”
Specs has endured at a time when many retailers have lost customers to the online marketplace. Kubsch said aside from the occasional request to adjust or repair someone’s glasses purchased online or elsewhere, the business has not suffered from online competition like many other brick-and-mortar stores. She said many customers feel it's riskier to buy eyeglasses online.
“People like to touch, feel, experience what they are putting their money into, and here at Specs you can do that,” Kubsch said, adding many of the eyewear lines Specs sells don’t have much of an online presence.
Kubsch says eyewear has seen a boost over the last few decades as glasses become more commonplace and in some cases are considered an accessory. She noted that Lasik surgery has dropped in popularity over the last 20 years, and many who wear contact lenses complain of dry eyes as they get older.
“Where they used to have a pair of glasses just to put on at night when they took their contacts out, now people are wearing them all day and they are [saying] ‘I really love wearing glasses.’ That turned into a positive for us,” she said.
Downtown vibe
After running a mobile business for three years, Kubsch learned that the former Emmett Scharf Electric Co. building at 317 N. Center St. was being renovated. She said it “fit the vibe” of what she wanted in a physical location.
The brick building with curved windows in second-floor apartments was built in 1890 and is included in the city’s historic Central Business District, according to the National Register of Historic Places.
“Some people were skeptical, [saying] 'You want to be downtown? Why don’t you want to be on Veterans Parkway?'" she recalled.
Specs had planned to move out of downtown and relocate to east Bloomington as part of the new VisionPoint Eye Center in 2018, but Kubsch ultimately decided she did not want to see potential higher volume of sales come at the expense of customer service.
“We don’t need to be this giant crank-them-through [business]. Here it’s a very laidback kind of environment that people truly enjoy coming and shopping at,” Kubsch said.
Much has come and gone downtown during Kubsch’s nearly 25 years there. She said she’s excited to see the first stages of the downtown streetscape on North Main Street take shape, and she looks forward to having time to shop downtown when she no longer needs to keep store hours.
City officials say its streetscape plan will transform the urban core into a more walkable space that will attract more shoppers, concerts and other community events, but it has created disruptions in the short-term.
The demolition of the aging Market Street parking garage for a new Connect Transit bus transfer center has greatly reducing parking access.
“It has put a bit of a crunch on the parking situation downtown,” she said. “In addition to the streetscape, they need to figure out that concern.”
The city is acquiring additional parking and has offered financial relief through sales tax rebates to businesses that have suffered economic losses due to ongoing construction.
In retirement, Kubsch said she plans to spend more time with her family, including her three grandchildren, but will still help staff the store when needed.
“Once this transition has taken place, I can just come down and bop around and enjoy what is downtown,” she said.
