Business owners work to give customers more bang for the buck

The sagging U.S economy has sparked changes at businesses in Rehoboth Beach as business owners work to give customers more bang for the buck.

At the forefront of this is Fusion, at 50 Wilmington Ave. The restaurant has lowered the price of all its menu items to $20 or less.

Bill Karrow, executive chef and proprietor of Fusion said, “Let’s face it, it costs 75 or 80 bucks to fill your tank up. That hurts. So we’ve made a conscious decision to keep all our entrees under $20. And it’s been working very well.”

Karrow said to keep the prices low, Fusion has gone to serving more pastas and meats. The highest-priced items on the new menu are steaks and fresh seafood such as mahi-mahi, grilled salmon and crab cakes. The most expensive menu items are $19.95.

“It’s been a challenge because our primary goal is to make sure we put out a great product that people are going to enjoy,” Karrow said. “It costs money to go out and eat and we’re just trying to make it so people can still go out, have a good meal and have fun and be able to deal with the economic times.”

Karrow said the trend has been toward a more casual atmosphere. Daytrippers have not been coming down like they used to, although families are still going out. Customers have received the changes very well, he said.

“It’s tough economic times but you have to adjust,” Karrow said. “You can either cry about it and say ‘I can’t do it’ or you can try to do things that work.”

Fusion has also applied the $20 or less philosophy to the wine list. To do this, he has had to import wines from South American countries like Chilé and Argentina but Karrow said that people shouldn’t fret because the quality is about the same as the French and Italian wines they are used to.

“The French planted vines down there hundreds of years ago and the wine production there has really come on, especially with the problems that have happened out in California, with land being so expensive out there and the fires they had last year,” he said. “I really see big things from South America. They have some extraordinary values and some great products.”

Karrow said the value of the Euro over the dollar has also played a part in where he gets his wines, although he said he still carries wines from all over the world.

“Some of the purveyors that we deal with as far as wines go, have actually had to stop carrying certain things because the dollar and the Euro fluctuation has become so out of whack they can’t get any stable pricing on things,” he said.

Also changing its look is Atlantic Books on Rehoboth Avenue. The store sliced its space in half; the other half is now occupied by Five Guys. Manager Mike Smith said the store chose to downsize because its lease was up and the rent was going to be climb. He said downsizing has helped Atlantic avoid some of the tough times that fellow businesses are having.

“Everyone around me says they are down in sales. Well I’m half the size of a store and I’m doing a little bit more than 50 percent of last year’s sales. So to me, it’s not as bad for us,” Smith said. “If everyone around me is saying that they are down, I at least feel partially good that we’re doing the same as they are but I’m half the size now. ”

He said the downsizing has caused the store to cut back on some items it had before, such as bargain books, which the store still carries, although not as many, but that customers have praised the new look of the store.

“We tried to keep the stuff that people really liked and I think we did a good job of that,” Smith said.

Another store that has decreased its space, although not for economic reasons, is Fun To Fine jewelry in First Street Station. Laurie Mullay, co-owner of Fun To Fine, said the space next to them was unoccupied; they used it for storage and computers, before finding new owners this year. Mullay said the store has eliminated some of the lower end lines and gold and expanded its bead lines such as Pandora and Personality. She said the new store has expanded its line of Teno jewelry from Germany, which is exclusive to Fun To Fine, and has been a hot seller, Mullay said.

source: capegazette.com