It’s ten o’clock on a chilly October morning, and all is quiet on the streets that border Coney Island’s beach. The shops along Surf Avenue, with their brightly painted signs hawking various treats, are shuttered. Apart from a trickle of pedestrians that wander in and out of the smattering of convenience stores, the area has the appearance of a ghost town.
On Stillwell Avenue, however, crowned by a conspicuously large red and yellow sign, the Coney Island Beach Shop is still open. The family-run store is right next to celebrated hot dog joint Nathan’s Famous, and yet it stands a little apart.
This holds true for the shop’s role in the area as well: though it is part of the beach and entertainment sector in Coney Island, it stays open longer during than many of its counterparts. While most beach or entertainment-oriented businesses in the entertainment sector of Coney Island close their stores in September, the Coney Island Beach Shop stays open until October— and in some cases, even November.
Inside, the store is larger and more spacious than it appears from the outside. Every spare inch of space in the shop is covered with beach items: towels and flip flops, sunglasses and beach toys, t-shirts and souvenirs– even ashtrays and [baby] onesies.
Haim Haddad, a co-owner of the shop, is often found behind the register. According to Haddad, the Coney Island Beach Shop gets its highest volume of customers during the summer season, which runs from May to August. The customers aren’t entirely tourists, however. “It’s mixed– tourists and the [sic] locals.” Haddad, 60, says of the types of people that commonly visit his shop.
The most popular product, according to Haddad, is t-shirts. The Coney Island Beach Shop sells a wide variety of shirts that range from typical Coney Island themes– like the famed grinning “Tillie” face and oceanic or mermaid imagery– to New York or Brooklyn-related shirts, to t-shirts bearing the theme of 70’s cult film The Warriors, which was partially filmed in Coney Island, and in which the area plays a strong role.
When the season ends, however, selling items becomes far more difficult. “You know, September is still okay, October it goes down,” says Haddad. After the shop closes for the winter, Haddad keeps his eye on the latest styles and trends in beach merchandise. “I try to prepare the store for next season by trying to get new items,” Haddad says. As part of the preparation, he attends merchandise shows to pick out new things for when the store will reopen for the summer season.
The Coney Island Beach Shop won’t be the only beach business on the boardwalk this fall. Typically, entertainment or beach businesses in Coney Island open around March or Easter time and close in September. This year, however, Luna Park will remain open on weekends all throughout October, and boardwalk businesses– like boutique Lola Staar and bars Cha Cha’s and Ruby’s Bar & Grill– are following suit.
This decision is possibly a last attempt by boardwalk businesses to make money before their leases expire at the end of the year and their fates– whether they will continue to stay in business or not– are decided by Central Amusement International LLC, the company that operates the newly re-opened Luna Park in Coney Island and that has gained the rights to control the leases for 11 boardwalk businesses in the area.
Businesses in the amusement sector of Coney Island have had more reasons to quake in the last few years. Since real estate developer Thor Equities bought 11 acres of boardwalk land in 2006 and began several attempts to launch a multi-million dollar entertainment complex on the site, businesses in the area have been facing the constant possibility of closure.
Haddad, however, does not feel such an imminent threat. “Nobody know[s] the truth,” he says. “Everything is rumors.” Furthermore, he feels that change, if it were to come, might not be as negative as many are envisioning. If Thor Equities CEO Joe Sitt went through with the plans he announced last April to transform Coney Island into a shopping and gaming center, Haddad thinks it could even boost business for the area, attracting an extra “few hundred, a few thousand” people.
Though he doesn’t think rebuilding the area would necessarily be a bad thing, Haddad feels the old Coney Island is irreplaceable. “They say all famous people, all singers and actors, they used to hang out here.” In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, he says, the area’s larger-than-life personality couldn’t be beat. “Las Vegas had nothing on Coney Island.”
Great story. Love your lead – very imaginable! I’ve always wondered what Coney Island was like during the cold months of the year, and after reading your piece I feel as if I have been there. Great descriptions and comparisons!