Lots of love and sweat equity went into Julie Safran”™s and Carlos Fernandez”™ indoor/outdoor gardening store in New Paltz. Now, three-plus months after opening, the couple hopes customers will discover Verde and fall in love, too.
Lush, lovely and blooming all describe Verde, which debuted on North Front Street in May 2009. Appropriately, Safran and Fernandez have made the 1,200-square-foot shop an intriguing cornucopia of indoor/outdoor furnishings that could grace either a back porch or a kitchen nook.
Once inside its doors, it”™s hard to decide if you are in a garden or a store; they”™ve kept the blend nicely balanced, attractive and attractively priced.
Safran left Manhattan and Wall Street in 2005, opting for greener pastures with her husband, who was in the construction industry, when their son Vicente was born. Trading Manhattan for Ulster County as their year-round home, a new business to keep the couple in the black was called for: They opened Cocoon on New Paltz”™s Main Street shortly after settling in. The store”™s high-profile location and the country”™s flowing economy helped it prosper. Five years later, her former Wall Street firm Galleon is making the kind of headlines no one wants to be associated with and the construction industry has taken a nose dive. Retailers and small business owners watch and worry about consumer spending ”“ with Safran and Fernandez among them.
So why would anyone open a new business in the midst of what some are calling The Great Recession? “I sometimes ask myself that same question,” said Safran, busy settling accounts with one of her sales reps. “Look around: everything you see in here ”“ from the wood-planked walls to glass-block windows and every piece of merchandise in here ”“ they are unique. Everything was carefully chosen to mingle the indoor and outdoor look, and we”™ve focused on nature and all things natural. We think once the public finds out we”™re here, they are going to love Verde, too.”
The North Front Street building had been a futon store for several years.
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“When its owners retired and the building went up for sale, there was literally a bidding war for it,” said Safran, who bought the property for $385,000 in March. “It was off the market in seven days. It”™s a great location and people are still coming here, even though the economy has not been kind to retailers. Shoppers, however cautious they may be, still like shopping in New Paltz.” Often, shoppers wander in expecting to find futons and are pleasantly surprised. “Eventually, people will realize there”™s a new kid on the block,” said Safran.
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Between the renovation and buying inventory, the couple hasn”™t nailed down a dollar amount to their total investment. “We know the economy is not good. We”™ve kept everything priced reasonably. You can walk out with a really unique gift for less than $20. I know people like shopping on the Internet, but nothing compares to getting out and seeing and touching merchandise to pick a gift or pick something up for the house. We carry some items you aren”™t going to find in a department store or anywhere else. We also have faith that the economy will turn around and we will hang on, surviving like our fellow business owners, until things stabilize.”
While their flagship store Cocoon is geared toward kitchen accessories and one-of-a-kind baby items (like “I-Pood” t-shirts), Verde is what the name implies ”“ “green, focusing on the outdoors…with accessories and products that can also be used and enjoyed indoors.  We have some hard-to-locate merchandise ”“ like bamboo shag rea carpets and wreaths made from wood curls, beauty that comes from nature you can bring indoors and enjoy.”?Other offerings include jewelry made from coconut shells, all-natural pesticides and a handsome stock of indoor compost pots in designs too good to hide. The miniature compost buckets seal tightly to keep odors in. Throw in your fruit and vegetable scraps and in a few days ”“ voila! ”“ transfer to your regular outdoor composting pile. “That way, you aren”™t running back and forth to do it,” said Safran. “Composting is a great way to make your own natural fertilizer; it doesn”™t cost a cent. And the indoor composting containers are attractive and functional.”
Hand-painted gourds for birds work indoors and outdoors, as do solar-friendly paper lanterns and fish-friendly bowls that attach to the wall, another eye-catching treat in Verde. Wide assortments of books on organic gardening, along with attractive tools of the trade, are available. So are “cannot kill” plants from tropical rain forests. “Tillansia is great,” said Safron. “All you do is mist it, and it grows. Even people with a black thumb can enjoy these plants.”
In addition to being the “handiest husband on the planet,” said Safran, Fernandez also sculpts his own glass mobiles, which are hung around the store reflecting the natural light, an eye-catching sight.
Safran goes to trade shows all over the country to find unique items and is thinking about scouting for novel merchandise when she visits her sister, stationed with the Air Force in Germany. “We realize we need to keep our prices reasonable but still be able to offer something lovely and unique.” She pointed to a collection of Brushkins perched on a handmade gardening table. Made from all natural fiber, wood, seeds and fiber, they can be bent into any shape or form. What”™s a Brushkin? Something between a Christmas ornament and a desk gewgaw.
