With Retail Reopening, New Rochelle Business Owner Hopeful
NEW ROCHELLE, NY — A mainstay on New Rochelle's Main Street, The Curtain Shop has been in business since 1976. Besides curtains and window treatments, shoppers can browse kitchen accessories, clocks, gadgets, lamps and small appliances.
However, that was then and this is now.
Owner Louis Vaccaro, as well as myriad other small business owners, has taken a beating over the last three months, due to closing his shop because of New York on Pause and the stay-at-home mandate.
He told Patch that he is looking forward to retail stores being able to allow customers inside — albeit at 50 percent occupancy.
That, Vaccaro said, won't be a problem.
"We have 6,000 square feet," he said. "On my best day we would never meet that."
Vaccaro said being shut down filled him with anxiety, but he said he has been more fortunate than business owners in the food industry.
"I don't have things that spoil," he said, adding that Easter was a total loss because no one could buy those seasonal items then and won't buy them now.
Still, Vaccaro is ready to greet customers again.
In fact, Vaccaro's been ready since May 15 when Gov. Andrew Cuomo said regions that met the health-related metrics would be allowed to reopen construction, manufacturing and retail for curbside pickup.
"We had put up sneeze shields and had a stockpile of hand sanitizer," he said.
Vaccaro had even bought a couple thousand masks to protect his employees, but figures he could sell them to interested customers as well.
Unfortunately, the Westchester and the rest of the Mid-Hudson Region did not meet the requirements until May 26.
Nonetheless, The Curtain Shop is clean and sanitized and ready for customers to come inside.
"I'm not going to be in an environment that isn't safe for me," Vaccaro said.
He is hoping that the reopening will mean a way out of the all the past loss.
Vaccaro has a photography business as well which has been on hold during the shutdown.
For his shop, he's thinking that a lot of people won't be traveling so perhaps they will consider fixing up their home instead.
"Let's do the new draperies," Vaccaro said.
As for the rest of Main Street and New Rochelle, he feels that the area is ripe for growth — once the new coronavirus situation is stabilized or over.
"It sounds like people in Manhattan want to get the hell out of there," Vaccaro said. "Maybe they don't want to live in a dense area any more."
New Rochelle is currently building a lot of housing stock in the downtown area which is only a 45-minute train ride from Grand Central Terminal.
"I think New Rochelle is going to be fine with that," Vaccaro said.
Still, he said it's been a scary time and he's hoping 2021 will be an improvement.
"But I'm grateful that people we deal with — employees and clients — have been mindful that this is something nobody can do anything about," Vaccaro said. "It's a refreshing reminder that people are reasonable. They get it."
Like Hudson Valley Patches' Facebook Pages.
This article originally appeared on the New Rochelle Patch
