‘Morris was the place to shop’

Inside Morris Variety on Rockaway Avenue, owner Jack Cazes was explaining his reasons for selling the store when he noticed a regular customer watching him.

“Don’t yell at me!” he said to the women, jokingly. She hugged him, and he assured her, “It’s going to be the same.”

“No it’s not,” she said.

Cazes (pronounced KAY-ziss) bought the store in 1997 after the previous owner died. In September, he will turn it over to a new owner and retire. The store, which sells everything from toys to housewares to holiday ornaments, first opened on Rockaway Avenue as Woolworth’s in the early 1900s. Raindew Family Centers will take over the location next month, once Cazes clears out the last of his merchandise. It will be called Raindew Express. The new owner plans to renovate the interior and continue the tradition of customer service established by his predecessor.

“Morris’s is basically a very service-oriented company,” said John Mazoujian, Raindew’s president. “Anything they can do for a customer they’ll do.”

Mazoujian owns four other stores, in Bayside, Manhasset, Floral Park and Flushing, Queens, and the family-owned business was founded in 1968. “We’re looking forward to opening up and doing a lot for the community,” he said.

Cazes said he has been consoling longtime customers ever since he announced the store would close, but he emphasized that much will remain the same, because his beloved employees were hired by the store’s new owner.

“You’re going to come in and you’re going to see me,” said manager Robin Cabral. “They’ve grown to like us. We’re very personal with our customers. We’ve known them for so many years … We know them by name; we’ve watched their children grow up. We take them by the hand to the merchandise.”

Cabral has worked with Cazes for more than 30 years. He hired her at 21 to work at his Queens store, Lewis’s of Woodhaven.

Cabral recalled a time when a customer called her and said he was on his way in to pick up school supplies, but after hitting traffic he didn’t think he would make it there before the store closed. She stayed open 20 minutes beyond closing time until he arrived.

“We didn’t advertise,” Cazes said. “But that’s how we advertised.”

He said he believed the majority of young people shop differently than their elders, which is why many independent variety stores have closed. “In the last few years we’ve been losing customers mostly to the Internet,” he said. “Whereas when we first opened … We used to see quite a few young parents with their small children come in and shop around, but shopping has changed, and today you have to be very aggressive. You have to advertise, and it’s very expensive.”

Cazes also said that Internet shopping has reduced the number of wholesalers for small retailers like him. “We used to have a choice of maybe seven or eight different general wholesalers that sold us everything from light bulbs to garden stuff — you name it,” he said. “Now there’s basically one, so I’m at his mercy.”

Longtime Valley Streamers remember long lines of people outside the store waiting to buy school supplies. “Now, schools send you the list in the summer,” resident Lisa Burke said. “Back in the ’80s and ’70s you got your list on the first day [of school]. There wasn’t a Walmart or a Target, so Morris was the place to shop. All of Valley Stream was there. With the new convenience of chain stores, we lose so much of the community feel.”

After renovations are completed, Raindew Express is expected to open in time for Christmas. In the meantime, the employees will be trained to use modern computerized systems at other Raindew stores.

“Our computers are here,” Cabral said, pointing to her head. She and Cazes carry small notepads to tally costs and keep track of inventory.

They agreed that the transition has been difficult. “This is home,” Cabral said. “I spend more time here than I do in my own house. This is home to me. I’m one of those people, I wake up in the morning — and some people are like, ‘Damn, I gotta go to work.’ Me? I love coming to work. I love what I do. This is all that I’ve done.”