The idea of a local department store in a village center is almost as passé as an old fashioned soda fountain, but the Rhinebeck Department Store endures at a time when the Internet and box stores have changed the nature of retail.
“We like to think we are old fashioned and up to date at the same time,” said Barbara Schreiber of the venerable outlet she has owned for 18 years and which has been operating at the same 1860s-era Main Street location for decades. “We are updating our website to stay with the newest technology, but we still give old-fashioned service and that”™s what it”™s about, bottom line. With all this high tech, people still want the human touch.”
That business doctrine is being implemented in ways that extend beyond the doors of the elegant three-story building on the corner of Montgomery and Market in Rhinebeck. And as times have changed the store has changed in response to community needs and business acumen.
There has been a department store on the same spot since 1946. Carol Cronk has worked 30 years at the store.
“Back then, the local people weren”™t going across the Hudson River to shop,” Cronk said, because the Hudson Valley Mall was still under construction. She said local shoppers stayed local until the 1990s when Rhinebeck”™s only supermarket closed. “They couldn”™t do food shopping here anymore and they got used to doing all their shopping across the river.”
So how does a store stay current in such changing currents? Schreiber said the answer is multifaceted, ranging from keeping a sharp eye on what customers want, to working with other Rhinebeck businesses for joint promotions.
“My target audience is 35 and above,” said Schreiber, “and within that demographic there are sizes and styles that sell well and others that would sit on shelves if they were ordered.
“So,” she said, “in practice that means no more big and tall sizes and a greater array of medium and large sizes and a keen eye for keeping popular items in stock. I involve my staff in every single decision because they are here on the selling floor.”
She estimates that in the last decade the shopping ratio has switched from 60-40 local and weekender shoppers to a situation where now weekenders are 60 percent of the business. And rather than stay open on Friday night ”“ “No one wants to shop for clothes after they just went out to dinner” ”“ she makes sure to be well stocked on Monday morning, especially on three day weekends because many people like to shop before leaving town .
Cronk points out that when she started working at the store in 1980, it was closed on Sundays along with many other Rhinebeck outlets. Now it is open every Sunday, a popular shopping day.
What else has changed in the 18 years since Schreiber took over ownership of the business? “There”™s something called the Internet,” she joked, but said that while siphoning some business, it also allows for better marketing of her store and of Rhinebeck in general.
“Eat, shop, stay, relax, experience Rhinebeck,” is the theme of the joint promotion  with the Rhinebeck area Chamber of Commerce and Dutchess County Tourism to highlight attractions in the area.
And Schreiber said that computers are useful in tracking merchandise and running the business. “We may look old fashioned, but everything here is computerized,” she said.
“We”™re chugging along,” said Schreiber, describing the store”™s condition as the Great Recession morphs toward recovery.
