A Winner wonderland

By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
SHARON, Pa. -- "Mom, I really like this one," called Markie Negrea as she emerged from behind a rack of potential homecoming dresses at The Winner.
The 14-year-old West Middlesex High School student took only a few minutes to find the dress she wanted at the off-price women's fashion store at 32 W. State St.
Markie, accompanied by her mother, April, and younger sister, Miranda, 11, said she was impressed by the selection "and the nice people. They even come and get your dresses for you."
"There are a lot of dresses, really pretty," said Amber Bialowas, 16, of Pittsburgh's North Hills, who was also shopping for a homecoming dress.
"We'll be back this year for prom," she vowed.
Her mother, Lorry, and younger sister, Ashleigh, 8, were with her.
"We were up here last year for a prom dress for [Amber], and she found what she wanted," Lorry said, explaining that she had heard about The Winner and decided to make the trip from Pittsburgh to check it out.
"I'm glad we did. They have a good selection," she said.
Drawing customers
Drawing people to the downtown Sharon business district is what The Winner is all about, said James E. Winner Jr., who opened the store with his wife, Donna, 14 years ago.
The store is one of a number of Winner enterprises they've developed in a personal crusade to attract shoppers and tourists to the city.
"Everything we've done in Sharon is strictly, hopefully, to revive downtown Sharon," said Winner, 73, founder of Winner International, the maker and marketer of The Club vehicle anti-theft device and other security systems.
None of the shops and downtown operations they've opened are meant to be profitable. Their purpose is to attract people. "We only hope they can pay for themselves," he said.
Other businesses
In addition to The Winner downtown, there's Donna's Diner next door, the Buhl Mansion Guest House, Gallery & amp; Spa, the Whitla Winner Art Gallery & amp; Guest House, Flamingo Rose Gift Shop & amp; Tea House and The Winner Collectibles.
The Winner, billed as the "world's largest off-price fashion store," is the only one profitable so far, and those profits go to charity. It was the first downtown business the Winners opened for public use, he said, explaining, "It's an anchor that the downtown needed."
"It was at that time I made the commitment to downtown," he said, adding that the process of trying to revive the old business district has been more difficult that he anticipated.
It has become more important to him as he's gotten older.
"At this point in my life, who's going to do it when I'm gone?" he asked. "I look out my window and see it every day. It's something that should be done for the community."
Empty property
The city is in tough shape and has an aging, diminishing population, he said, wondering what will happen in five or 10 years when a lot of residential properties will be empty as those older residents die or move into other living arrangements.
The only answer is to create industrial jobs and promote tourism, he said.
Winner has done both.
In addition to creating shops in the downtown district, he was the financial backer for the Vocal Group Hall of Fame on East State Street, though he is no longer involved in that project.
He has turned The Winner into a destination for tour buses and has created an expanding Winner Steel Services Inc. on Sharpsville Avenue. It employs 225 but will soon provide jobs for more than 300. He's also trying to develop the former Westinghouse Electric Corp. plant on Sharpsville Avenue into an industrial park that could provide between 500 and 1,000 more jobs.
Helping downtown Sharon isn't the only community assistance the Winners have offered. Most recently, they offered free temporary housing at their Radisson Hotel in Shenango Township for victims of the Nov. 10 tornado that left people in Clark and South Pymatuning Township homeless.
At one point this week, 21 free rooms at the hotel were being occupied by storm victims and out-of-town Red Cross volunteers.
Covering it all
The Winners have developed amenities that make it possible to eat, sleep and shop, all in the downtown area.
They opened Donna's Diner, a replica of a 1950s streetcar diner, next to The Winner three years ago. Its menu, which offers specialties like the Route 66 Burger and the Pittsburgh Sub, bears the slogan, "Welcome To Donna's Diner -- A Great Taste From the Past."
"Donna saw one in Fort Lauderdale and took me to see it," Winner recalled. "I loved it. I quickly envisioned where it would fit in Sharon."
He had one manufactured and shipped by truck in two pieces to Sharon in a project estimated to cost more than $500,000. Although it's not always jammed with customers, it does have a steady crowd.
"There are regulars, and you know what they want when they come through the door," said Audrey Shaffer, the diner's general manager.
It wasn't a regular who was the first one through the door on a weekday morning. Atty. Patrick Loughney of Pittsburgh was in town a few minutes early on a legal matter, spotted the diner and decided to stop in.
"I like diners and things like that," he confided as he sat down at a table to look over the menu. "I just like the nostalgia, the ambiance," he said as he glanced around at the 1950s decor and hits from that era blared from the jukebox.
