Customers order products not available in the store from the AVON catalogs.
“Just when you think the day is over, an elderly woman walks in two minutes before closing time and decides to ask about the all products available,” said Shantel Ramirez a former Andry Gift Shop employee.
Andry Gift Shop is a variety store In East Williamsburg. The business is owned by a Dominican married couple, Osvaldo and Ventura Rosa. Opened ten years ago in Bushwick, a nearby neighborhood in Brooklyn, it didn’t last long there because it was too small. Currently, Andry Gift Shop is located on a busy commercial strip on Graham Avenue. “The area is good but it is not like before,” Osvaldo said, “more people used to come to this area.”
Joselyn helps customer decide what face cream to purchase.
Ventura started off as a AVON representative and her clients would order products from the catalogs with the products sold, changing during every Avon campaign. By opening an AVON store, Ms. and Mr. Osvaldo gave their customers the opportunity to shop for their AVON products and eliminate the waiting process that came with making orders.
Most customers in the store are Hispanics, not surprisingly because Graham Avenue is known as the Avenue of Puerto Rico. Customers also include non-Hispanic local residents.
Osvaldo manages the products that are delivered to the store and Ventura works in the store selling, alongside her current employee, Joselyn Sanchez, one of six million AVON representatives. The store is open for business from 10:00 am until 7:30 pm, Monday through Saturday. The store is closed on Sundays, due to their responsibilities as pastors of a Pentecostal church in Williamsburg, El Camino Crucificado.
The products sold in the store are mostly for women; the products that men come to buy are deodorants and colognes. 90 % of the merchandise sold in the store consists of AVON products;
the remaining 10%
- Classic name brand perfumes available for customers.
consists of name brand variety products.
Andry Gift Shop sells many perfumes including Calvin Klein, Red Door, White Diamond and Perry Ellis. “People come for the classics,” said Shantel.
The most expensive products in the store are girdles, which range from $45-$125. The most popular and cheapest products sold are deodorants which sell for six for $5.00 “People buy them by the boxes,” Shantel said. An average of 20 cases of deodorants are sold, each case holds 160 deodorants.
The shelves of deodorants are constantly refilled throughout the day.
Ventura also sells gift baskets that she designs. Customers buy the basket when they don’t know what to buy a family member or friend, for their birthday or holidays like Mother’s Day. Gift baskets start at $13 and go up to $30. “The baskets make good gifts because it puts all the essential together, “ said customer Thereza Leon, ”lip gloss, lotion, body spray, nail polish–it’s all there.”
On average, the store brings in a range of $500-$700 in revenue on week days. During the weekend and national holidays, revenue can go up to $1,500.
The gift shop was not easy to start up but it has turned into a business that both Osvaldo and Ventura are proud of. When thinking of the future, they both agreed that they are, “Just going to keep on working.”
