Morty Morgenstern never intended to be an entrepreneur. In 1983, when his father fell ill, he was given the choice to take over Morgenstern’s, his parents' department store. Opting for entrepreneurship over his training as an electronic technologist, Morty assumed the reins of the business that had originally opened across the street in 1968 as Morningstar. “When my dad tried to register the business name, he couldn’t. Morgenstern, translated from German means Morningstar, even though we’re Hungarian Jews,” Morty laughs. The shop relocated to its present address in the 1980s and expanded after the family purchased the adjacent building, Morty explains as he straddles the meridian where the two buildings merged.
While Morty never intended to run Morgenstern’s, he was intimately involved in the business from his college days, performing errands and picking up inventory for his dad. “Every Wednesday, I’d be schlepping it on the Greyhound with boxes of merchandise that I’d pick up from suppliers in Toronto and personally deliver to Hamilton,” Morty recalls with a smile.
Love this store and am a second generation shopper. My mom would take my sister and i there. I even send my daughter too if we can't find what we are looking for.