"It's just comfortable," said Tony Costanza of Sharon, who with his wife, Jeanne, tries to hit the diner about once a month. "It's my kind of music," said the former local radio DJ, who publishes four small monthly papers.
The greatest advantage is the booths are a bit larger than the real old diners, he said. "This one fits us. The original ones are too small," Costanza said. And the food? "Everything's excellent," he said.
Store entertainment
The Winner store, meanwhile, boasts live piano entertainment every Friday, Saturday and Sunday, played on a grand piano beneath a huge chandelier on the first floor.
As she led a brief tour of the three floors and basement, Donna Winner said that the store sells up-to-date fashions, most of them at 20 percent to 70 percent off the retail price. "We're known for our special occasion clothes," she said, adding that the store sold 5,000 prom gowns last year.
"I think I'm overwhelmed," said Phyllis Parker of Akron, who was in town recently to attend a wedding and decided to stop by The Winner at the suggestion of her friend, B.J. Flood, also of Akron.
"I've been here before," Flood said, explaining she occasionally makes the trip from Akron to shop at the nearby Reyers Shoe Store and likes to look in The Winner when she's here.
The store has a children's clothing section, a large collection of wedding dresses ready to take off the rack and a big selection of career clothing and sportswear in petite and missy sizes from 2 to 32.
For the men
It also has something that few women's clothing stores offer -- a lounge for men, where those waiting for their wives, girlfriends or daughters can sit, read a newspaper, watch television and get free popcorn and beer.
Donna Winner said they came up with the idea for a men's lounge when they stopped at the store on a Sunday during football season and saw some men following women around the store, looking miserable.
"Jim said we need to do something about the men," she recalled, explaining how the lounge idea was born.
The store has its own outlet shop, The Winner Outlet, two blocks away at 75 E. State St.
For those looking to spend a night in town, there's always the Buhl Mansion Guest House, Gallery & amp; Spa at 422 E. State St., where for about $400, one can spend the evening in luxurious surroundings that scored the American Automobile Association's 5 Diamond rating, the highest the AAA gives.
The huge sandstone mansion, once the home of the late industrialist and philanthropist Frank H. Buhl and his wife, Julia Forker Buhl, was built more than 100 years ago but had fallen into a state of disrepair.
"I think it was going to be me or the wrecking ball," Winner said, admitting that he has a strong admiration for Frank Buhl.
The Winners bought it in 1997 and refurbished it, restoring the first floor, complete with a parlor and music room, but converting the two upper floors to a 10-room bed-and-breakfast.
Most of those rooms are occupied on the weekends, and the mansion is also open for weekend tours.
Donna Winner said they were able to find architectural plans from the house from 1946 and used them as a blueprint for the restoration. It took a year, she said.
"We've done some beautiful weddings in this yard," she said.
Spa treatment
The basement was converted into a spa two years ago. That was no easy task, because the dirt floor had to be excavated for ceiling clearance, she said.
The spa is used primarily by Buhl Mansion guests or those from the Winners' country inn, Tara, in nearby Clark. It offers massages, saunas and hydrotherapy.
Around the time they were restoring the Buhl Mansion, the Winners also bought the former Eleanor Thorpe Whitla home, a large Victorian house directly across the street, and converted it into the Whitla House Winner Art Gallery and Guest House. It features high-quality reproductions of world-renowned bronze statues as well as reproductions of some of the best-known oil paintings in the world.
If a night in town isn't on your schedule, perhaps an afternoon tea at the Flamingo Rose Gift Shop & amp; Tea House just next door, to the east of the mansion, might be appropriate. The Winners bought the former Fruit Mansion four years ago and remodeled it, recently reopening it as a gift shop and tea room. It's connected to the Buhl Mansion on the west by a walkway, and yoga classes are held there three days a week.
Flamingo Rose has four second-floor bedrooms, and Donna Winner said long-range plans call for creating an overnight stop for women who might be traveling together.
Winner said they bought the Fruit Mansion to protect the value of the Buhl Mansion.
That's the same reason they recently bought a duplex at the western end of the Buhl Mansion property. Winner said he hopes to develop that structure into something for the health-care field.
Collectibles
Winner's fondness for bronze statues was a factor in the opening two years ago of The Winner Collectibles, a gift and unique home-decor store at 142 E. State St., his wife said. He had so many in storage that he needed a place to put them, and many were moved to this store and put up for sale, she said.
"I had the buildings. I had a lot of bronzes on hand," he said. "We really added things around the bronzes."
There's a year-round Christmas room, Oriental rugs and a small gallery of Thomas Kinkade paintings.
"We get more out-of-town people in this store who are looking for something special," Donna Winner said.