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John Koutsos is not one to wear his politics on his sleeve, but if Bob Dole is looking for a store to symbolize his "bridge to the past," he might try Alec's Shoes in downtown Nashua.
When store President John Koutsos says, "Shoes have always been in our family," he's not just saying that none of his ancestors went barefoot.
Koutsos is the 35-year-old son of Alexander Koutsos, who started the store with his father in 1938. Alexander's brother, Charles, had a shoe store, Charles K. Shoes, in Manchester. The Charles K. store is no more, but Alec's has not only survived, it has prospered through an era that has seen the demise of most independent shoe stores.
"The independents that are left are probably getting stronger," said Koutsos, "but there are not a lot of independents left." Through nearly six decades in Nashua, Alec's has changed locations two or three times, but its loyal customers keep coming back, with new ones added to the fold. Now it is arguably the anchor store in downtown Nashua, filling the former Miller department store in the heart of the central shopping district.
"There's no (in downtown Nashua) store bigger than ours," said Koutsos, who moved two years ago into 50,000 square feet in the Main Street store and an adjoining building on Pearl Street. That move put the shoe seller "right on the 50-yard line" of the downtown shopping grid. That makes it easy to find, but when Alec's was further down the street, at 100 Pearl, generations of shoppers still found their footwear there.
"We have a lot of customers who were coming to our store as children and are now coming in with their kids and sometimes their grandchildren," said Koutsos, who started helping out at the store in his junior high and high school days. After graduating from the University of New...