Renewed Optimism Among Harrison Merchants

HARRISON - After a difficult few years, there is renewed optimism among Harrison's downtown merchants, a possible early sign of local economic recovery.

Building and business owners are seeing increases to their business, and are  upgrading and expanding to capitalize on it.

Lisa Ferrari, co-owner of Hair Creations, a hair salon and boutique on Halstead Avenue, sees business improving daily.

"We have new people coming in, existing customers are coming more often, and customers in general are spending more," Ferrari said.

Ferrari's partner, Brenda Maeda, agreed.

"The economy is coming back. My husband works in finance and says the economy is turning around. We are seeing it here on a day-to-day basis in the salon."

Their findings mirror the national economic indicators which show the U.S. economy expanded at a 3.2 percent annual rate in the first quarter of this year, with consumer spending increasing at the fastest pace in three years. Economists believe this is the strongest sign to date, that the recovery is taking hold.

The increased business optimism is visible throughout the downtown area. There are new awnings on the stores on Oakland Avenue, next to  the A & P supermarket, and on the pizza store, nail salon and karate school on Halstead Avenue.

Ferrari and Maeda at Hair Creations are banking on the signs of recovery.

"We recently took on additional staff and are upgrading and expanding the salon," Ferrari said.

This turn around is also reflected in the opening of new businesses.

After a costly construction and outfitting, CVS is now on Halstead Avenue and Chase Bank has been spending money on a facility downtown as well.

Violet and Sean Gerguri opened the Bakery & Patisserie, at 247 Halstead Avenue, on April 1.  The couple moved to the United States from Kosovo 13 years ago, and the business is their version of the American dream.

The Gerguris are banking on the recession being over and that they are in the right place, as the Harrison business district grows and prospers.

"We love the downtown Harrison area. The customers are friendly and welcoming and the area is clean and well cared for. While it is always difficult opening a new business, we hope to do well and make our home here for many years," Violet Gerguris said.

This doesn't mean Harrison's small businesses are completely "out of the woods".

Business owners are realistic about the fact that the business world has changed substantially, and that they will have to be smarter in how they operate, run and advertise their businesses.

 "We are not employing any extra staff until we get the business going. We do everything from the baking, to running the store ourselves, and we are staying open seven days a week to build a customer base," Gerguri said.

At Hair Creations, Maeda said they are also running the salon differently as a result of the previous years' recession.

"Despite the business increase, we plan to remain very price competitive. We are running  incentives to keep this new level of customer spending going. We have specials consistently and we offer coupons," she said. "We are also advertising in different ways, such as on Twitter, Facebook and Craig's List. While we feel optimistic the worst is over, we will definitely continue to be smart while moving forward."