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July 14, 2025
TWO RIVERS – Located in historic downtown Two Rivers, Schroeder’s Department Store has redefined what it means to be family-owned – transcending from a retail establishment to a community cornerstone through more than a century of dedication to its city.
AJ Schroeder – one of Schroeder Department Store’s fourth-generation owner-operators – said passion and perseverance have allowed her family’s business, which got its start in 1891, to achieve its longevity along Wisconsin’s lakeshore.
“[Schroeder’s is] a total mishmash of ideas [from] years of being in business and [the need to] keep persevering through everything,” she said. “You have to be passionate to work here.”
More than a bit of history
Located at 1623 Washington St., AJ said the building Schroeder’s has called home for more than a century was not its original location.
“We started in 1891 on a different corner [in Two Rivers],” she said. “[Then] in 1899, we built [the building] where we are currently. It was like a two-step process – they built the main, three-story building in 1899, and then in 1916, they added on to the three-story structure.”
Several decades after the store’s last expansion, AJ said her family then decided to buy the building immediately next door to Schroeder’s.
“In 1974, I think, we purchased the building right next to us, busted through [the conjoining wall] and made that a part of our footprint also,” she said.
Then, in 2008, AJ said she and her sister, Theresa Kronforst, took over operations of the store, and, despite several concurrent misfortunes, got to work.
“We joke that in 2009, two bar stools at Kurtz’s [Pub & Deli had] our names on them, because Kurtz’s got us through [that year],” she said. “The economy was in the tank, our dad had just died, my godfather retired, another main person in the store decided to retire and they pretty much said, ‘You’re in charge.’”
Their lunches at Kurtz’s, AJ said, were spent with a sandwich, a notebook and a beer as she and Theresa worked to “figure out how to make this work” – tapping into the determination she said they got from their father, John.
“He battled cancer for a short nine months and died at the end of 2008 – he was given two weeks to live, [but] he, of course, proved that wrong several times,” she said. “We’re stubborn.”
AJ said being strong-willed served her, Theresa and other sister, Liz Schroeder – another fourth-generation owner who AJ said “supports us through her shopping” – well, as the three figured out how to take their family’s business into the next century.
“My sisters and I are headstrong, and we don’t really take kindly to the word ‘no’ – which I think is probably a good thing – and we just figured it out,” she said. “We do have a board of directors that we answer to, but they pretty much even said, ‘You guys know what you’re doing. If you need to run stuff by us, go for it.’ We meet on a regular basis with them, and they’re more than happy to help us with anything, but they [more or less] let us do what we want.”
That, AJ said, was a big change in attitude between the second and third generations of Schroeder’s owner-operators.
“The way my godfather – who’s actually a second cousin – explained it to me [is] the second generation, when they retired, they never really walked away,” she said. “They meddled a lot in the third-generation’s management of the store, and that annoyed them. So, when my dad died [and the third-generation owners] retired, they decided they were not going to meddle – they were going to let the fourth generation do whatever the heck they wanted.”
With the threat of big-box retail chains moving into their backyard even before they took over operations, AJ said they had their work cut out for them.
Maneuverability = longevity
Even prior to the existence of global chains, AJ said the retail industry wasn’t always smooth sailing – especially in a small community like Two Rivers, where a store can, and often does, serve numerous purposes.
“In 1903… we were taking farmers’ goods, giving them credit in the store and then selling their goods for them,” she said. “Peter, [one of the four founding Schroeder brothers], got a letter from the U.S. government saying ‘you need to cease and desist what you’re doing, because you’re running a bank.’ Well, in true Schroeder fashion, we thought, ‘hold my beer. We’re going to open a bank.’”
Thus, the Two River Savings Bank was born, AJ said – operating for roughly two decades before merging with Tisch Mills State Bank in Mishicot in 1932.
“Then, the corner [of the building the bank was in] became [an expansion of] our children’s clothing department,” she said. “That’s where that [section] resided for a while [before] 1997 when, at the suggestion of my grandma, we opened up the coffee shop.”
Red Bank Coffeehouse – the name paying tribute to her great uncles’ stint in the financial industry – AJ said, is still operating today, as Schroeder’s children’s section never made a comeback.
“We closed the children’s department when Walmart came to Manitowoc because my dad was like, ‘Walmart’s going to kill us on prices for kids’ clothing,’ and we didn’t want to fight,” she said. “We wanted better quality children’s clothing, but we figured people weren’t going to pay for it. So, we changed that whole model up and expanded our gifts [selection] and opened the coffee shop.”
Being a local, family-owned business, AJ said, meant they could nimbly shift their product and service offerings to the needs of their customers – and if Walmart was fulfilling one need, Schroeder’s was going to address another.
“A lot of it has to do with paying close attention to our product that we sell,” she said. “We don’t carry Walmart-quality products. We know we cannot beat them at their game, so we’re not going to play that game.”
However, carrying “better quality merchandise” than that of big-box stores, AJ said, is only one contributing factor to Schroeder’s longevity and success.
“We’ve never strayed from what [the founding] brothers started their business [on] – quality and service, and that was it,” she said. “We make sure we always have somebody in the department. We make sure we measure people’s feet, for instance, or we measure them for a dress shirt, [and] we hold pretty tightly to that [level of service].”
Dedication to service
AJ said the four founding Schroeder brothers – Peter, John, Joseph (her great-grandfather) and Frank – started the business on the idea that continues to differentiate it from their competition: if you’re working or shopping at Schroeder’s, you’re family.
“They’re not family members, but we try to drive home that you are part of our family, even though you may not share our blood,” she said. “So, I guess that’s probably the main difference here – we value everybody.”
And in order to further value their customers’ continued support, AJ said Schroeder’s doesn’t sell any of its merchandise online.
“I think some people think they have to sell online [saying], ‘Everybody’s selling online, [so] you have to sell online,’” she said.
AJ said at one point, she and Theresa had to convince Schroeder’s board of directors not to open an online store.
“We fought the board of directors on that because they wanted us to sell online,” she said. “Theresa and I, we’re not 75, we’re not 20 years old – I mean, we’re both in our 40s – but we realize there is something to be said for being able to touch the products, shop and be helped. So, we realize that we’re probably missing a segment, because we don’t sell online, but we cannot replicate service online, and you can’t replicate the feeling people get when they walk into the store.”
Even customers who aren’t originally from Two Rivers, AJ said, will find themselves feeling nostalgic when shopping at Schroeder’s.
“We hear [people saying] all the time, ‘Oh, my gosh, I grew up with a store like this in my hometown, and now it’s closed,’” she said. “We greet people, and we offer to carry their packages to their cars… because if that were me or my mom, I would want somebody to help.”
Though Schroeder’s built its name and success on old-fashioned service, AJ said modern marketing tools are what help sustain it.
“My dad would always say the only thing that stays the same is change – you either change or you die,” she said. “So, I think that’s the other thing. You adhere to service and quality, [but] you have to keep yourself relevant and on top of it.”
Social media, AJ said, has proven to be an extremely useful tool – both in promoting the store as it stands today and sharing its nearly century-and-a-half history.
“While social media is amazing, and probably has helped our business more than anything has ever helped our business… we [still use it to] promote… [that] we’re still the same, family-owned business and we’re still here,” she said.
Though the store experiences its seasonal ups and downs, AJ said she believes it’s their dedication to serve the Two Rivers community that has fostered a similar, reciprocated dedication to Schroeder’s among its customers.
“My sister and I volunteer a lot,” she said. “We try to give back as much as we can to this community because it’s done us a tremendous service.”
To learn more about Schroeder’s Department Store, its products and services, visit its website (schroederstore.com) or social media pages.
