PATENT TRADER
Saturday, Sept. 22, 1973 — 9
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Women shopkeepers:
visible, on their own
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By VICTORIA HELLER
CHAPPAQUA
The woman minding
the store you shop in here may very well
own it. In Chappaqua out of 100 businesses,
17 stores are owned solely by women.
That women here work-is nothing new.
Some are in the professions: psychiatrists,
lawyers, real estate brokers, with offices
in their homes Many more operate
"cottage industries" — working from
their homes as decorators, seamstresses
or needlepoint designers, occasionally at
the risk of offending their neighbors and
zoning regulations. But the up-front, store
front female entrepreneur is very visible
The women who own the 18 Chappaqua
stores are as varied as the wares they sell
— everything from antiques to liquor
Some simply want to get out of the house,
several support themselves and their
families, a few inherited their businesses
from their husbands. They range in age
from a single, 26-year-old hairdresser to a
50-ish veteran of the garment industry in
New York, and the problems they face are
complex Getting capital (§11 of them
financed their businesses privately, not
with bank loans), finding baby sitters and
Coping with attendant guilt, running a
home while working, getting their
husbands' encouragement, learning a
business without a husband's help
In a door-to-door survey of businesses
owned by women in Chappaqua, it is
evident that, for some of them, the phrase
"she doesn't have to work" is fighting
words
Mrs.
P l a v o u k o s is co-owner of
Liberated Home, a decorating and home
accessories business on King Street that
opened May 1 She and her family recently
moved from New York, a move made
inevitable, she says, because of the ex­
pense of maintaining an apartment and a
country home, and the rising costs of
private schools Her partner, Ann Katz,
who moved from the city to Chappaqua a
year ago, was able to adjust to snowy
drivewaysibut she missed the stimulation
of Manhattan
The two women, who dress modishly
and are ip their early 30s, say they knew
that their lives had to be more than
waiting for the school bus They each hired
a full tirae/housekeeper, retained a lawyer
and anjc^ountant, feigned a lease for their
shop They pooled /together their savings
and, with the encouragement of their
husbands and minor resistance of their
children, they took the plunge "And I
didn't get the guilts about leaving my
children, which surprised m e , " says Mrs.
Plavoukos. The vtomen a r e able to spell
each other at the! shop so that they can
attend a school fanetion, be at home if a
child is sick, take a vacation. "Our
children understand that it's very im­
portant for us to do this," Mrs Katz says
For Doris Torborg Muir, running her
own business was a matter of survival
Fifteen years ago her husband died, and
she had four children to support and
educate She sold her Dodge F a r m s house
and bought a two-story Victorian house on
the corner of King Street and Castle Road,
near her children's schools She turned the
first floor into an antiques shop called The
Crown House, and lived for a time with her
children on the second floor Her dif­
ficulties, she says, were in acquiring a
sense of business, building up a clientele,
finding help to move heavy furniture
"This is really a man's business, and I
don't recommend it for anyone with
average stamina," says Mrs Muir, an
animated woman in her 50s Her children
are grown, and she has remarried and
commutes from New Jersey "Youth is
marvelous," she says, unpacking some
.paintings in what used to be her living
quarters, now being re-decorated for
additional selling space "But I'd never do
it again, running my own business You
can't order anything old, you have to hunt
for it, even on vacations I'd rather work
for somebody else "
Inge Gurion, who is divorced, worked
for several years in White Plains before
she bought her Chappaqua business She
had to support herself, but she wanted to
be her own boss She had been a frequent
customer at Uriah Heep's, an ethnic
boutique on King Street, and last year,
when the business went on the market, she
snapped it up "This reflects one side of
my personality and I love it When you're
investing your own bucks, and you need to
work for a living, you better be doing
something you enjoy," she says
Abby Gail Kirsch was able to combine
being a mother, wife and business woman
all at the same time when her four
children were small For nine years, she
taught cooking at home Last year, when
her youngest child was 12, she opened the
Abby Gail Kirsch Gourmet Center on King
Street "My friends are all working, and if
I were at home now, I'd go crazy How
long does it take to clean your house when
it's empty all d a y "
T'TRADER'S
9
Mildred Kadison, who owns Imports
International on North Bedford Road,
another ethnic boutique, waited until her
only daughter was an adult before she
opened
her shop "I wouldn't be in
business with little children They need
you until they are out on their own, but
those years for a woman shouldn't be
wasted You acquire experiences from
life, and women should use them in
business "
Take Harriet Plavoukos "Sure, it's
easier for a woman to go into business
than a man, because generally she doesn't
have to support a family But I need to
work. I've always worked for other people
— my husband, my children Now I want
to work for myself."
—Staff photo by Jefferson Boone
—Staff photo by Ted Kaplan
Abby Gail Kirsch has a
gourmet shop. Inge Gurion
owns a boutique, Uriah
Heep's.
