Some retailers perform detailed traffic and demographic studies before investing in new store locations.
Village Mercantile owner Vonnie Sullivan decided to expand to Rye from Larchmont based on a tip on a location from another retailer who had done the same.
“This opportunity really fell in my lap,” Sullivan recalled. Love Bella owner Ellie Zieminski, a longtime friend who also has a store in Larchmont, told Sullivan that her Rye location was going to be available because Love Bella was expanding its five-year-old store by moving next door to a larger location.
Having operated Village Mercantile in Larchmont since 2014, Sullivan said she had long been attracted to Rye’s similar demographics and attractive downtown, but it wasn’t until Zieminski told her there would be an opening at 34 Purchase Street that she decided to take the plunge.
An opening in Rye is planned for mid-to-late April. Village Mercantile describes itself as a curated homewares and lifestyle store, carrying thoughtfully made goods for modern living.
The Rye store will carry a similar but distinct assortment of handpicked products for home, gifting, entertaining, baby, and self-care, said Sullivan.
Having started in Larchmont and expanded to Rye herself, Zieminski, the owner of Love Bella, expects that Sullivan will find that few Rye shoppers are familiar with her Larchmont Village Mercantile store.
“In general Rye people don’t go to Larchmont to shop. If they do go out of town, they are more likely to shop in Greenwich,” she said.
And Zieminski is optimistic about Village Mercantile’s chances of success in Rye, because Rye has an outstanding downtown shopping and dining district. Larchmont by contrast has a more physically divided downtown and less lunchtime dining.
“If you can make it in Larchmont, you can definitely succeed in Rye,” she said.
