By Lynda Sturner****Arcadia, Jay Gurewitsch‘s Provincetown shop at 131 Commercial Street, is a virtual visual wonderland. Everywhere you turn, there is another can’t-live-without-have-to- have treasure.
La La recently went into his store and is still dreaming about that yellow rubber ducky doorstop and still missing the feel of his huggable penguins.
There are Christmas and Chanukah presents for the entire family in this something-for-everyone store. A large blue glass octopus, ceramics, jewelry Christmas tree ornaments and Chanukah gifts, candles and candlestick holders, cushy plush stuffed animals and hand puppets that make you forget about making your own out of socks and antique buttons.
But Arcadia is not just another store in another wonderful resort community. Everything there is certified by The Fair Trade Association and is Ethically Sourced.
When Gurewitsch went to his first trade show in NYC before opening his store in Chelsea in 2000, the very first booth he saw was run by the founder of the Fair Trade Association.
“I said that’s nice. What is it? I didn’t know,” he says.
Fair Trade is a foundation whose stated goal is to help producers in developing countries achieve better trading conditions. Ethically sourced goods are produced and purchased in a manner that demonstrates respect for the people who produce them as well as for the environment. Producers should be compensated at a level that reflects the value of their hard work and that provides a living income for themselves and their families.
“Why shouldn’t I buy into that concept? My grandfather started a factory in Brooklyn when my family escaped from Austria at the beginning of World War II. The factory has always been a union shop and has always taken very good care of its workers. And my father ran that place with the most ethics I ever seen in my life. My father is the most ethical man I ever met,” says Gurewitsch.
That became the concept for the store. “The point of the shop is everything here is ethically sourced. I don’t consider myself a retailer, I consider myself a storyteller. Everything here has
a really cool story or it doesn’t get past that door,” says Gurewitsch. “For example, that duck that I’m holding.” Jay holds up my dream rubber ducky doorstop. “This is made by a 90-year-old woman and I’m the only place on earth that carries her merchandise. I carried her stuff for years when my store was in New York City and then she retired. When she turned 80, she had a minor stroke and she didn’t have an exit strategy for her inventory, so she put it all down in her basement.”
When he opened here in Ptown, he called up the artists he carried all his years in business. “She was always one of my favorites because she is such wonderful woman to work with. I asked her if she had any merchandise left and that I’d be really, really honored to have it. She said I have a basement full of stuff and you can have it. I have customers who bought her work 40 years ago. All the leather in the place is her work.”
He has an enormous collection of bears for sale and a large children’s section. “I love Family Week. Beat Week and Family Week are my two busiest weeks of the year,” he says. “Some of these
bears are made from recycled clothing from Ruthie’s. They have a bin of stuff they can’t sell. I shop from there, buy corduroy from Ruthie’s and send it to a woman in Falmouth who makes these adorable little bears. Each one has a little tag on it that says ‘Hand-made on Cape Cod especially for Arcadia’,” he added.
Gurewitsch is a born and raised native New Yorker. He lived in the city for 45 years and opened his first store in 2000, in Chelsea. He started coming to Ptown in the late ’90’s after being burnt-out by the Fire Island Pines scene.
“I loved coming here. It was everything that the Pines never was. Further away, so it was a hassle to get here but always worth the trip. I met the man who became my husband. We vacationed here several times and had a weird confluence of events in our lives, where neither of us were tied to New York. We asked ourselves where do I want to be? And we did a spread sheet and Provincetown
scored on everything except for weather. There is so much going on during the winter for us locals that it becomes a real community,” he says.
Arcadia had to move to a new location this year because his previous building was sold. “I call it the Provincetown Shuffle.”
He is open 7 days a week, from May until New Year’s. After that he’s open Thursday, Friday and Saturday until early June, from 11 to 4, weather permitting.
According to Jay, “My phone number is always on the door and people know they can call me. I also have to package orders from the website anyway. That’s what I live off all winter long, the website. Everything I ship is free. I’m faster and cheaper and easier than Amazon, plus what I sell, you can’t buy on Amazon”
In Ptown, he has 11 weeks to make 85% of his business. “In NYC, I had a website but the purpose of the website was to drive customers to the store. In Ptown, the purpose of the store is to drive business to the website.”
Does he miss New York? “Not a bit,” says Gurewitsch.
Arcadia, 131 Commercial Street, (855) 892-8780
For website information, click here.
