HANSON
The Rhyme ’N Reason specialty toy store at the Shaw’s Plaza in Hanson closed Saturday as its owners consolidated the operations with their other store on Old Oak Street off Route 139 in Pembroke.
Owners Chris and Lorraine Kusy, who opened the 4,000-square-foot Hanson store nine years ago, attributed the closing to a challenging economy, competition with large retailers and lower-than-expected Christmas sales.
The store employed one full-time and five part-time employees. They have shifted to the Pembroke store, where just under a dozen people work now.
“Every retailer has optimism in their veins,” Chris Kusy said. “While we had a good Christmas, it was not as strong as it needed to be in order to sustain the business.”
Bill Vernon, the state director of the National Federation of Independent Business, said the length of the weakened economy has caused a number of small businesses to close or retrench.
“The length of this recession has been a bugaboo for small businesses because they are built to survive a recession (one or two years), but this four-year downturn has been really hard,” Vernon said.
While the Shaw’s shopping center in Hanson pulls in a regular customer base for the supermarket, other small businesses – such as the Hallmark shop and a video store on either side of Rhyme ’N Reason – closed in recent years. Discount chain Dollar Tree recently opened in the plaza.
“One of the reasons we found it difficult to continue was the absence of other complementary businesses,” said Chris Kusy, who also owned and operated a Quincy location until its closing seven years ago.
All gift certificates, store credits and frequent buyer cards will be honored at the Pembroke store, Kusy said.
“Our greatest hope and expectation is that if (customers) liked us in Hanson, they will like us in Pembroke. The same product and faces will be there,” Kusy said.