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BY ABBY FOX
The economic uncertainty we’re living in is making many people stay home and save their money, but several Main Street businesses say they’re hanging on and they think they’re going to make it after all.
The businesses who feel they’re on the sunny side of the street have one important trait in common: the confidence that comes with years of experience in their work and a long-standing relationship with customers.
One example is Leslie Mignarri, owner of the Bridal Garden. “We’ve been in business 12 years,” she said.
Jobs may come and jobs may go, but people still want to fall in love and marry, and Mignarri has read that the wedding industry is supposed to grow another seven percent, until 2013. While people may consider going to restaurants a “luxury,” many women of them are still getting married, she said thanks in large part to the Internet, which more people are relying on to meet their match; Mignarri estimates that a good 50 percent of her customers met their husband, thanks to match.com, or e-harmony.com or another dating site.
“It’s a good industry to be in,” she said. A family member may bake the wedding cake, or women may arrange their own flower bouquets, but it’s hard for most women to imagine a wedding without a proper dress.
Besides weddings, “we’re doing a ton of bridal parties,” she said. “Bridal parties are getting bigger; people are still getting the money to have them.”
As to how the economy will rise or fall over the next year, “Everyone has to wait it out,” she said, practically. “If you have a job, try to keep it.”
The unemployment reality hit Mignarri a few weeks ago when she got about 300 responses for an ad on craiglist.com, asking for Saturday help. “Everyone’s cutting expenses, wherever they can, to get by,” and wedding dresses are no exception, but they’re still being bought.
“I’m not going to lie; it has not been easy,” says Lois Hollingsworth, owner of ZuZu’s Petals, which has been on Main Street since July. But Hollingsworth has steered ZuZu’s for 20 years, since she opened up a shop on Thayer Street on Providence’s East Side.
“We are very determined,” she said. “We don’t give up easily – and that’s not to say it’s been easy.”
Fall was “tough,” she said. “We got behind a little bit, but we’ve been in business so long and we have lines we’re committed to.” Hollingsworth admitted to “a lot of nights awake, stressed,” with a knot in her stomach.
To keep head above water, “We had to slash our orders a little bit,” she said, and now, “we don’t take a lot of chances. If we’re not 100 percent sure, we’ll cut it, whereas before, we’d say, ‘Let’s give it a try.’ We’d rather do smaller orders and re-order.”
At winter’s tail end, “We’re in survival mode,” she said. “We want to stay; that’s all we want to do. Just keep going.”
Lunch places like Panache and dinner places like Trattoria Del Corso haven’t made it and “It’s so sad; it’s really sad,” to see businesses on Main Street leave. “We hope businesses don’t go,” she said. “That’s not good for anybody.”
Indeed, “I think this area is a great area,” she said. “It’s a nice bridge to North Kingstown and South County. It’s so easy to get to. People are friendly and there are nice places to eat.”
Hollingsworth feels extremely fortunate that Main St. Music, the former tenant, moved to King Street when it did, last spring. If the building opened up a year later, she said, she doubts she would have been able to set up shop here, not in this recession.
“I love my space,” she said. “We love East Greenwich. Here, everyone comes together. It’s a great group of people, they’re really pro-active.”
Plus, she said, many of her customers know that her lines, such as Nicole Miller, are the kind that “they’re not going to find somewhere else” – at least not nearby, in a comfortable driving distance.
“If I didn’t have a reputation,” she said, and a well-known store on Thayer Street, where she can send customers to if they don’t find what they need here, it would be a different story. Being able to say, “If you don’t have your size, I’ll get it for you,” helps.
“It’s been a lot of juggling,” she said. And it’s required doing a lot more of the kind of work she didn’t need to do in richer times, such as working the fashion shows. “Anything we can do to say, ‘Hey, we’re still here and we still love you,” she said, they will do.
Yet she remembers tough times before: previous recessions, and during 9/11, when “parties and celebrations were cut; people were in such a bad mood.”
So, “unless something terrible happens, I think we’ll be OK,” she summed up.
Steve Cinquegrana at Main Street Coffee said, “It’s getting scarier every day. We’re feeling it on Main Street, because people are afraid of losing their jobs. At some point, they’re not going to come in and spend money.”
While the coffee side of his business is “down a little,” he said, the intimate adjacent bar “more than makes up for it.” People drink out – “they don’t want to drink at home. ‘Misery loves company.”
In conclusion, “We’ll weather the storm,” he said. What else can you do?” Being able to own his own business makes a difference, too. “We don’t have to come up with the rent; we’ve got it three-quarters beat.”
“It was scary through the winter, but I think it’s going to be OK,” said Sandy Levinson, who has been dress-making formal wear for 15 years and has owned Sassy and Classy for two-and-half years.
“It was a slow winter, but I see enough people coming in for spring weddings; it’s looking promising,” she said. “It seems to be picking up every day and I hope it continues.”
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