Welcome back. New Year New Me and all of that insanity. I am going to try this blog thing one.more.time.
I really only want to address the move back to Syracuse in this post. And then its done. I’ve moved on and, honestly, it feels so good to be back at the Delavan.
Obviously, the Norwich shop is closed and the new shop is not happening. The building renovation (for the new shop) was not going to happen in a timely manner and I lost confidence in the deal. I could say a lot more about this but I don’t think that bad intentions were involved. My old place was deteriorating by the day and staying there was a no-go for the winter. I made the difficult decision to move my business back to the Cuse.
Why didn’t I try to find another empty unit to move into? Because they mostly have the same issues. Bad or out of town landlords. The spot I had was inexpensive by any standard. When I signed the lease, the landlord told me that he was fixing the shredded awning on the front of the building and sprucing the place up. I replaced all of the stained ceiling tiles assuming that the leaks had been managed. The first winter, I found out that the 2 baseboard units were barely enough to keep my shop above freezing. LL was shocked to hear this. Shocked, I tell you. The first time it rained inside my display window, I was assured that they were days away from putting fresh tar on the roof. And, of course they were moments away from replacing the awning. In summary, nothing was fixed or maintained. And don’t get me started on the neighbors IYKYK.
What did I learn? This is a question that I ask myself after every mistake nowadays. What did you learn, Molly? I learned that landlords mostly have the reputation they deserve. Developers too. I learned that retail is a tough thing in a small town. Service and food based businesses do ok. Retail not so much. I am humbled to admit that the average shop sales income did not even cover off on the monthly shop electric bills. Fiscally, I had my best year ever in 2025. That had nothing to do with my little shop, It was because I was traveling all over NY for shows and killing it. I learned that foot traffic does not equal shop traffic. That was a weird one. I always assumed that people didn’t slow down because the exterior of the building was shitty and the neighbors were sus. I learned that grant money is king. Owning a building and having your business in that building is the blue print for success. Which they really should print on a sign somewhere. Sadly, getting a building is tough….even though many seem to be empty. Weird.
Look, Norwich is a great town. They have cool summer shows and festivals. The movie theater is great. Everyone should take a day trip to Colorscape or the Blues Festival. What I want to stress is this: People have to show up. For all of it. You can’t show up at Christmas, spend $20 at a local business and then do it all over again in a year. If you want the small town charm, you have to support it. You need to make an effort to stop once a week and support those businesses. We are losing our small town shops because everybody is shopping online. Eventually, they will disappear if we aren’t better stewards. Don’t complain when it happens.
I am comfortable and warmly ensconced in my lovely Syracuse studio now. It ripped half my heart out to leave it before, but I had an adventure that I wanted to take. I did the thing. Learned some great lessons and now I’m back where I belong. Its not a loss just because it didn’t work out. Even if you are afraid to try something different, do it. Do it afraid.
I’m excited for the upcoming year. Thanks for riding along with me.
M-