Groupe Car Club Memorial Cruise & Greenspan's - Lowrider Community

Groupe Car Club Memorial Cruise And Greenspans Greenspans Owners

Greenspan's
The Last Original Clothing Store
Few places on earth can give you the feeling of walking into a piece of history or travelling back in time to a different age than you are currently living in. The experience is usually reserved for places like museums, art galleries, and so forth. Rarely does this experience come from a clothing store, however, that's exactly what it feels like when you walk into Greenspan's, the Last Original Clothing Store. Peering down the aisles of vintage and symbolic clothing is akin to walking into a scene from La Bamba or Blood In, Blood Out. Imagine a giant closet full of Pendletons, Hush Puppies and 1/2 inch belts, and you can get the picture. The store is just teeming with history, from the older articles that greet you on the right side of the entrance to the Car Club shirts that fly proudly over your head. Don't be fooled into thinking this is some hipster vintage store trying to capitalize on Los Angeles' rich Latino history. This store has been around for a whopping eight decades. "'Serving the Lowrider Community since 1928' is not just a slogan, it's what identifies us with the Lowrider community," explains store manager and owner Evan Greenspan.

Evan's grandparents Alex and Eva Greenspan opened the doors of this cultural landmark in 1928 on 103rd Street in the city of Watts, California. The clothing business at the time was going well for the family, so they decided to open a second location in 1939, to be overseen by Evan's father Edward Greenspan. This second location was to be opened in the city of South Gate, CA, where the current store is now located. Edward had the responsibility of running the store at the young age of 13. Even at this extremely young age, he had someone working for him that was 62 years old, who helped run the store. Greenspan's was the only store at the time that would cater to Latinos and Bikers. This open-door reputation frightened conservative consumers who slandered the store with prejudicial comments like, "the store where the other people shop at." While closed minded community members scoffed at the store's clientele, the store's overwhelming success could actually be attributed to the fact that they treated anyone with an equal amount of respect. Their main philosophy echoed the stance that "if you act like a Lady or a Gentleman, you will be treated that way in the store." True to this ideal, they never refused service to anybody regardless of one's race or neighborhood.

Groupe Car Club Memorial Cruise And Greenspans Greenspans Store Front

In 1944, Edward was called in to the service to fight in World War II. This forced the original store in Watts to close down and gave his parents the responsibility of running the more successful South Gate location. While in boot camp, Edward noticed that one of his friends was sporting some Dickies brand pants, and he asked the young man where he had purchased them from. His friend replied that his mom worked for the Dickies factory in Texas, and he promptly hooked Edward up with the contact info to the organization. Edward immediately sent a letter to his parents and told them to purchase this brand of pants and to stock up on inventory as much as they could. Not knowing that they were the first to bring the Dickies brand to Southern California., Greenspan's couldn't keep them in the store as the pants were selling off the shelves too quickly. During World War II, Greenspan's continued their niche product stocking, and became the only place in town where you could still purchase nylons, bed sheets and pillow cases, as these items were very hard to find in Los Angeles due to the war efforts. This kept steady lines of customers around the corner whenever Greenspan's recieved their shipments of these sought after items. After Edward finished with his service, he got back to the States and started working at the store once again, although a change was about to come.