- I'm back with Bill Rosenthal
from our Back to Business New York hour.
Give it up for Bill, native of Queens.
(crowd cheers)
So one of New York's greatest strengths is
the locally owned stores throughout the city.
- I love it, I love that.
And these two coming up are classics.
Great, yeah.
- All right, well, the pandemic has hit
these small businesses very hard.
Many are barely hanging on.
Our Back to Business campaign shines a light
on these struggling mom and pop shops
when they need it most.
Today we're featuring two businesses
on opposite ends of Manhattan.
So we have two stops to make.
First, it's the lower East side
where you can find the 83 year old Economy Candy,
a candy shop owned by Mitchell and his wife Skye.
They're third generation owners,
that is so incredible.
Then we'll take the train
up to Harlem where you can find Grandma's Place,
a beloved toy and bookstore owned
by Dawn and her granddaughter Chelsea.
Hello, everybody say hello to Bill.
- Hi you guys.
- [Dawn And Chelsea] Hi.
- Oh, I love you guys.
I don't think I've made it
up to the toy store, but Economy Candy,
that's paradise.
- Oh, well, yeah, it's my kind of paradise.
I'm like Elf, I love anything with sugar.
So Mitchell and Skye,
so we will actually start with you.
So 83 years,
what a cool thing in your family.
Is that just, I don't know,
tell us about your business and how it's lasted that long.
Welcome to Economy Candy
New York's oldest retail candy shop,
and believe it or not,
started as a shoe and hat repair shop
that just had a pushcart outside
that sold a little bit of candy.
But during the depression,
the candy started outselling everything else,
and in 1937, we became Economy Candy.
- We have nearly 2000 different items
that we keep in stock year round,
from candy, chocolate, dried fruits, nuts.
It's you know, people walk in and you see
when it's their first time,
you see this like overwhelming awe,
can't believe it, jaw-dropping look on their face.
- Mitchell this year,
this was a pretty brutal year for your business, right?
- Yeah this hit us pretty hard and very quickly.
Things really in New York,
it was literally day by day,
if not hour by hour, things were changing.
And we just had to shut down.
We were forced to close
and really try to get together and figure out
what we were going to do.
- We had to lay off our entire staff of 14,
and unfortunately haven't been able
to bring anyone back yet,
which is, it's tough,
we feel terribly for them,
but it's also hard just the two of us working every day,
seven days a week.
We've been walking to and from work every day since March
because the subway has not been the most reliable.
And we're, I mean, it's a hustle.
It's a grind, but we're doing it.
We're gonna keep doing it.
- We eat, sleep, and breathe candy.
That's what it's all about.
- This is America.
This is why we're gonna make it
because of that spirit right there.
I'm so proud of all the businesses,
the restaurants, the little mom and pop shops,
the coffee shops who have taken this pivot,
they had to take what was their side business
and make it their main business.
- And you have to adapt.
- And adapt, and that's what they're doing.
It's really beautiful to see.
- Where do things stand right now?
- So yeah, we're doing about 20% of the business
we would normally do.
It's very difficult,
we've been through the depression,
we've been through 911, but we've never been
through something like this where you can't let people
even inside the store.
That's your bread and butter,
our brick and mortar is having people in the store,
and we can't do that right now.
So we really have to rely on people going online.
Holidays are a big thing for us,
and we were closed on Halloween.
Halloween is our busiest day of the year by far,
and for the first time in over 80 years,
we were closed on Halloween.
And we've got Christmas coming up,
Hanukah coming up, all the holidays,
whatever you celebrate, there's a candy care pack for it.
We really need people to go on to economycandy.com
and send a candy care pack to their loved ones,
their friends, their enemies, anybody.
- Enemies. (laughs)
Make your enemies fat.
This is a good idea.
- So you have very little to lose.
- Now let's take the Three train up to Harlem
to visit Dawn and Chelsea's toy and bookstore called
Grandma's Place.
So Dawn and Chelsea, first of all,
I'm looking at this right now, my kids, I mean
I gotta be honest with you.
I'm 38 years old, and I would love to come to your store.
I love stores like this,
and I love the name of your business.
It just feels so beautiful, nostalgic, I'm Southern,
so it just, it feels like home walking
into a store that you've never even been in.
So tell us a little about your store.
- Well, Grandma's Place is located
on West 120th Street, 84, right off Malcolm X Boulevard.
And it was started 21 years ago when I was a teacher
in the New York City public school system.
And I noticed that the parents
and the caregivers were really not able
to help their kids the way they needed to.
And I opened a literacy center
so that I could help the parents help their kids.
And so basically that's how it started.
- Yeah, she actually let me name this store
when I was seven years old.
- Yeah.
- [Kelly] Aw, that's amazing. - She says,
"It's your space, grandma.
"So let's call it Grandma's Place."
So that's what we did.
- It's such a, it's a smart idea.
Not only a sweet one, it's a smart one because it feels,
and you feel like I said,
like you're coming into someone's home,
even though it's a store, it's such a beautiful sentiment.
And Dawn and Chelsea, just like Mitchell and Skye,
this year has been pretty tough on business.
Have you all experienced the same thing?
- Yeah, it's been really brutal.
First off to be told that you're non-essential,
imagine a book being a non-essential.
You open a world to children when they can read.
- Opportunity, I agree.
So can everyone still shop your business?
Like, is everything online as well, too?
Where people can help if they're not there
and they can't come by and help,
is there a big online kind of presence
where we everybody can still help out?
- Absolutely, we've got a website,
it's grandmasplaceinharlem.com.
You can also follow our social media.
We're doing lots of events for the community.
You know, COVID safe events.
and you can also stop by. we're open for business.
- Beautiful. - [Dawn] We're open
for business.
- And Mitchell and Skye, you got the same thing.
You've got a presence online,
like you were talking about,
you just in 2020, you started, right Skye.
So y'all got a pretty big presence
so you can get that candy to people.
- Yeah, we ship nationwide economycandy.com,
you can follow us on Instagram,
on Facebook @EconomyCandy
- And we've got great candy care packs
for Christmas, for Hanukkah, the holidays,
order a candy cane pack.
That's what really helps these times.
- That's cool.
I love that, the personal touch on that too.
You hand picking stuff for people.
That's so cool, and putting it together.
Well, it is the holiday season,
and I can't think of two better stores
to shop than a candy store and a toy store.
And you know what?
It's not because I have children.
It's because that's who I am deep down.
I love toys and candy.
So that's exactly what we're gonna do, y'all,
Mitchell and Skye
I'm placing an order for $5,000 worth
of your Christmas candy care packs.
And Dawn and Chelsea, I'm also placing an order
for $5,000 worth of toys and books.
(audience cheers)
And it's not only to help you guys, 'cause we love you,
we want to support you,
We love what you're doing,
but also everything
that the Kelly Clarkson show is going to buy
from both stores will be donated to the children
at Mount Sinai South Nassau Pediatric Unit.
So everybody it's a win right now.
This is a win for everyone.
And we can spread some holiday cheer all around.
And honestly, this is how we should be thinking this year,
everybody listening right now, if you have any money,
even if it's a little bit, I'm telling you what,
buying something for somebody in need
and needs your help as a business
or doing something for a charitable organization,
anything, this is the year to really remember,
we're all a part of the human race.
And while there might be a lot of division going on,
we should all be helping and supporting each other.
So really think about that
when you're buying gifts this year,
and have purpose to your gift giving.
All right, well, if you want to support
these two amazing businesses,
head to my InstaStory to find out
how right now you'll be buying directly
from people who truly embodied the best
of what New York has to offer.