Generational family businesses reflect on years…and years…downtown

KEEPING CUSTOMERS HAPPY

The owners of Main Street’s mainstays all agreed that their relationships with customers throughout the years have been instrumental to their long-term success.

At Griffing Hardware, third-generation owner Todd Griffing greets customers by their first name. Riverhead Diner and Grill owner Liz Strebel swaps stories with couples while they wait for their meals. Bob Cormier, who has been manager of Cliff’s Rendezvous for the past 25 years, boasts that he has watched some customers grow from being children to having children. Main Street Haircutters owners Andy Balzano and his brother, Tony, joke with regulars while cutting their hair.

While repeat customers are important, the business owners recognize that they can’t support the downtown economy on their own. Many owners credited the Long Island Aquarium and Exhibition Center, the Suffolk Theater, the Hyatt Place East End and other recent Main Street additions as being helpful.

“Things are coming around now,” Mr. Cormier said. “More restaurants are opening, more different things are coming in. Things are hopping a little bit. It’s really been a nice little change.”

But others don’t think these recent changes are enough to restore Main Street to all its former glory.

“I can’t honestly say [downtown is] better,” said Mr. Barth. “It’s different. It’s not like any other community that surrounds us.”

He said he feels that the town embraced Route 58 more than they have the downtown area — and he isn’t alone.

“The world has changed,” said Jerry Steiner. “Everything is corporate.”

Mr. Steiner, the 60-year-old second-generation owner of Allied Optical Plan, is selling his building and closing his shop July 17.

People can’t have their cake and eat it too, Mr. Barth pointed out.

“You can’t stand in line at CVS or Lowe’s and say ‘What happened to Barth’s Drug Store and Griffing Hardware?’ ” he said.

WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS

According to a study completed by JSA Advising, a firm that consults with small businesses, 30 percent of family-owned businesses survive into their second generation of ownership. Twelve percent survive the third generation and only three percent are viable during the fourth.

Mr. Steiner’s business isn’t the only downtown mom-and-pop that has reached the end of the family line.

“We have sons but none of them are gonna do this,” said Andy Balzano, who owns Main Street Haircutters with his brother Tony. “These are the last Balzanos to cut hair.”

Mr. Barth said his daughters don’t study pharmacology and mused that he’ll probably have to sell the business when he retires. Ms. Strebel recently put Riverhead Diner and Grill on the market.

But for other businesses, the prospect of a new generation taking over still looms on the horizon.

At Relay Communications, a new generation of Kenters are “slowly learning the business while still in school,” said the company’s founder, Phil. And Erik Saunders, 21, is one of six Saunders children to work at Cliff’s Rendezvous.

At many of the businesses, it’s still too early to tell exactly what the next generation holds.

“I got to work with my grandfather and now I’m working with my dad,” Mr. Griffing said with a smile. “And then we have our fourth generation. My son, who is 10 years old, helps out sometimes too. That’s really the best part of it.”

Captions: Tony Meras holds up a picture of family members working in the diner decades ago. (Credit: Nicole Smith); A 1975 ad announcing Allied Optical’s move to 20 West Main Street (Credit: Grant Parpan); Tony Balzano chats up a customer while cutting his hair this week. (Credit: Nicole Smith).