Dublin’s Sir Shop marks 50 years of business, customer service

Mike Cummings has spent his entire career working in sales – mostly men’s clothes. 

The now 74-year-old began selling suits at a store in 1966 in his native Cheraw, S.C., while in high school. While studying business at Statesboro’s Georgia Southern University, Cummings took his experience to a new position at Sir Shop, a local menswear shop. At the store, which opened in 1971, he became friends with co-worker and classmate Bill Hoyt, who was also studying business. 

It was after graduation that Cummings hung up suit, so to speak, and took a job selling commercial equipment. But the position turned out to be more than he bargained for.

“I had started off in sales with the company, but the economy got tough and all the salesmen turned into collectors,” he said. “So we were having to go deal with past due accounts.” 

Meanwhile, the suit business was booming, and the owners of Sir Shop wanted to expand their territory north to Dublin. Who else to tackle the endeavor but the business savvy Cummings and Hoyt? 

“When they asked us about doing it, I was all in,” Cummings reminisced. “Bill was a little hesitant, and I still say that was my best selling job, when I convinced him we needed to do this.” 

Neither of the two had ever been to Dublin before. Hoyt was born in New York and had lived along the East Coast his whole life until then. He had come to Georgia from Wilmington, N.C. After weighing his options, steady work in a small business seemed like a good idea. 

“I always wanted to be involved in a smaller business,” Hoyt said. “I didn’t want to go to the corporate arena, climbing the corporate ladder and being moved around, that sort of thing. It was a good fit.” 

On April 4, 1975, Dublin Sir Shop opened in the Dublin Mall. Fifty years later, still based on their original model of high customer service, Sir Shop remains a fixture in Dublin’s retail landscape. 

“I never thought it wouldn’t,” Hoyt said about the business reaching its golden anniversary. “When we first opened up, there were two or three men’s stores in every town. Now that industry has quieted down, and it leaves us serving a bigger swath of people. There’s definitely still a need. There’s weddings, funerals, special events and business meetings where, believe it or not, people still use suits. We don’t wear them everyday like we did 50 years ago, but they are still a very important part of a man’s wardrobe.”

The duo credits their personal touch, taking time to help their customers find what they are looking for, whether a suit for a special occasion or more casual wear. Just two years after opening, Cummings and Hoyt became the sole owners of the store. 

Besides keeping up with fashion trends, much has changed in the business over the past five decades,  one of the biggest being leaving the mall in 1991 for the Ivy Place shopping center across Veterans Boulevard. The move proved the shop had built a lasting, loyal client base, and affords the staff time to spend with customers. 

“Being in a center like this, you’re more of a designated shopping destination, rather than a mall, where people may just walk in,” Cummings said. “It’s a much better atmosphere. We’re able to spend more quality time with people in this area.” 

Sir Shop has also embraced e-commerce, maintaining a retail website and building a recurring base of mail order customers, who still receive the same one-on-one assistance as in house shoppers, just via the telephone. They sold belts and suits to TV and movie crews and even boxer shorts to former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barber. 

The pair have remain active alumni of Georgia Southern. The university has recognized Sir Shop as a top alumni-owned business, and Cummings was instrumental in the formation of the school’s football program, even arranging for the first game to be hosted at the Shamrock Bowl in 1981. Each have served in various organizations around town from the chamber of commerce to the Exchange Club. They are active members of their churches and support the athletic programs of all the area schools. 

They plan on stretching their 50th anniversary across the year with various promotions. With six employees, Cummings and Hoyt are starting to step back from their day-to-day duties at Sir Shop. But for now they are still answering the phone, helping customers and glad they made the move to Dublin.

“We’re just glad we came to Dublin,” Hoyt said. “It’s a great community and we’re glad we’re a part of it.”