There’s a bit of a retail renaissance happening in Patchogue Village.
Paper Doll Curiosity Shoppe hosted a grand opening party Saturday on East Main Street, and people there were quick to point out that it’s one of several stores to have opened in the village in the past few months.
Three of those new shops offer clothing, apparel and more.
And at Paper Doll, it’s much more. Aside from vintage and retro clothes, you’ll also find vintage toys, hostess gifts, shot glasses, flasks, whigs, shoes, juggling balls (we can go on and on).
“There were a lot of niches to fill in Patchogue with retail, so we’re kind of trying to fill them all,” owner Dominique Maciejka told GreaterPatchogue last week.
Saturday’s event also attracted locally elected leaders who seemed elated with the latest grand opening.
“Downtowns are now a destination place for culture and entertainment, so when you get the retail shops, they’re not going to be run of the mill; they’re going to be their own destination,” said county Legislator Rob Calarco.
Patchogue Trustee Lori Devlin, also president of Patchogue Arts Council, said Paper Doll Curiosity Shoppe is “going to be a great addition to the community.”
“This really fits the direction things are going in,” Devlin said. “It’s going to be fantastic.”
The steady stream of new retail businesses comes about a year after chamber and business leaders began holding “retail summits” to help attract new shops to town — and better serve the existing ones.
But the new shops that have arrived did so organically.
Maciejka, who opened her Paper Doll Vintage in Sayville in 2012, said last year that Patchogue was actually the first area she looked at for her first brick-and-mortar location.
“It was up-and-coming, but it hadn’t quite up and came at that point, and the rent prices were similar to Sayville,” she said.
She then opened a second Paper Doll Vintage in Huntington in April of 2016.
“Now, we already have a reputation and a following,” she said.
And a downtown that has up and came.
PRIOR COVERAGE:
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