526 N. Bedford Rd., Bedford Hills 241-1666
W H I R I YOU M Y YOUR WALLCOVIRINOS I f IMPORTANT
The four women who own the
Threadneedle House (named for the street
in London that holds the Bank of
England), a fabric and notions shop on
King Street, were able to run a store
without hiring babysitters Ten years ago,
they were sitting at the Seven Bridges
Swim Club, watching their 11 children and
complaining that there was no place
locally to buy decent dress fabric "We
decided to open our own shop," says Jean
Dodson, sitting in the first floor office of
the pre-Civil War house that contains their
business (The Silver Needle needlepoint
shop, owned by Almy Bierregaard, is on
the second floor) "The day we started
looking for space, this house came on the
market " Emmie Betts bought the house,
and with Mrs Dodson, Ardis James and
Barbara Zirato, went into business The
women were neighbors, and were able to
work out a unique baby sitting
arrangement Two of the women would
stay at home with the children, and two
would mind the store Mrs Dodson says,
"Our h u s b a n d s thought this was
something we'd get tired of, but it's been
very therapeutic for us This is a kind of
gathering place in town, and you feel you
know a good number of people who live
here "
This year's
skiseason
has just started.
Liberated House owners are Ann Katz Harriet Plavoukos
All of these women take obvious pride
in their work, but they unanimously shrink
from the term "Women's Lib " Most of
their businesses pre-date Betty Friedan's
" T h e F e m i n i n e M y s t i q u e " and the
National Organization for Women And, as
one of them put it. with a note of
desperation in her voice and a plea not to
be quoted, "I would love to have an af­
ternoon to myself where all I had to do was
scrub the kitchen floor "
Who are these women who own
businesses'' Here's the box score
Abby Gail Kirsch Gourmet Center,
Ltd , 95 King Street. Abby Gail Kirsch.
owner
Uriah Heep's of Chappaqua. 9 King
Street, Inge Gurion, owner
The Second Story Book Shop. 95 King
Street, Joan Ripley. Paula Sham berg.
Mary Jane Simmermacher, owners
Threadneedle House. Inc . 29 King
Street, Emmie Betts Jean Dodson. Ardis
James, Barbara Zirato, owners
Liberated Home. 13 King Street. Ann
Katz, Harriet Plavoukos owners
Crown House Antiques, 297 King Street,
Dons Torborg Muir, owner
The Show Case (dress shop). 28 North
Greeley Avenue. Dorothy Savage, owner
Pines Row Bottle Shop (liquor store),
392 King Street, Christina Molz, owner
Letitia's (hairdressingsalon), 220King
Street, Letitia Napolitano, owner
Vanity Box Beauty Shoppe, 75 South.
Greeley Avenue, Ruth Ward, owner.
Teen Fashions, 425 King Street, Norma
Sampson, owner
Chappaqua Pharmacy, 74 King Street,
Roz Lyhte. owner
Silver Needle. Inc . 29 King Street,
Almy Bierregaard, owner
Imports International, 65 North Bed­
ford Road, Mildred Kadison, owner
Hecht, Egan & Nash (real estate), 6
South Greeley Avenue (new location
September 15), Helen Hecht, Mary Phelan
Egan. Mary Estey Nash, principals
Corner on Design (furs, custom
clothes), 2 South Greeley Avenue, Joan
Arledge. Ruth Beinhorn, owners Opened
this week
Richards-DuPont Agency, insurance,
220 King Street, Cynthia DuPont, owneragent
EARLY BIRD SPECIALS
Head G K 0 3 Skis
Gertsch 6D or Spademan
Binding Mounting
120.00
60.00
7.50
187.50
Spectrum Sports Super Price
137.50
Rossigresl SSL Skis
Gertsch 4D or Geze 237
Binding Mounting
130.00
37.50
7.50
175.00
In fact, it's never too early to start getting your ski equip­
ment in shape.
Spectrum Sports Super Price
125.00
We can help.
This cordless
electronic version of
the old Schoolhouse
wall clock Is
authentically styled
from Its octagonal
case to Its big brass
pendulum. And It's
made of fine-grained
solid wood with a
rich walnut finish. A
real collector's Hem!
BULOVA FACULTY—
20%"x13%\ $4750
You see, we are one of the first sports shops in creation
that's interested in more than just selling things.
For example, we offer a special ski tune-up service. We'll
recondition your skis — top and bottom, check your bindings and
adjust them for your size and ability.
(SPECTRUM
£PORTS
We'll even put you on our Kennedy Cant Machine, the ex­
traordinary electronic device that analyzes your skiing, and shows
us if your boots need leveling.
You
see, we go out of our way to help. Even in September.
Which is more than they do in some stores these days.
BERNER'S JEWELERS
21 S. Moger Ave.
Mt. Kiseo, N.Y.
666-6178
Yankee Ridge Shopping Center, Ridgefield
Rt. ZpBrookf ield
(Opposite the Playhouse)
203 775-2586
203 438-0425