Office supply store not remaining stationary

Changing with the times and a merging with a New York City-based company will have Weiss Stationery moving to Jamaica Avenue in Brooklyn after Sept. 7 following 56 years of business on Central Avenue in Cedarhurst.

The office supplies store originally opened as a toy store in December 1956. Ruth Weiss, an owner of Weiss Stationery, said her husband Al Weiss, his brother and father were looking for a location for a toy store to sell sporting goods, games and Barbie dolls. “Then because the ways of the world started to change and all the big super stores started to come into play, we decided that we had to switch from toys and games into a different field, and that’s how we started to go into office supplies,” Ruth said.

Successful at first due to remarkable customer service, she said, the toy store began losing business because of places such as Mays department store and Bargain Town on Rockaway Turnpike. It was natural for the store, which always sold some office supplies, to switch to focusing solely on office goods in the 1980s. “The change was beneficial,” Ruth said.

Weiss Stationery employed outside salesmen, which was a key source of its income, said Ruth, though business fluctuated. Currently, “Business is not what it used to be; there was a major change in the area,” Ruth said. “We are merging with another company — Pecks Office Plus — which is really on the edge of Queens and Brooklyn. We needed a change and growth and we just decided we had to make some kind of move.”

Ruth and Al are trying to mentally prepare for the move, Ruth said, while moving most of their inventory to the Brooklyn store. “It’s much bigger there, about three times the size of this,” she said, referring to the Central Avenue location.

Al said the increased size is needed for three reasons. “We need more space, a more up to date warehouse and more up to date computers,” he said. “We’re going to make everything more efficient.

When the store opened in 1956, Ruth worked part time on holidays and seasonally, doing bookkeeping, while her children were still young and going to school. However, as time went on, she devoted more time to the store. After the move to Brooklyn, Ruth will work part time again, and her husband will retire.

Hewlett resident Randi Krueger, is a longtime customer, who was looking for an inkpad with her son’s name on it. “The store has a lot of supplies and I shop here for notes for my calendar,” Krueger said.

A majority of Weiss Stationery’s nearly 15 employees, who have been with the store for 15 to 35 years, will be working at the Brooklyn store. “I can’t wait; it’s a healthy move,” Ruth said. “Peck’s is a very nice operation. We’re looking forward to a whole new beginning,” Ruth said.