PROVIDENCE – Like most businesses across the state, Marc Allen Fine Clothiers could not escape the COVID-19 pandemic.
Owner Marc Streisand operated two store locations, his flagship store on South Main Street and the other in the City by the Sea – Newport. Unfortunately, the profound financial impacts the company sustained due to the pandemic forced Streisand to shutter the Newport store after operating it for five years and consolidate his operations to the capital city.
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“It was heartbreaking at the most [to close the Newport store],” Streisand told Providence Business News. “My team worked extremely hard to build this company and, in less than a year, I feel like I’m going back to when I started. It’s definitely disheartening and it keeps me up at night.”
But, as the doors closed in Newport, a window of opportunity opened for Streisand. Being in the high-end-clothing retail business, Streisand understands that the best clothes make a significant difference in how people look and feel.
With the pandemic raging worse now than it did in the spring and summer, plus with the holidays approaching, Streisand realized that the need for clothes for people to have that physical and emotional boost is amplified even more.
So Streisand, who writes an occasional guest column for PBN called Dress for Success, looked at his excess inventory from Newport and came up with a plan to help.
As a result, Marc Allen is donating more than $100,000 worth of brand-new men’s clothing to local nonprofits in order to help people affected by the pandemic during the holidays.
“It’s important to me,” Streisand said. “I grew up pretty poor. Now that I have had some measure of success, I figured it was a good thing to do was to give back to the community, especially this time. [People] don’t have the money [for essentials]. We have so much extra inventory that we figured it would make a difference for people.”
Streisand said he’s done similar initiatives in previous years, noting he donates between $15,000 to $100,000 a year in clothing to Year Up, a national nonprofit with a Providence location that provides professional skills to young adults. But Streisand said now he wanted to open up his philanthropic clothing initiative “to a broader community.”
The company, Streisand said, has about 200 shirts, 150 pairs of trousers and pants, 100 sweaters, 50 sports coats and other men’s accessories that are slated to be given to nonprofits that must apply to receive the clothing.
Nonprofits can answer an online questionnaire through Marc Allen’s website in order to qualify for the clothing, and Streisand said 10 nonprofits have applied as of Dec. 8 for consideration. Streisand also said he plans to have the application period last through Dec. 17 and the clothing can be distributed the following week in time for Christmas.
He’s planning to donate the clothes to about three to four nonprofits that show him that the clothes will be given to people “who can benefit from it.”
Streisand said the purpose of asking nonprofits to apply for the clothing is because the clothes will be for organizations that support the community in multiple facets. He wants to see a plan from the nonprofits on how the clothing will be distributed in more ways than just through a clothing drive.
“I want [nonprofits] to be a little bit more strategic in their donations,” said Streisand. “Maybe [someone’s] husband was a CEO of a company and their company is now out of business, but the guy still appreciates and likes to dress. It’s for that guy. It’s also for the guy who was incarcerated and going for a job interview. It’s for everybody. I want [the organizations] to give it to people who have lost their opportunities that they had if we weren’t in this COVID recession.”
As far as Marc Allen itself, Streisand hopes his operation can fully recover once the pandemic ends. While he may not reopen another Newport location, Streisand said Marc Allen did revamp its business plan at the start of last summer summer to look at “what’s next.”
One idea, he said, is offering customers mobile service, where Marc Allen will bring its clothing to a client’s home for them to shop through.
“We’re working to get a business-adaptation grant so that we can do that a little more efficiently,” Streisand said, “so that we can have new software programs that allow us to have real-time inventory on a tablet. So, when we go to someone’s home, we’re trying to make up an elaborate assembly book so a client can actually shop.”
Providence Business News is spotlighting nonprofits, companies and workers stepping up to challenges presented by the spread of the new coronavirus.
James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter at @James_Bessette.
