Beloved Neighborhood Mom & Pop Shop Robcyns Shutters its Doors 

Alexandria – Robcyns, a fixture in the Bradlee Shopping Center and an icon for generations of loyal customers, rang up its last sale on Saturday April 27 at 5:00 pm. The day before, when Zebra visited the store on 3660 King Street, the walls and racks, once filled with designer dresses and backpacks, were practically bare. Large signs announcing a liquidation sale with steep discounts filled the storefront windows. 

Many customers have been coming here for generations and remember the original owners, Pauline “Pat” and Morris Shweky. Pat was raised in the Syrian Jewish community in Brooklyn, New York. She and her husband first opened the shop in Arlandria in 1963. In 1986, they moved the store to the Bradlee Shopping Center. The shop is named for the couple’s two daughters, Robin and Cindy. The Shwekys retired and turned the reins over to their daughter Cindy Queen. Cindy then transferred the lease to Meghan Herzing, who’d worked in the shop for ten years and was a loyal customer herself. 

Just as Herzing took over the store in April 2020, the pandemic raged and shut everything down. “We never saw it coming,” she recalled.  

Herzing said COVID changed the way people shop and only accelerated the shift to online purchasing. “It is the end of an era,” Herzing reflected sadly. The brick-and-mortar has closed for good but Herzing will keep the business going via her website. The store sold designer children’s wear, women’s clothing, backpacks, shoes, and accessories. 

Over the years, you would see people walking over from Fairlington on the other side of King Street to browse at Robcyns. Herzing too lives in Fairlington and said that community was a huge client base.  

“People came here to shop for their kids and now come to shop for their grandkids. Two generations of people who knew Pat, who knew Cindy,” 

Herzing remarked wistfully. “It’s hard to find a store like that, it was nice to be a part of a store like that.”  

Herzing loved walking over to the store. “Being a New Yorker, I like walking to places. But it’s not just Fairlington. People walked over from down the street, from Beverly Hills. We had the best customers. It’s the whole Alexandria community. Fairlington is in Arlington but is close and part of this whole community feel.”   

During the fourteen years Herzing worked in the shop, she’d watch parents and children congregate in the store.  

“I always joked we should open a coffee shop because you would come in, everyone knew each other, from school or from dance or something. All the parents seemed to know each other, they would talk, it was a really nice feeling in the store,” Herzing recalled.  

“Heartbroken” is what customers were saying last Friday as they came to shop the liquidation sales and say goodbye.  

Lin Fetterman lives in Kingstowne but has been shopping at Robcyns for decades. She first came with her two small children. Now those children are grown and have children of their own. Fetterman came Friday to shop for her six grandchildren.  

“Through the pandemic, I was here a lot,” she said with a laugh. “Because, you know, we couldn’t get out and do things, so I would come in here and grab something for the grandkids to play with. Or to wear. Oh my gosh, the clothes are beautiful! Especially the baby ones.”  

When Fetterman first saw the liquidation signs, she at first thought the store was relocating. She was heartbroken to learn the shop she’d been visiting for two generations was closing. She begged the owner to find another shopping center with cheaper rents.  

“When I would tell other people about this store, here’s what I would say. I can always buy the perfect gift. Even if I’m not buying for my own children, I would come in here for birthday gifts because they had the special toys, different things that other stores didn’t have. I can’t leave the store without buying something. They just have beautiful things. Everything is quality, good quality. And a variety of things for a somewhat small store. It’s not a Macy’s. It’s not a huge store but they have everything.”  

The door opened and 52-year-old Aida Knowles walked in with her seven-year-old daughter Sofia. “My heart is broken,” she exclaimed to the owner. Knowles lives in Bailey’s Crossroads but grew up in Alexandria.  

“My mom, actually, used to buy my uniforms here when I was in preschool many many years ago so this store has been around for years and it means a lot to the community. We’re all very sad that it’s closing.”  

Knowles came here as a child with her mother. Now she brings her daughter. “This store has been around for a long time and I remember coming here as a little girl and now coming here with my children and watching them grow up, buying things from this store. I feel like a lot of families have done that, they get their school and Girl Scout uniforms here. This store does create this sense of community.”  

Fetterman wondered how she would replace Robcyns. “I am heartbroken,” she said. “There isn’t another store like this that I go to period. I don’t know another store like this. So now where do I go to buy the gifts?”  

In May of last year, a driver was hospitalized after she drove her car into Robcyns. But neither that misfortune nor crime at Bradlee are the reasons Herzing is closing shop. Rather the pandemic and its aftermath sealed the store’s fate.  

“COVID has changed the way people shop,” Herzing noted. “Parents work from home and they shop from home. I get it. Everything has changed. The way people dress has changed. People right now prefer to shop online, you can order something from Amazon and get it the same day. We’ve always had our loyal customers, don’t get me wrong. They didn’t drop off. The first year after COVID was very difficult because the rents are very high.”  

“I’m relieved, in a way,” Herzing concluded. Because it’s been a long road since COVID. I’m going to miss the customers, I’m so sad about the customers. I’ll have a website, and we’ll see what happens after that.”  

Online ordering will be up and running in August.