THROOP -- For generations, parents and teachers have been shopping for school supplies at one business in Lackawanna County.
That will come to an end next month when Hoban's Parent-Teacher Store closes.
Hoban's has been the go-to spot for parents and teachers around our area for decades.
Now its owners said it's time to close up shop after a steady drop in business and they found a buyer for the store and warehouse in the Dunmore area.
The shelves inside Hoban's Parent-Teacher Store in Throop are looking more and more bare.
Everything is 50% off while the owners prepare to say goodbye next month.
"I can't believe we`re going. This happened really, really fast that we got an offer on the table. For the building. It just happened so fast, had to make a decision, way business had been going this is the right thing," said owner Frank Hoban.
Hoban said his family started selling school supplies more than 80 years ago.
At one point, Hoban's was based in downtown Scranton and then moved out to the Keystone Industrial Park in the Dunmore area.
"We have shopped here as long as it's been open and in their prior store as well," said Gail Laskowski of Lake Ariel.
Laskowski is disappointed to see Hoban's go. She said the brick-and-mortar stores that sell books, pencils are important to teachers.
"You can actually see the materials, you can handle them, you can look through the books, so you're really sure of what you're getting."
The business landscape for schools, especially Catholic schools has changed so much in the last decade or so, according to Hoban. Many closed or consolidated, leaving his bread and butter business going by the wayside.
So has the kind of education that uses hands-on items such as toys, games and even books.
So much of it, Hoban said, is done on computers now.
Somethings not computer-based are the face-to-face relationships Hoban's has built with customers.
"Lots of them. Personal friends we would have never known if we didn't have this business."
Hoban's owners said they're not ruling out coming back in a smaller form someday.
They tell Newswatch 16 the company moving to its store and warehouse will run some kind of wholesale business, but wouldn't say what exactly.
