More than 200,000 American mom-and-pop stores disappeared in the Great Recession between 2008 and 2010, census figures show, but the small businesses Sylvia Uziel and Limor Ziarno opened around then have become a thriving part of their communities, thanks to their down-home, neighborhood-first attitudes.
“You have to know how to work with the people who patronize your community,” says Ziarno, 35.
“We greet our customers like family and have a conversation with them,” adds Uziel, 40.
The story of how the former Brooklyn College sorority sisters who complete each other’s sentences opened four Edible Arrangement stores in Brooklyn and Queens — making them into luscious emporiums of fresh fruit and specialty items designed like floral bouquets — is a juicy one: They married around the same time, they started their families together — they have seven kids between them under the age of 16 — and they bought their homes on the same block in Bergen Beach. It only seemed natural then that Uziel, a stay-at-home mom, invited Ziarno, a former public school teacher, to open a franchise after seeing an Edible Arrangement van outside a neighbor’s home and being struck by the eye-popping burst of strawberries, cantaloupes, and grapes on its decal.
Six months later — after securing a home equity loan and ignoring their sceptical hubbies — they snipped the ribbon on their first store in Canarsie, down the block from their kids’ school. The franchise was so successful that three others followed, including one in Bedford-Stuyvesant, employing 30 workers. What the women lacked in business training they more than made up for in engaging the community openheartedly, participating in Chinese auctions, donating arrangements to churches, raising money for local ambulance services, and recruiting area students as interns during the summer to give them work experience.
The Women of Distinction created 500 gift bags for Breast Cancer Awareness Month and dropped them off at local mobile clinic sites.
“Anyone who came in for a screening got a chocolate-covered pineapple shaped like women’s shoe,” says Ziarno, a winner of corporate competitions for her original, marine-themed arrangements, topped with fruit-fashioned star fish and mermaids.
For the West Indian Day Parade the pair handed out 1,000 fresh fruit pops to revelers, including Mayor DeBlasio. They also donated arrangements that helped raise hundreds of dollars for a displaced Mill Basin family after its home went up in flames.
“We try to do anything we can for our neighbors because we want to be part of the community,” says Uziel.
Helen Blanchard, a patron at the Canarsie store, is impressed by the women’s support of neighborhood youth.
“They hire young, black kids from the area and I really like how they trust them when a lot of businesses would have someone watching over them,” she says. “That’s what draws me into their store.”
The incredible Edible women are more than just profiteering merchants, adds Blanchard.
“I felt I could talk to them about the death of my son,” she says. “They are kind, special women.”
OCCUPATION: Co-owners.
COMPANY: Edible Arrangements.
CLAIM TO FAME: Successfully juggling a busy home life with four thriving businesses.”
FAVORITE PLACE: The beach.
WOMAN I ADMIRE: Our mothers, Zina Bluvol (Uziel) and Miriam Booso (Ziarno), because they both inspire us to be who we are.
MOTTO: How can we wow you?
