Michael and Shari Zuckerman, owners of The Toy Shoppe in Setauket, aren't leaving town quietly.
The couple on Wednesday and moving the business to North Carolina, where they claim the market for mom and pop retail is alive and well, something that can't be said about Long Island, according to them.
"This town, like many other Long Island towns, does not support its local stores. Many people in the town refused to step foot in the store for reasons we can’t put a finger on. The sentiment we got was that because we were small, we had to be overpriced. While true we were small, we held our line on price and service the big boys would have been jealous of," they wrote.
"If Long Islanders, and Three Village residents do not open their eyes, they will be without so many small stores they expect to find when they need them."
The pinch that small businesses feel these days as a result of the heavy congestion of Big Box retail on the North Shore of Suffolk County and more interest in consumers for shopping online has contributed to the emptying out of main streets like the ones in Kings Park, Smithtown, Upper Port Jefferson and Rocky Point as well as strip malls in places such as Commack and Port Jefferson Station where a mom and pop can be neighbor to an anchor tenant big-box store.
But the claims of the Zuckermans beg the question: Do you support your mom and pops? And, in your opinion, what needs to be done to keep small business on Long Island?
Let us know in the comments.
Almost every business I can think of on 25A in Stony Brook, Setauket and Port Jeff is a "Mom and Pop" and most have been there my whole life. They should be thankful they didn't own a hardware store when Ace moved in or a sporting goods store when Sports Authority showed up.
I can attest to the fact that NY has the most oppressive business taxes and in general a very difficult place to do business. That alone is reason to leave, but myself, I would gladly pay a little more to shop in a local place that's part of the community.
News flash! If we are spending all of our money on taxes what makes these politicians/unions think we can afford an economy?
It's survival of the Fittest in our Economy...and if this business was any example of general ineptness and lack of Talent.
Good luck to those who are moving their businesses to more affordable locations but beware, wherever we take ourselves we are still there and unless we change how we operate our businesses the same thing will keep happening over and over again.
There are no guarantees in the "American Dream", but the opportunities are available... all it takes is a little bit of ability, a lot of perserverance, and a great deal of luck. And because of that last part, an "if at first you don't succeed..." attitude is also essential, as is a sense of self-responsibilty. While I'll give the Zuckermans credit for being willing to try again, I think they need to do some serious soul-searching to consider the probability that it wasn't everybody else's fault they weren't successful.
WHY anyone would open something like a toy store in downtown Port Jefferson these days, has lots of discretionary income sitting around, and isn't looking to establish a Business, but a hobby.
Now that being said, Let us clear this up: we advertised quite a bit, and it is exhaustively expensive in NY. Try paying 6k a month in rent, keep the electric on, pay the insurance and then advertise for 2k a pop. Not easy. Good luck in NY, we will be happy with less expense in NC.