St. Armands toy store to closeSARASOTA -- After 38 years as a Sarasota merchant, Jenny Lenz is trading the beach for the mountains.
She will close The Alphabet Shop toy store on St. Armands Circle by the end of May and open a similar store in the western North Carolina town of Waynesville.
She says the flow of customers has slowed -- and rent that tops 11 grand a month doesn't help.
On Monday, Lenz and her two remaining employees were letting customers know that everything is priced at 20 percent off the sticker.
Even so, the four-week sale could leave her with sizeable quantities of Papo Figures, Groovy Girls and cartons filled with the wooden railway system operated by Thomas The Tank Engine and Friends.
No problem. Those just get packed into a rental truck and driven to North Carolina.
Lenz has operated The Alphabet Shop at its present location for 10 years, but business has slowed.
"The traffic on the circle just isn't what it used to be," said Lenz. "It just didn't happen this year."
She said she needs to be out by June 1. She figures her last day will be May 26 or 27.
On St. Armands, Lenz must pay property taxes as part of the rent, and property taxes are rising quickly, right along with land values. In Waynesville, she said, the landlord pays the taxes, and rental rates come out to be much more reasonable.
"We never pay enough in real estate taxes, so I always get a bill in February or March for the overage," she said.
On Monday, Lenz and her manager Pam Manzer looked through a catalog together, preparing to place an order for Black Bear Collection pajamas and outfits for infants and children. The goods Lenz orders now will be delivered to Waynesville, where she is opening her new store, to be called Blue Ridge Rug Ratz.
In Waynesville, which Lenz says has a good flow of pedestrian shoppers, the same size store in the downtown shopping district would cost her about one-sixth as much as she is now paying on St. Armands -- $1,650 a month versus $11,200.
For now, she is subletting space within a larger retail emporium called Towne Square.
"It is like 600 feet for $850 a month," she said. "Doesn't that sound less stressful?"
She wants to upgrade to a larger retail space later, she said, but plans to open in the middle of June.
Lenz became enthusiastic about Waynesville after some friends bought a home there recently.
"I was there a day and I said 'I'm moving here. I love it,'" she said. "Everybody still says 'Hi' to everybody else. It is going back in time, a little bit."
Waynesville's retail business starts to pick up in April, she said, and is strong through the warm summers and the cooler leaf-viewing season of fall. Since she is selling toys, she expects to keep going strong into December. The slowest months are January, February and March, Lenz said.
Lenz started her career as a Sarasota merchant at Gulf Gate Mall in 1968.
The store started with jewelry. Then she changed it into a trend store, featuring cards and funny T-shirts.
When she moved the store to 386 St. Armands Circle 10 years ago, she changed the focus again, this time to toys.
Though Lenz looks forward to the next chapter of her retailing career, leaving The Alphabet Shop after a decade is not easy for her.
"The hardest part of it is saying good-bye to the kids I watched grow up over the last 10 years."
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