Foxy and Winston has been a staple in Red Hook for nearly a decade, but area residents will soon not be able to buy their textiles, stationery, paper goods and accessories anymore.
Jane Buck’s store has been on Van Brunt Street across from Fort Defiance for nine years but will be closing on April 30 due to the decline in customers in recent years. This is disappointing for Buck, but she believes her store was an asset for the area.
“I do think it is sad that all of us who started out, they say ‘you were a pioneer because you have been here so many years,’ I wouldn’t call myself a pioneer but I definitely think that we did all help to make the place desirable for the people who are now moving into the neighborhood who can afford the rents that are now being charged,” Buck said. “I will miss the store, and I will miss everyone.”
The store will be closing because the foot traffic has drastically declined in the last few years. Foxy and Winston gets much fewer customers than when she first opened.
“It peaked in about 2015 and 2016 and it has been downhill ever since,” Buck said. “I am not really sure what the reason is for it. I am assuming it is people internet shopping.”
Buck thinks that many of her repeat customers have been forced out of the area because of high rent, which has caused them to move to places such as Upstate New York, Detroit and Philadelphia. She has noticed that the regulars at her store have dropped off drastically.
An indication that closing the store soon would be wise came to her after the holiday season in December.
“This past Christmas was a bust,” Buck said. “Lots of people who I might normally see once a year didn’t come in at all. I don’t know if they just shopped online. December is my busiest time of the year.”
“The summer is always the quietest time of the year and I suppose that leads to why I am closing at end of April,” Buck said. “There is no point hanging on for the summer when summer is the quietest time of the year because then I would be in a position where I would need to buy stock and I wouldn’t have money to buy any to go into Christmas and the busy season.”
She will be having a substantial sale on items on her website as well as on items bought in store until the end of the month.
Buck will be upstate, where she lives now, for part of this time period but someone will be working in the store while she is away. The store’s hours will be Wednesday through Sunday from noon until 6 pm.
Everything in her store is starting off being 20 percent off every day, but many of her items have already been on sale since Christmas. She thinks she will add a further sale as it gets closer to the end of April, but she doesn’t want the shop to look more barren than it is.
“I’ve got quite a lot of weeks to get through, and I don’t want the shop to look empty,” Buck said. “Maybe in a week or so it will go down more but I don’t like to commit because it is looking so thin that it’s hard to gauge.”
“I was hanging in there all these years because we all thought it was going to suddenly get better,” Buck said. “It has just taken a nose dive and it has gotten so much worse.”
Proving how little business she has done of late is that she has had weekdays consisting of $0 profit days, $20 profit days and $60 days. Furthermore, it costs her $200 alone to be open for a day.
Since announcing that she will be closing at the end of the month and sharing this news on Facebook she has recently gotten a spike in business compared to previous weeks.
As of April 6, business had only picked significantly in the previous two weeks.
“Yesterday (4/5) I did (sold) $1,300, which is unheard of for a Thursday,” Buck said. “The Thursday before I did (sold) $50. Last Friday, after I made my announcement on Facebook, I did (sold) $1,500, but the prior Friday I did $20. Everyone has come out of the woodwork now, but it is too little too late, and unfortunately there is no coming back from it now.
Foxy and Winston has sold a wide range of merchandise, some made by Buck and some not, that people could use for a variety of purposes.
People would come in often for soaps and candles. She sold children’s gifts like Danish stuffed animals, tiny miniature tea sets and suitcases. The shop owner branched out to have a nautical theme since Red Hook is surrounded by water, so she got creative by selling mermaids and hooks shaped like a seahorse.
She really sold a wide mixture of unique things for people to enjoy.
“I sold pillows, mazes, pitchers and lovely glass paper weights,” Buck said. “A real mixture of home décor, children’s things and then gift things.”
When she first opened the store, she stuck to selling things that she personally made, which included cards for weddings, onesies and dish towels. As she got to be part of the community and further know her customer base, she realized that Van Brunt Street needed a store that sold more than she did at the time, so she expanded her merchandise to include possible gifts for various occasions.
“They need a housewarming gift, or a weekend host’s gift, and all the usual stuff like Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Valentine’s Day and graduation,” Buck said referring to various occasions that she sold gifts for.
According to Buck, her store at 392 Van Brunt Street, was a great location that was opposite many restaurants. She used to get good foot traffic, before her recent downturn, from people seeing the store and being curious.
She also realizes that having a store like hers on Van Brunt is different that having a store on Smith Street in Carroll Gardens.
“Van Brunt is not a typical street,” Buck added. “My daily intake wouldn’t be anything near someone on Smith Street, for example, but then my rent was much cheaper, so it is all relative. I probably had the best spot on the street for a retail shop, and I am sure whoever takes it might do well.”
Her store, Foxy and Winston, was originally a studio and shop to sell things she made and then it evolved into a real gift shop. She has still sold what she has made recently but has had less time to create new things.
“I did miss having the time to be creative,” Buck said. “Now that I am closing I will be able to do that again.” She will be selling what she makes solely through her website once the brick and mortar store closes.
Buck highly doubts that she will open another store upstate because she thinks that there is even less foot traffic up there.
