Submitted by pgraber on December 18, 2005

It's always nice to keep track of what's happening on chic Elmwood Avenue - the birthplace of Grabers. Seem's like there's plenty of new faces and some changes in veteran shops.

The Buffalo News ran a piece on the district that hightlighted some recent retailing changes on the strip. Two popular retailers - Kuni's Sushi Bar and Thunder Bay - both have recently decided to move on.

The article, Retailing on Elmwood continues to grow with new mix of shops, basically went into how the strip continues to see changes. Well - no shit. This is constantly happening on Elmwood and any 'strip' for that matter. The rent has always been fairly reasonable and the area is hip. The article pointed out that '...25 new businesses have opened or relocated in the last six months to the Elmwood Village district between Forest Avenue and North Street.'

Pictured is Kuni Sato, owner of the wildly popular and recently shuttered Kunis Sushi Bar. The original Grabers was in the storefront at mid far-right, in the heart of the Elmwood strip.

The only bummer - and an important one - with the Strip is that for the independent retailer, generating the foot traffic needed is quite a challenge. Although its the city and there is traffic, it's not enough. For those that struggle with advertising budgets, most of the stores survive but probably don't make a lot of money. Grabers did alright in this regard.

The article quoted Nussbaumer of Thunder Bay and Sato of Kunis. What I thought was interesting was Newell's comment relative to the look in the eye's of new retailers. The hope. After years on Elmwood - something I can attest to - this outlook becomes a bit more 'measured'. You have to go through it to understand.

In all fairness, though, I thought one of the highlights of the article came in the last paragraph with the quotes from Ward and Maureen Pinkel, the owners of Urban Surf and Snowboard. I helped both of them out a lot with their store and its promotions.

In a touchy feely sort of way, I also was tickled on how I could see where the old store used to stand. From the photo, not much has seemed to changed since '99. The overhead signs are gone. I can tell Vito's still there (of all the retailers - he raked it in) Fond memories of the apartment above the shop.

Anyways, here the quote I though was cool. As written:

"It's the end of an era with Thunder Bay closing," said Maureen Pinkel, who owns the urban clothing shop with her husband. As she talked, she considered how the new vacancies could be opportunities. Perhaps, she said, her new neighbors will be even better.

Her husband agreed. "I'm not worried," said Edward Pinkel. "This is the hottest property on Elmwood."

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