Business

Allied Optical Plan getting set to close after 55 years downtown

The back alley entrance to the store on West Main Street and Roanoke Avenue. (Credit: Grant Parpan)
The back alley entrance to the store on West Main Street and Roanoke Avenue. (Credit: Grant Parpan)

At 10:59 a.m. Tuesday, the back door to Allied Optical opened. In stepped Bruce Tria of WRIV, who had signed off from his morning show an hour earlier. He was the first neighboring businessman to drop by for a little gossip and a laugh that morning. He wasn’t the last.

In fact, within 10 minutes of Mr. Tria’s arrival Tuesday, two more men stopped by “The Clubhouse,” as Jerry calls his store. Claudio Sciara of Uncle Joe’s Pizza popped in next, followed by Bobby Hartmann of Mainstream House, a nearby addiction recovery facility.

The men stood around for a few minutes talking local politics and business. When his friends aren’t in the store, Mr. Steiner kills time on Facebook, where he’s established an identity lampooning Riverhead politicians, the local media and anything related to the “North Fork lifestyle.” He even published a satirical Riverhead newspaper in 2010 that featured articles on “bum wines and sausages.” When the News-Review took his photo for an article about The Riverhead Rebel’s first and only issue, Mr. Steiner insisted it be taken with him reading the paper on the toilet.

• Related: See our five favorite artifacts from Allied Optical

His brand of comedy has won over many of his downtown neighbors over the years.

“I’ll miss him,” said Mr. Sciara, who bought his restaurant in 2014 from Frank Spatola, another clubhouse regular. “These guys all got years with this guy. I only had months.”

A lot still has to happen before Allied Optical Plan closes. A best-case scenario, Mr. Steiner estimates, is that he’ll be gone in two months. But while his business is loaded with all sorts of relics from Riverhead’s past, he’s not overly sentimental about the closing. It’s something he’s wanted for a while. His wife, too.

“Am I sentimental about him closing? No, no, it’s good,” Kathy Steiner said while calling into the shop Tuesday. “He’s not making any money. It’s time.”

Mr. Steiner said that business has been declining for many years, and the past five have been particularly challenging. That’s when, he said, the industry changed from “optical people to marketing people.”

He said he knew he was doomed when a customer called to ask for help ordering glasses on zennioptical.com. He walked the woman through the process as long as she promised to bring the glasses in so he could see what $26 can get you online.

“It was a quality pair of glasses,” he said, estimating he’d have to charge about $130 for the same product. “I said, ‘I am done. This is it.’ ”

A critic of anyone who glorifies downtown revitalization efforts — “Route 58 is Riverhead and Main Street is just done,” he said — Mr. Steiner admitted he shares in the blame for the lack of success his business has had in recent years.

Because he’s an optician and not an optometrist like his father, his customers have to obtain prescriptions elsewhere. He also refuses to deal with insurance companies, chalking it up to “too much paperwork.”

“I’m a dinosaur and I don’t want to change,” he said. “I’m my own worst enemy. I never updated this place once over the years.

“My accountant comes in here and laughs. He says I’d be better off locking the door and staying home.”