Sneakers for $6, T-shirts for $2 and Tank tops for $.99.
No, this is not a special 99-cent store - these are prices at nearly every store along Jamaica Avenue, between Sutphin Boulevard and 169th Street. Each one of these shops is filled with colorful clothes, shoes and other items that often spill out onto the sidewalk.
Despite the economic downturn, these businesses - ranging from national retailers like Old Navy and city chains like Pretty Girl to mom-and-pop enterprises - are seeing only a small decrease in sales.
“It’s not much of a decline,” said Nasima Rahman, executive assistant at Jamaica Center Business Improvement District (BID), which represents the nearly 300 shops. “Stores are still running well,” she said, although she was unable to provide figures.
The reason is that unlike big retailers, such as Macy’s, whose sales have gone down, for the most part the stores on Jamaica Avenue do not carry expensive designer merchandise, but rather basic affordable items, Rahman explained.
“[Shoppers] believe they can find good quality things for a lower price. If I’m going to pay $3, I’m not going to have high expectations,” Rahman said.
“I always shop in Jamaica - in Ozone Park it’s not as cheap,” said Halima Rampersud, of Ozone Park, who had just bought a pair of reddish shorts for $3.99 at Harris Stores, a clothing and shoe outlet where most of the merchandise sells for less than $5.
“We like to have all the items on special so we can make the customer come back,” said Sammy Sam, a manager at Harris. He said the store is yielding the same profit as last year.
Specials like those at Harris also attract out-of-town customers to Jamaica Avenue, many of whom come every Saturday from places like North Carolina, Virginia and upstate New York because of lower prices, said Rahman.
These shoppers come through an ambassador program run by the Jamaica Center BID. Every Saturday, a BID representative - an ambassador - greets the visitors and presents them with shopping bags, store guides and little gifts for patronizing the local businesses.
The ambassador program has been in place for several years and attracts up to about 500 customers every weekend, said Rahman.
Tiffany Cortez was recently walking down Jamaica Avenue carrying a pink Conway plastic bag with two pairs of jeans. This Tennessee resident did not come to the Jamaica Avenue strip through the ambassador program - she was visiting her mother in Jamaica - but she pointed out that the neighborhood’s stores are “way cheaper” than the ones in Tennessee. “Jeans there are $30 a pair; here, they’re $10,” Cortez said.
Rahman said she hopes the stores will keep up their performance during the back-to-school season, which just started. “If you have a child, you need to do back-to-school shopping regardless of the economy,” she said.
