Crains New York - October 29, 2012 - (Page 25)

SMALL BUSINESS Obama’s birth certificate on a plate? Sold! Local merchants capitalize on a close presidential race with partisan merchandise inch partisan “paint containers” filled with red, white and blue candies for $15, said founder and CEO Dylan Lauren, who declined to reveal company revenue. To sign up for Crain’s SMALL BUSINESS newsletter, go to www.crainsnewyork.com/smallbiz. Poopers and shooters “Some of the most popular items are Romney- and Obama-shaped candy poopers and the Democrat and Republican marshmallow shooters,” Ms. Lauren wrote in an email. The candy poopers are walking candy dispensers that, when wound, will walk and dispense candies from their backsides. The marshmallow shooters can shoot mini-marshmallows up to 30 feet. “They’ve got 10% of our population, but they’ve got local control,” said Cesar Claro, president of the Staten Island Economic Development Corp. “Between taxes, tolls, fees and violations, it’s worse than it’s ever been here—and the biggest issue, more than anything else, is local control.” Staten Island’s political power diminished considerably after the city’s Board of Estimate was found in 1989 to be unconstitutional because its authority was divided equally among the five boroughs despite great differences in their populations. Most of the board’s powers were handed to the City Council, which has three Staten Islanders among its 51 members. In 1993, Staten Islanders voted overwhelmingly to secede from New York City, but the measure died in the state Legislature. The opening of the VerrazanoNarrows Bridge in 1964 was the borough’s other seminal political event, and the origin of its swingstate political nature. Tens of thousands of conservative, affluent Italian-American Brooklynites moved to the South Shore, counterbalancing the earlier Democratic Irish-American migration to the North Shore. To this day, most Democratic candidates on the island are of Irish descent, while most Republicans have Italian ancestry. On the North Shore, immigrant and AfricanAmerican populations are growing and gaining political strength. Fears on Staten Island about its political standing are increasing as Looking at the race from a merchandise perspective, Mr. Obama is “winning by a landslide,” in the company’s flagship midtown store and its Los Angeles location. In the Houston store, however, it’s a very close race, according to Ms. Lauren: “We’ve found that people are buying the items as gag gifts for friends who love politics,” she said. In 2008, Fishs Eddy customers were snapping up Obama merchandise because they were passionate about the candidate, Ms. Gaines recalled. “Now they are buying it because it’s his last run,” she said. “So maybe they can sell it on eBay for a lot more.” next year’s mayoral election approaches. Talk of secession died down during the 1990s tenure of Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who rode a wave of votes from the island into City Hall and addressed some of its major issues, such as closing the Fresh Kills landfill and making the Staten Island Ferry free. The borough also provided Michael Bloomberg’s margin of victory in 2001, although in recent years the mayor’s popularity there has slipped. 2012 Election Staten Island, Ohio Continued from Page 1 Democrats have an enrollment advantage of 30,000 on the island, but Republican candidates generally fare better—the lone urban congressional district carried by Sen. John McCain in 2008 was Staten Island’s. It’s a phenomenon that has spawned multiple theories and explanations. “Staten Island votes for people who show they can solve problems,” said City Council Minority Leader Jimmy Oddo, a Republican who has represented the borough for a decade. “In other parts of the city, if you have a ‘D’next to your name,you just get re-elected.” Staten Islanders see the world more like Wisconsinites than West Siders. At a North Shore Democrats meeting last week, an out-ofwork building-trades worker complained that public employees are overpaid. A Democratic Assembly candidate stopped by and touted his support for requiring voters to show identification at the polls, a position being pushed by Republicans over Democratic opposition. And leaning against the wall of the meeting room were yard signs— a staple of election season just about everywhere in America except New York City. government. “Staten Island doesn’t get enough city services; it doesn’t get its fair share of arts funding,” said Meg Ventrudo, executive director of the Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art.