By Roberto Hugo Gonzalez
As originally published by Texas Border Business newsprint edition March 2018
In October of 1987, I had the opportunity to meet two great businessmen to do an interview. This was at a time when we were Texas Border Digest, some thirty-one years ago. The Jones & Jones store they owned and operated in La Plaza Mall was their flagship store. Having landed this interview was paramount for me; today, I republish the story.
Since that time, that store was moved to the north end of McAllen; the space they occupied at La Plaza is now Macy’s. Please take into consideration this additional comment, I am trying to preserve the article the way we wrote about the Joneses.
When you hear the words Jones & Jones and you live in or near the Rio Grande Valley, the first thing that comes to mind is quality merchandise. Fine dishes and fine jewelry are within the fabric that makes up Jones & Jones.
Jones & Jones, in case you need an introduction is a department store in the La Plaza Mall of McAllen. Currently it’s under the direction of Jim Jones and his son Lan.
Since 1927, the Joneses have been operating in the Valley. Jim Jones gives much credit to his parents for where Jones & Jones is today.
“I was born into this business a long time ago and Lan was born into this business about twenty-two years later,” he says. “My folks started this store when McAllen was a very small town, perhaps three thousand people in 1927. They always carried things that were just a little bit finer than the average person would want to buy. Whether it be dishes or other kinds of tableware or gifts; it was always of fine quality.”
He continued, “When I graduated from the University of Texas, we added furniture and children’s clothes, and a few years later, we added ladies fashion, which are now probably the biggest part of the operation.”
It was approximately 1965 when Jim Jones took over the operation of the company. “I just grew up in the business,” he says.
The elder Jones is proud of the contributions his son has added to the business since joining him. Lan Jones brings with him a younger viewpoint to the business. He maintains the computerization of the day to day transactions along with other responsibilities within the firm. At the present time he’s putting together a new computer system that Jim Jones says, “should make our bookkeeping go smoother, and hopefully, we’ll make the store operate better for all concerned.”
How a store selling specialty items priced over the range of the average citizen stays in business during hard times is one question that begs to be asked.
“Peso devaluations are not new and never pleasant,” says Jim Jones. “We moved into this building twelve years ago, about a year before a major peso devaluation. That gave us concern because this was a new venture at that time.”
“In the last year and a half or two, we have seen our Mexican friends recover.” He continued, “Five years ago, we were hit with another major peso devaluation which hurt our business more than the first one because our business had actually become too good. We were doing a lot with Mexico (shoppers). That pretty well came to a halt for a year or two.”
“In the last two years, we have seen our Mexican friends recover and gradually become good customers again,” he says. “They had to be absent for a while because their peso wouldn’t buy anything.”
Jones says they have come to live with the devaluation of the peso and that it had a good overall effect on the business. “The gradually controlled devaluation of the peso is really very good for our business because there won’t be any more rude shocks to the Mexicans.”
Lan stresses that the store in the mall was not built on the anticipation of Mexican business. “We did enjoy some Mexico business at our downtown store, but we built this building and this business without the idea of doing a lot of Mexico business.”
The company was built on the anticipation of a wide range of clients and customers from San Antonio and throughout South Texas. “From Corpus Christi, San Antonio, Laredo and Brownsville,” he says, “there are a lot of people that enjoy shopping at our store.”
Jim supports that assessment by adding that a surprising number of shoppers come from North Texas, out of Texas, and further up north. Jones describes these customers for the most part, as Island visitors coming for just short whiles at a time. ”Those people are very good customers,” he says. “The nature of the Island visitors, is that they want to spend a little more money when they’re on vacation.”
From its humble beginnings as a rental library in 1927 run by the mother of Jim Jones, Jones & Jones has progressed into a very big spoke in the wheel of life here in the Valley. ‘The Patio’ restaurant at the Mall location is just another of the various offerings for the very valued customers of the business. “My mother started this business as a rental library… that was our very foundation,” says Jim, “and we still have a very good book department.”
Service, according to Lan, is a very big part of customer relations. Not just when something is wrong but as soon as a customer walks into a department, he is in the presence of a manager. “We’ve got a manager in every department,” he says. “When a customer comes in, he’s real close to a manager.”
Service, style, and selections can probably best sum up the creed followed by Jones & Jones. For sixty years it has been providing the cut-above customer with cut-above merchandise. TBD
This article was published in October of 1987 by Roberto Hugo Gonzalez. Both Jim and Lan are in heaven. They were exceptional businessmen and example citizens. They gave back to these communities without regard.
James Landon Jones Sr. Obituary
James Landon Jones Jr. Obituary
