About Us
Arcadia opened its doors to the public on December 6th, 2000 at its original location at 261 West 19th Street, between 7th and 8th Avenues in New York City. After six and a half years at that location, Arcadia moved to its current location, 228 8th Avenue, between 21st and 22nd Street on June 21st, 2006. It is owned by me, Jay Gurewitsch. It is my hope you will enjoy the casual, informative nature of both this site and the accompanying blog. I look forward to getting your comments and feedback along with your orders!
After many years of running other people’s businesses, learning how different types of businesses functioned (or didn’t) and realizing that I would never be truly happy working for someone else, I decided to go out my own. At the time, I was managing several businesses in Manhattan at the same time, among them a hair/tanning/massage salon, a magazine, a bindery, and a print shop. Previously I had worked as a bookkeeper, real estate agent, office manager, psychology research assistant, and as an assembly line worker and then production supervisor in my family’s candle factory. I also had a t-shirt business while in college, tended bar on and off while in graduate school and had done theater set design periodically since my high school years.
The concept for Arcadia grew out of my experiences at virtually all of these positions; “simple is beautiful” was my response to the complicated, difficult, hectic lives many New Yorkers, myself included, live on a day to day basis. I look for clean lines, functionality, beautiful design, unique product, at reasonable prices that are ethically made. I aim for a broad enough selection that most people can find exactly what they need while still maintaining a sense of continuity throughout the store.
The core values that guide Arcadia were borne out of my many life and work experiences prior to opening Arcadia. As a child raised in a modern Orthodox Jewish family in Brooklyn, NY, I was raised with a deep appreciation of and respect for religion, spirituality, and strongly held personal beliefs. An enormous love of learning and reading imparted to me by my family has endured with me to this day, and is the source for one of the first lessons in Arcadia’s employee manual; at Arcadia, we like to say that we know more about our products than anyone would ever want to know. Throughout my life I have sought out knowledge of other cultures, religions, and communities, and the broad range of products at Arcadia is a reflection of that search. My favorite moments while on shopping trips for the store are finding new products from a country or people we have never offered at Arcadia before, especially if it is something I know nothing about. It is my hope that everyone benefits from such a learning experience.
My father’s factory, Star Candle, is a union shop where employees from more than 20 different countries (verified, legal immigrants) work together, frequently generation after generation. It is an American anachronism that is still going strong; where blue collar workers make a decent wage, have health insurance, union membership, a good working environment and produce a reasonably priced product proudly in the USA. Working on the production lines, starting at the bottom just like my brother and father before me, taught me the value of old fashioned manual labor and to earn the respect of others through hard work and sweat combined with leadership and management skills. Watching my father working with his employees, customers and suppliers also taught me some of the most important lessons of my business career; that while the highest ethical conduct may not always pay off financially, it always pays off in far more important ways.
My real estate work showed me the many different types of places New Yorkers call home. I was exposed to a broad range of our incredible city, from hole in the wall studios for $300 a month (it was the early 90s) on St. Marks Place to $10,000 a month penthouses on Central Park South facing the park. No matter the budget, when you boiled it all down, everyone wanted the same thing; to be comfortable. My set design experiences helped me to see the world in a different way; or as Shakespeare wrote, “all the world’s a stage”. Running other people’s businesses gave me the experience I needed to prove to myself that I could do it on my own and the intestinal fortitude to jump off that emotional cliff one day in the Spring of 2000, quit my job and start looking for space for my own business.
That long summer of 2000, when it seemed that no one would talk to a man with great ideas but no actual business, was a long one, with lots of phone calls, dead end leads, and false hopes, but in October, on a beach on Fire Island Pines, the right question at the right time led me to find the little hole in the wall space that became Arcadia’s first home. At the time, I had the tag line “simple is beautiful” set in my head, but was rather lost on what to actually call the store. Originally, the concept was to open a spa, using my management experience of the salon and my connections in the business to make a success of it. Unfortunately, the space I found was so small that it was impossible to begin with the spa concept and instead the concept shifted to be the retail section of a day spa, with the day spa to develop in the future as my financial position improved and larger spaces became available. Once the space was found, a name really needed to be selected. I had tentatively settled on a name which I was not thrilled with. Thankfully, my best friend immediately suggested Arcadia, from James Joyce’s “Ulysses” which he was reading at the time. I immediately loved it; it is graphically balanced, begins with an A (important for phone and web listings), and most importantly, the Oxford English Dictionary definition of Arcadia is “a simple, pastoral way of life. Heaven on Earth”. Clearly, it was meant to be. I remain indebted to Christian Johnson for many things, among them for naming my store.
