the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, We call them “Destination Stores ” if you have a special spot with a unique product people will find parking . The Tobacco Shop of Ridgewood. & Davidoff Lounge is an example .Its called common sense! I know, it’s an old fashioned idea but something that is severely lacking nowadays.
Stores that have a commodity or service that is backed by good business have continued to prosper here in Ridgewood. Hillman, Country Curtains, Jekyl & Hyde, The Art Spot and Panico are examples of a few. Been in business a long time and continue to attract new customers. Mango use to be a good option but the last few years it’s grown stale, not a decline in business because of lack of parking but because the goods are pretty much the same stuff as 5 years ago. A place like Pazzazzed is stealing Mango’s thunder, better, more interesting goods.
If you offer a strong commodity or service, people will find parking, it’s worth the effort to walk a block or two. If it’s mediocre or lost its appeal, you won’t last.
Some business owners think because it’s Ridgewood, they are guaranteed to make money. As many have learned, that’s not the case. The owners of Novo tried the salad place, it didn’t work, now they have a restaurant that is currently successful. Did the salad place not work because there was no parking garage? No, because status quo with parking and now its success.
People like coming to the Village because it’s charming and for many their own towns don’t have a CBD. The worst thing this village could do would be to jam 4 or 5 massive high density building and an ugly, doesn’t fit on the lot garage. If they build that crap, I hope the 3 amigos have a huge plaque with their names and faces on it so all the people who see it and think “what the hell happened to Ridgewood” they can point to those plaques and go “right there, a very dark period in the Village’s history when the door was opened and a no good politician and his cohorts hijacked the place”.
