It was January, 1946. Irvin Alper and his younger brother Arnold were fresh out of the Army and looking for work. With a few hundred dollars borrowed from family they started Alpers' Jobbing Company in St. Louis, MO. Alpers' Jobbing bought Army Surplus goods at government auctions and sold those items to the Ar my Surplus retail stores that were popping up all over the United States.
Over the next several years the Alper brothers started specializing in footwear. The had relationships with several of the world's largest footwear manufacturers and resold over-stocked items as well as factory seconds to Army Surplus and independent shoe stores all over the world. |
"You will never be able to sell a pair of shoes over the internet!" |
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By 1996 Alpers' Jobbing had gone almost full circle and was selling Police and Military footwear to Army Surplus Stores and Uniform Stores. It was at that time that Arnold's son, Matt first brought up the idea of selling their products over the internet. Irvin Alper's reaction was "You will never be able to sell a pair of shoes over the internet!" Matt went out and registered the name CopShoes.com anyway.
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In the summer of 2003 Matt, who had been working as an independent computer consultant for the past 15 years (not in the family business), was out of work, and there were no new consulting projects to be found. It was a telephone conversation between Matt and his uncle Irvin (Arnold Alper passed away in December 1996) that started things moving. It was decided that Matt would administer CopShoes.com from his home in Texas and the orders would be filled at the St. Louis warehouse. |
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That was when things really took off. By October, 2004 CopShoes.com was accounting for half of Alpers' Jobbing Company's sales. Sadly, Irvin Alper passed away in his sleep (at age 85) that October. Matt and his sister Pam Gold bought out their other sister and their cousins and moved the business to San Antonio, TX where they both were living. |
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It Truly is a Family Affair. |
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Today, Alper-Gold Specialty Websites, a subsidiary of Alper's Jobbing, operates several websites including CopShoes.com, TacBoots.com, MetBoots.com , and OriginalSwatOnline.com . We currently have a team of people whose primary purpose is to serve you, our customer. Matt Alper runs the technical and web-marketing side of the business. Sid Gold (Pam Gold's husband) handles the warehouse and product purchasing and Brian Gold (Pam's son) is the sales manager. It truly is a family affair, and we are proud to serve you! |
