Editor’s Note: This is the first of a regular series highlighting neighborhood businesses and the people who run them. This month: the Tremmel T-Shirt Company.
The Tremmel T-Shirt Company may be gone from Greenville Avenue, but that doesn’t mean its owners want the store and its T-shirts to be forgotten.
T.J. Tremmel, his wife and co-owner Jean Smith closed their shop earlier this year after a decade of business so they could operate a similar mail-order operation from their home.
After so many years in the retail business, mail-order can be quite a change.
“I really miss the parade of people that are always on Greenville Avenue,” Tremmel says. “The neighborhood is very quiet, and mail-order doesn’t have any interaction with people.”
For the past six years, the Tremmels have considered moving to Idaho or Colorado.
“With a mail-order business, we could live anywhere we wanted, so we started building up our mail-order bit by bit,” Tremmel says.
The Tremmels believe it is more convenient and less expensive for their customers to shop by mail than to drive to their old Greenville Avenue store.
“We are trying to show our customers that it is cheaper for us to pay their shipping (shipping is free when you buy three or more T-shirts) that it is to start up their cars,” Tremmel says.
“You don’t even have to leave your house, and if you have your order in by 3 p.m. you will have your shirt by the next day (in Dallas).”
The Tremmels are optimistic their new business will be a success. They have a customer base in all 50 states and 13 countries.
To receive a free catalog call, 275-4043.
