OCEAN CITY — B&B Department Store in downtown Ocean City isn’t going anywhere.
Jeffrey Davidson said last week the staff at the Asbury Avenue business was hearing unfounded rumors that it was closing and he wanted to “nip those rumors in the bud.”
Davidson, the senior vice president of B&B and son of owner Dave Davidson, said the store just went through a major renovation last spring and is going strong.
A year ago, the owner of B&B South at the Ocean City location announced she was closing her business, but the Davidson family, which has owned the building since 1986, immediately took over the space, renovated it and quickly reopened.
B&B also has locations in Lavalette, Beach Haven, Seaside Park and Ship Bottom.
“We love the town, we love the store. We’re not going anywhere,” Davidson said.
“I’ve been running B&B in Lavelette and Seaside Park since 1998,” Davidson said. “We know B&B, we have experience with B&B, technically we’re the original B&B. My family took over the Seaside Park store in 1974. That store’s been around since 1909. That was the first and the original B&B.”
Davidson said the family is “absolutely” bullish on the future of B&B in Ocean City and has learned through its first year of having it back under their operations.
“We opened it last year and we doubled the orders from Seaside Park and Lavalette, trying to figure out what the store should sell, based on 2006, which was the last time we had it,” Davidson said. “So we actually made some wrong assumptions …. We had problems with logistics, but we still had a very good year in Ocean City over seven months” in 2022.
“This year we know the store better, we know what the people are asking for. We’re trying actively to get Vineyard Vines back in the store because we have a lot of people asking for that,” Davidson said. “We’re very bullish on Ocean City.”
Davidson believes he knows the source of the rumors.
“We’re very positive and we think people are going to be very positive about the store” as it gears up for another busy summer season in downtown Ocean City.
B&B is at 827 Asbury Ave. It offers a large selection of beach apparel and swimwear and a wide variety of other items geared to the Jersey shore. It also has distinctive decor. For more information, call (609) 391-0046.
By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
