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Business Institution Closes In Downtown Riverbank
Donna
Donna Meyers, center, in white, discusses an item being sold with a customer at Meyers Shoe Shop and Saddlery recently, during the stores inventory liquidation. Her husband, A.J. Meyers, operated the business and fashioned the saddles, tack and other leather items for sale for 60 years before his death in September 2013. News Photos By Ric McGinnis

 

A longtime fixture in downtown Riverbank remained somewhat active during this past holiday season, but now has officially closed for business.

Rick Meyers, grandson of the late A.J. Meyers, returned home from duty in Australia with the U.S. Marines to assist his grandmother, Donna Meyers, in the liquidation and closing of Meyers Shoe Shop and Saddlery. A.J. Meyers died in September 2013, in his 60th year at the trade. His shop opened in 1952 in downtown Riverbank.

Grandson Rick Meyers said he came home to help close things down over the holidays. He returned to duty earlier this month, and is a staff sergeant with the U.S. Marine Corps.

Meyers said several family members, including himself, have learned some of the skills of saddle design and construction, as well as cobblery and silversmithing, that their grandfather A.J. taught them. When he retires from the Marines, the younger Meyers expects to return to Riverbank and open a new shop to carry on the family tradition.

In the interim, whatever was not liquidated from the downtown shop, Meyers said, will be sold on eBay by friends for his grandmother, with an account set up to directly deposit sales.

As for the store itself, a classic brick building, Meyers said he has a business lined up to use part of the building, while the rest will be turned into a clubhouse for the River Rats Motorcycle Club, of which he is a member.

Customers from throughout California and beyond came in for lower prices as the store was liquidating and having sales as 2014 gave way to 2015, Meyers said.