Six years ago, Karen Carr came to me with an idea. She and I had been working in business-to-business publishing together for many years and had developed a great friendship alongside our complimentary skill sets and the synergy we have working together.
“What if we started our own magazine?” she asked and shared with me the idea for Seaside Retailer. It’s hard to believe that six years and 33 issues later, we are still producing the business magazine for beach, coastal and nautical retailers and have grown from a business of two people to having employees, contractors and vendors. We’re well-known in the industry, have won awards for our work, and continue to grow and expand with our online Marketplace and Souvenirs, Gifts and Novelties acquisition.
"I am excited for the many more stories and stores we have yet to feature and how maybe something they are doing might ignite something within you to further pursue your dreams.”
Then I look to someone in the retail industry like Dominic “Cuffy” Albano who has been at it for well over four decades and counting, and I am in literal awe. He began by selling T-shirts out of his car, to building several successful brick-and-mortar locations, before finally pursuing his ultimate dream of one large destination retail experience.
You can read more about his incredible career journey in this issue’s cover story, “From concept to reality,” on page 32. And as I look back through the years, he’s just one of 33 extraordinary retail entrepreneurs we’ve featured on the cover who have turned their dreams of owning a store into a reality.
I am excited for the many more stories and stores we have yet to feature and how maybe something they are doing might ignite something within you to further pursue your dreams, whether it is finally taking the plunge into store ownership, opening a second location, expanding a location or even something more monumental.
We started this magazine as a way to connect coastal retailers with other similar retailers to exchange ideas and create a community. We also wanted to help introduce you to the number of really specialized wholesalers out there who have coastal merchandise that can help you elevate your store offerings. So as you peruse the pages of the magazine, let your imagination run wild, let your dreams take off. Let the sky be the only limit that you encounter.
