An almost six-decade-old Wichita business is closing due to the pandemic

In January, Devon Luggage owner Richard Means had a conversation with his wife about how much longer he was going to keep the longtime Delano store open.

“The store was still making good money, and my health is good, and I was enjoying it,” said the 70-year-old.

“Then March came,” Means said. “It just sort of died.”

Like other nonessential businesses, the store at 618 W. Douglas just west of Delano’s clock tower closed and didn’t reopen until June.

“The business just did not come back,” Means said. “No one’s getting on an airplane; no one’s getting on a cruise.” For people traveling by car, “You don’t get new luggage. You don’t even get what you have fixed.”

At the end of this year, Means will close the store for good.

“It just didn’t make any sense to try to keep the company going.”

Means’ father-in-law, Robert Fullinwider, started the business as Devon Case Co. in 1962. Devon was his middle name, and he used it so no one would confuse it with his self-named insurance business.

Fullinwider made custom cases.

The cases held “all kinds of unique (things) back in the day when everything wasn’t done on a tablet,” Means said. “You had to have a lot of folders.”

Fullinwider made trunks, too, and added repairs and other sales.

Means worked for his father-in-law out of high school and then on and off in college before buying the business in 1974.

Since then, he said he’s watched “all the radical changes in luggage.” That included the advent of wheels on luggage. Before then, he said, “If you wanted to move your luggage around, you put it on a luggage cart.”

Online sales affected his business but never seriously hurt it, Means said.

“We had some unique lines . . . that kept us going.”

Now, everything in the store is on sale.

“We still have a great deal of inventory to get rid of,” Means said.

He’d stocked up on merchandise for graduations — his second-biggest season following Christmas — but sales never materialized.

Most items are 25% to 60% off, and some smaller items are 75% off.

The popular Briggs & Riley line is at least 25% off, which Means said is lower than anywhere else nationally.

What Means can’t sell by the end of the year, he said his grandkids can help him sell online. He hopes to sell his repair tools as well.

Means said his customers are wondering where they’ll get their luggage fixed in the future.

“It’s a question I get asked virtually every day now.”

Means co-owns the building Devon Luggage is in or he said he never would have been able to last this long this year. He plans to remodel the 2,200-square-foot space and lease it next year.

Before the pandemic hit, Means had hoped to one day sell his business. He’s had a few inquiries over the years, but none now.

“You don’t know when this thing’s going to turn around,” he said. “Small retail businesses are tough anyway.”

Though Means said he’s not devastated financially — he never went into debt on his inventory — he’s down.

“I’m a little sad about it,” he said. “I worked six days a week all of those years.”

Means said his “customers are the best part of it.”

“I’m going to miss coming in here.”

This story was originally published September 28, 2020 at 2:30 PM.