“I don’t know why.Maybe it’s because the people who allocate the money don’t know that there are good arts organizations here.” Contradictory feelings of superiority and inferiority are evident. In obituaries, the Staten Island Advance highlights whether or not the deceased was born in the borough. Staten Island’s political, geographic and cultural isolation has bred a sense of exceptionalism in the psy- che of its 470,000 residents. “It’s very close-knit,” said Kevin Elkins, an official with the local Democratic Party. “It’s the kind of place where you never use people’s last names when you’re talking about them, because you never know who’s walking behind you.” There is also frustration over residents’ lack of power to solve their own problems in a city that leans left. What roils Staten Islanders most is the rising cost of crossing the borough’s bridges. The tolls are set by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and Port Authority, quasi-governmental agencies. Residents also look enviously over the Bayonne Bridge to Bayonne, N.J., where light rail, stores and a golf course have recently popped up. LAKE ERIE? NO! Staten Island’s politics are a dead ringer for Ohio’s. Local control Among Republicans and Democrats on the island, there is a sense that they are shortchanged by istockphoto Focusing elsewhere The 2013 mayoral race is expected to be decided by the Democratic primary, diminishing the electoral value of Staten Island. “There’s been a 20-year run of the mayor needing Staten Island votes,” said Richard Flanagan, an associate professor at the College of Staten Island and an expert on local politics. “I suspect that’s going to end, and Staten Island will be seen as unimportant.” Just as the mayoral contenders will focus their campaigns elsewhere, so are politically active Staten Islanders in the current presidential race. Just recently, a busload of Tea Party diehards decamped from the borough for Pennsylvania, where GOP nominee Mitt Romney has an outside chance. “Ohio would have been better,” said the group’s president, Frank Santarpia. “But it was a little bit too far away.” LISTEN to a discussion at CrainsNewYork.com/podcasts October 29, 2012 | Crain’s New York Business | 25 buck ennis R BY EILENE ZIMMERMAN etailer Fishs Eddy, which sells an array of dishes, flatware and kitchen accessories from its East 19th Street store in Manhattan, has long stocked merchandise with a political theme—like coffee mugs sporting two male grooms. This being a presidential election year, the store began selling an 8- by 6-inch appetizer dish, resembling President Barack Obama’s birth certificate, this summer for $19.95. “We plowed through 3,000 of them in 10 days,” said co-owner Julie Gaines. “It was the fastest we’ve ever sold through any product in the history of our store, and we’ve been around for 25 years.” Fishs Eddy, a profitable business with 38 employees, sells other elec- tion merchandise, like his-and-her Barack and Michelle Obama mugs and T-shirts,as well as elephant-anddonkey puzzles made by wholesaler Geared for Imagination (“for independents,” Ms. Gaines suggested). “That stuff is selling,”she noted,“but not like the birth-certificate dishes.” Presidential elections represent an opportunity for Fishs Eddy and other small businesses to capitalize on the public’s interest and sell campaign-themed items. But as with the candidates’ messages themselves, it’s hard to predict PERCENTAGE what will sell of Obama merchandise vs. and what Romney items won’t. sold in NYC by Mort BerBold Concepts kowitz, who Unlimited owns Bold Concepts Unlimited in Manhattan, knows this well. His profitable, fourperson design and distribution company, which has $100,000 in annual revenue, sells political buttons and bumper stickers to Democratic and Republican clubs nationwide. Before the Democratic convention in September, Mr. Berkowitz said Obama merchandise was “dead in the water,” but since then, he has sold almost as many Obama buttons as he did in 2008. As for Republican merchandise, Bold Concepts is selling more Romney buttons than it did McCain buttons in 2008.Not surprisingly,75% of the merchandise he sells in New York City is for Mr. Obama; nationally, Obama gear is selling better, too. FLYING OFF SHELVES: Julie Gaines said customers of Fishs Eddy are buying Obama gear “because it’s his last run.” 75% Donkeys and elephants Right before the first presidential debate in early October, Bonobos, a 137-employee online retailer that operates a showroom called Bonobos Guideshop on West 25th Street, began selling election-themed men’s pants for $128 a pair, and ties at $68 each.One style had donkeys,and the other featured elephants. Four years ago, when Bonobos sold the pants alone,“they both sold out,” according to a company spokeswoman. Unsure at the time what the 2008 market would be like, the company ordered a “very limited quantity” of pants, she said. This year, it ordered 250 pairs, and sales appear to be as robust as four years ago. Indeed, she expects both pants and ties to sell out at Bonobos, which declined to share revenue. Since August, Dylan’s Candy Bar, a 250-employee firm that sells candy and candy-inspired accessories, has offered election-themed items including a 2-ounce Republican or Democrat chocolate bar for $2.95 and 3.6- by 4- http://www.crainsnewyork.com/smallbiz http://www.CrainsNewYork.com/podcasts

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Crains New York - October 29, 2012

IN THE BOROUGHS
IN THE MARKETS
THE INSIDER
BUSINESS PEOPLE
OPINION
ALAIR TOWNSEND
GREG DAVID
REAL ESTATE DEALS
REPORT: BUSINESS OF LAW
THE LIST
CLASSIFIEDS
SMALL BUSINESS
FOR THE RECORD
NEW YORK, NEW YORK
SOURCE LUNCH
OUT AND ABOUT
SNAPS

Crains New York - October 29, 2012