58 | NOVEMBER 14 • 2019
brought to you in partnership with
B I R M I N G H A M
here’s to
business SPOTlight
Gov. Gretchen Whitmenr
installed appointees on the
Michigan Strategic Fund
Board of Directors. The board
approves tax incentives
for business development
projects managed by the
quasi-governmental Michigan
Economic development
Corp. Among those installed
was Charles Rothstein of
Farmington Hills. He is the
founder and senior managing
director for the private equity
firm Beringea LLC.
‘It’s Been a Good Run’
Retiring clothier Ron Elkus looks ahead
to volunteer work and travel.
SHARI S. COHEN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
R
on Elkus, owner of
the popular Shirt Box
men’
s clothing store,
will miss some aspects of
his retail life when he retires
early in 2020. But mostly he
is grateful for the relation-
ships he has built
with customers
and for their loy-
alty to him during
the past 38 years.
When his plans
to close The
Shirt Box were
announced, Elkus, who is
60 and a Huntington Woods
resident, was shocked and
surprised at the reaction of
his customers. “I was over-
whelmed by the response.
They sent flowers, cakes and
gift certificates. The store is
being eulogized,” Elkus says.
Customers clearly appre-
ciate his approach to retail,
which he describes as “ser-
vice, price sensitivity and
relationships.” Some of those
customer relationships extend
over multiple generations.
When one of his customers
heard about Elkus’
retire-
ment, he expressed regret
because “I really wanted to
bring my grandson here.”
Elkus’
retail career began in
1981, soon after college grad-
uation, when he opened a
store selling shirts and ties in
a small house in Southfield.
Over the years, he expanded
his merchandise to include
virtually all components of a
man’
s wardrobe from shoes
and jeans to dress shirts
and outerwear. The Shirt
Box moved to a much larger
location on Northwestern
Highway in Farmington Hills
in 1987.
As customer needs and
habits changed, so did The
Shirt Box. “Casual Friday
became casual every day,” he
says. Today 60 to 65 percent
of his customers buy business
or dressy clothes compared to
90 to 95 percent in the past.
Customers range in age from
30 to 70 and come from all
over the Detroit area.
While Elkus added an
online presence, 95 percent
of sales occur in the store.
“Customers say they love
the brick and mortar. People
want those relationships,” he
says.
Elkus is pleased that the
store has continued to do well
but several reasons inspired
him to retire. He cites the
death of his longtime busi-
ness partner, Rod Brown, last
year, and the upcoming end
of the store’
s lease.
“I’
ve had a good run and
I’
m healthy,” Elkus says.
Owning the store made it
harder to travel and that will
be one of his priorities after
early 2020, the planned clos-
ing date.
He is training for anoth-
er charity cycling event for
Make a Wish. Elkus has par-
ticipated in its three-day, 300-
mile course for nine years
and promoted the event at
The Shirt Box.
Elkus has worked with
multiple organizations to help
a wide range of people in
the Jewish and general com-
munities. The Shirt Box has
donated clothes to Jackets for
Jobs — a program to “suit-
up” low-income job appli-
cations for job interviews.
Ron Elkus
Ron Elkus shows
dress shirts to cus-
tomer Tony Bordoley.
COURTESY OF CATALYST MEDIA
The Michigan Chapter of the American College
of Physicians has presented Jack D. Sobel,
M.D., dean of the Wayne State University School
of Medicine, with its Lifetime Achievement
Award, which is presented to a member who
has demonstrated a lifetime commitment to the
organization of internists. Sobel has also served WSU as chair
of Internal Medicine and chief of the Division of Infectious
Diseases. He is a distinguished professor of Internal Medicine.
U.S. Air Force Air National Guard Airman Dylan
M. Froling graduated from basic military
training at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland in
San Antonio, Texas. He completed an intensive
eight-week program. Froling is the son of Tom
and Kylee Froling of Beverly Hills.
Ben Falik has been named
chief program officer at Jewish
Family Service. Falik is current-
ly the principal of Do-ocracy,
a consultancy that provides
project management, public
speaking and freelance writing for social
impact initiatives and institutions. Before that,
he was the corporate social responsibility
lead for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, directing
its national volunteer program. He was Repair
the World’
s first Detroit director and, as a
college student, he was a founder of Summer
in the City, a nonprofit organization that, since
2002, has changed the impact that volunteers
have on Detroit and that Detroit has on volun-
teers. Falik also writes the “Jewfro” column
for the Jewish News.