CRANBURY- Cranbury Coop will close down Nov. 10, to be the second North Main Street business in two months to leave town.
By: Brian Shappell
For the second time in two months a prominent business on North Main Street is leaving Cranbury.
On Nov. 10, the Cranbury Coop will close its doors for the final time. Co-owner Irene Lynch will be merging the Coop with her other store, Down Home Country in Allentown.
“It’s basically the same store,” Ms. Lynch said. “We’re going to bring the girls who want to come with us.”
The Cranbury Coop opened in the village five years ago under the name Down Home Country. Ms. Lynch, along with co-owner Phyllis Davison, opened the Allentown location 15 months ago. Ms. Lynch said operating both locations was too difficult to continue.
“It just got to be too much running two shows; it’s hard to juggle,” she said.
The owners describe the Cranbury Coop and Allentown’s Down Home Country as a gift and card shop for all occasions. The store carries antique jewelry, hand-painted furniture, candles and massage therapy items among other things, Ms. Lynch said.
Ms. Lynch made the choice to go with the Allentown store for several reasons, one of which being the greater earning potential. She said people go out of their way to shop in Allentown because of the two-dozen or more shops in the town as well as the four, high-quality sit-down restaurants.
“There’s a lot more foot traffic in Allentown,” said Ms. Lynch. “People come to Allentown to walk the town and shop.”
Ms. Lynch said money was not one of the two most important reasons they decide to shut down the business. Finding people to work the Cranbury location was becoming a problem joining the fact that both owners were being stretch too thin.
“We had problems manning the store,” Ms. Lynch said. “It wasn’t money. I don’t think we’d have stayed this long if we weren’t doing well.”
Ms. Lynch also said the Allentown store was a logical choice to keep open because it is the location she works full-time and is not restricted by the size of the store, as she was in Cranbury.
“I do a lot of custom work and need to be at one location so people can find me,” she said. “By the time people walk around and shop in Allentown, I can have alteration done for them.”
Ms. Lynch’s business partner, Ms. Davison, will be giving up her interest in the Coop/Country franchise on the last day the store is open. Ms. Davison also sold the other business she owned, The Dandeline Shop, and closed the operation last month. She cited a substantial real-estate offer as the reason the shop closed. Ms. Davison now works as the marketing director for the catering portion of the Corner Cafe on North Main Street, owned by her son John.
Ms. Lynch said the continued expansion of Route 130, especially chain superstores, is going to continue to make it difficult on the small-town business owners of the village. She cited the building of a new Target store on Route 571 in East Windsor as another example of the building that could affect independent merchants.
“They put up large store after large store with everything in them,” Ms. Lynch said. “People stop wanting to take the time to go into the small town.
Ms. Lynch said bringing in more small-town business to the township would make for a charming shopping village, like in Allentown. She said many of the Cranbury businesses will likely survive the continued expansion based on the nature of their operations. Cranbury Pizza, the Book Worm and Teddy’s are likely to survive, she said, because of their loyal followings, as will businesses like the Interior Designer because of the need for customers to actually seek them out.