By Mike Hazlip—
When Stan Munoz began his career with JCPenny in the 1960s, a nice suit ranged between $80 to a little over $100, his first home in the area cost less than $20,000, his hourly wage was $1.09 and he wouldn’t think of displaying ripped jeans on the rack.
Now retired, Munoz is putting four decades of experience in retail to work volunteering at The Underground, a clothing store for families in the San Juan Unified School District who are struggling to make ends meet.
As a board member for Citrus Heights Homeless Assistance Resource Team (HART), Munoz can be found most Wednesdays and Saturdays at the store, sorting clothing items and helping student volunteers. After years in various roles at JCPenny, organizing displays comes second nature.
Munoz graduated high school in 1961, and he says JCPenny worked with him to adjust his hours so he could continue his education. When he finally graduated college and started working full-time for JCPenny, Munoz married his wife, Kathy in 1965. He calls her, “The all-star.”
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“My wife wouldn’t marry me until I had a job,” he said, adding the couple had been dating since high school. “We were married a week later. I said you can’t put a wedding together that fast, she said ‘watch.’ “
He continued working with JCPenny, eventually working his way up to district furniture representative for the company working in L.A., Alaska, California, and Washington offices while the couple raised their three children.
“I fit, and they encouraged me,” he said of his first few years at JCPenny. “It was a good match for me and I knew what I was stepping into before I stepped into it.”
Munoz first gained experience working at the Country Club store in the late 1960s before being transferred to a new store in the up-and-coming Sunrise Mall during the early 1970s.
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He couldn’t remember exactly how many stores he had a hand in managing over the years, but Munoz estimates the total is close to the number of moves the family has undertaken, 18. He recalled working with a store in Alaska where he says the people are very independently minded, while the L.A. location had the greatest amount of business for the company.
Munoz looks back fondly at his time with one of the nation’s most recognized brands, and remembers when regional malls were a hub of activity. Now, he says online shopping has changed the way consumers spend their money.
Today
After four decades, Munoz is back where it all started at Sunrise Mall. Only now, however, the clothes he displays have no price tag, and ripped jeans are in.
Munoz has helped build The Underground to look like the national brand retail stores he knows so well, rather than a free clothing shop for low-income families in the San Juan Unified School District.
After hearing students were embarrassed to receive donated items from the school’s clothes closet directly, HART volunteers worked with the management at Sunrise Mall to create the store, along with input from students. The Underground name itself was student driven, Munoz says.
Student volunteers also had a hand in dividing clothing items by age group. Donated items that are too out-of-date are displayed in the “Moms” or “Dads” sections.
“You know, it’s fun,” he said, describing how student volunteers contributed ideas for different sections in the store. “We developed all these shops, but we didn’t have some shops the high school kids told us we needed once we opened.”
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Munoz says he couldn’t think of a better way to share his experience from all those years in the retail industry.
“My attitude is: okay, I’m a lousy golfer, nobody will golf with me, I’m Christ centered,” he said explaining how his faith influenced his involvement with HART. “When I’m not here, what else could I do.”
He recalled an experience with a customer who he says demonstrated what motivates him to work with the organization.
“We ask them for their opinion when they leave,” he said of a girl who came to The Underground. “Believe it or not she wrote ‘If Christ was in the mall, would He go to Macy’s to help, or would He go to the Underground to help?’ I said ‘My dear, you don’t need to know anything more about religion, you’ve got it down.’ “
For Munoz, working with HART is a “hand up,” not a hand-out. He says the program brings different churches and denominations together for the same purpose, something he says is being copied in the newly formed Orangevale and Fair Oaks Homeless Assistance Resource Team. The Orangevale and Fair Oaks HART had their official kick-off meeting in June.
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The experience has made him more aware of the complex needs that often surround homelessness and poverty, he says. Prior to his involvement with HART, Munoz would have assumed homelessness was a result of substance abuse alone. Now he realizes mental illness plays a significant role in a more complex problem.
“I’ve learned a lot about people from working with HART,” he said. “Now I can recognize things so much easier. I want to help them in the right way.”
More information about the Citrus Heights Homeless Assistance Resource Team is available at www.citrusheightshart.org.
Publisher’s note: This article is the latest in an ongoing series of profiles The Sentinel is publishing, highlighting various community members from all walks of life. We would like to thank our paid subscribers for making this possible.