Arcadia’s core values
We strive to offer our customers a peaceful, pleasant shopping experience where our customers will find helpful, friendly employees who are attentive, informative and knowledgeable about the products we offer. It is important to us that everyone feels welcome and comfortable at Arcadia, regardless of their budgetary constraints or interest in purchasing anything at all. We aim to be patient, helpful, respectful and polite to everyone, and hope for the same from our customers.
The selection of products at Arcadia attempts to encompass the broad and eclectic range of interests of our customers, who range from our neighbors above the store to visitors from across the globe. Given such a broad range of customers and limited space, we try to select products which are unique, made to the highest standards of quality and ethics, from as close as our own neighborhood of Chelsea and as far away as the furthest reaches of the world. Product is displayed neatly, clearly, is well organized and is well marked for our customers’ convenience, so that making a selection can be done with a minimum of trouble. At all times, employees are available to help customers with their selection, informing customers of the nature and use of each item as well as its origin and, if relevant, what organization benefits from the sale of the item.
Arcadia is committed to the fullest, broadest interpretation of NYC’s non-discrimination laws as pertains to the workplace environment. We actively encourage applicants from all walks of life, regardless of race, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, sexual identity, or disability. Paid vacation days, salary increases every 6 months, and flexible schedules are all benefits that are offered to insure that employees can have healthy, balanced lives both in and out of work.
Arcadia focuses as much as possible on fairly traded products made throughout the world, so that our customers’ interest in supporting indigenous populations and their cultures can be achieved. We also try to limit our impact on the environment in the following ways;
- We recycle as much of the packaging materials we receive from our suppliers as possible by reusing them for our own shipments, as padding for gift packaging, offering free packaging materials to customers who can use them, and paying for recycling of our own garbage. We also regularly lobby our suppliers for greener packaging solutions, referring companies to each other so they can share information on reducing their packaging. We routinely ask customers who already have shopping bags if they would like to skip a bag for their purchase at Arcadia, although we happily supply paper shopping bags for all purchases regardless of size.
- Arcadia uses 100% wind energy for electricity, through the Con Edison Green Solutions program. More than 90% of our track lights use LED bulbs, which has reduced our electricity usage by more than 75%. The entire façade of the store uses double paned, insulated UV glass, specifically designed to reduce heat transfer as well as noise, which reduces our need for air conditioning in the summertime and insulates us so well from the cold in winter that we rarely run the heat in the winter. Our electronic thermostat is programmed to keep the store at a mild 73 degrees all day during the summer, at 74 during the winter, shuts off automatically when the store closes at 10PM, turning on in the morning just in time for opening. Because natural gas dryers are more efficient than electric dryers, we use gas for our dryer, which along with our washer is EnergyStar rated. We also try to run our appliances with larger, therefore more efficient, loads later in the evenings when energy demand is lower.
- We have resisted the retail trend towards plastic coated, heavy shopping bags. While we understand that many customers reuse such bags, they are non-recyclable due to the multiple layers and materials involved. Our paper bags are made of 30% post consumer waste and are recyclable with other paper products. We offer plastic bags (saved from my grocery shopping at Gristedes) only during heavy rainstorms as needed to protect our customers’ purchases from the elements. Our gift boxes are made in the USA from 100% recycled paper and are recyclable, as are our tissue papers and heavy craft paper. The fancy gift wrap, while not made of recycled papers, are recyclable.
If there is anything else you would like to know about Arcadia or about me personally, feel free to email me at jay@arcadianyc.com. Over the years I have gotten so used to unusual questions from customers that really, not much phases me anymore. I enjoy the interaction with my customers more than any other aspect of this business. I look forward to hearing from you very soon!
Jay Gurewitsch
Arcadia