Retail Roundup: Mixology Clothing back in Oceanside 8 years after superstorm

Superstorm Sandy’s destruction took a lot from Long Island after the storm hit in fall 2012.

One of the losses was the first store of Mixology Clothing Co., which closed its Oceanside Plaza store on Long Beach Road in early 2013 because business had dried up, said the retailer's chief executive officer, Jordan Edwards. Employees and customers were dealing with damages that the natural disaster caused to their homes, cars and other aspects of their lives, he said.

Now, Mixology again has a presence in Oceanside, where it opened a store in September.

"We always knew we wanted to come back and that is why this store is so important to us," said Edwards, who cofounded the business with his sister, Gabrielle Edwards, in 2009. They are Hewlett natives.

Mixology’s new Oceanside store occupies 2,000 square feet, which is a portion of the space that Dressbarn vacated in December, at 3553 Long Beach Rd., Suite B, in The Shops at Sands Shopping Center, said Michael Friedman, president of Long Island City-based Inline Realty Inc., who represents the shopping center landlord in leasing.

(All 650 Dressbarn stores closed last year. The women's clothing brand, which was sold in 2019, is available online only now.)

Anyway, I happened to be in Oceanside on Wednesday, when I came across Mixology's new store.

It sells brand-name and private-label casual clothing, including jeans, sweaters and jackets, and accessories, for adults, mostly women.

The shop is now among 11 Mixology stores in the metropolitan area. The Lynbrook-based company also sells merchandise on its website.

"We wanted to take the experience of a boutique and mix it with moderate pricing," said Jordan Edwards, adding the average price point in Mixology is $48. Also, 95% of the merchandise in the store is less than $100, he said.

Another Mixology store will open in Roslyn Heights by February, he said.

This has been a tough year for Mixology because of the COVID-19 pandemic, he said.

After closing its stores for several months, starting in March, because of the health crisis, the company furloughed 170 hourly workers, leaving about 30 people working at the company, he said.

Mixology was able to stay afloat because several years ago, it had invested in creating a high-quality website that could efficiently handle online sales, Jordan Edwards said.

After the furloughs, Mixology’s remaining staff "became a mobile sales force and were able to sell from home, because we had invested in our technology," he said.

The company was able to bring back all its furloughed workers over the summer when governmental pandemic restrictions were lifted.

"We emerged from the crisis as a better, stronger company. We’re very fortunate," Jordan Edwards said.

Ten of Mixology’s 11 stores are in the suburbs in shopping centers or on main streets in business districts.

The one store that is not — it’s located in the Upper East Side of Manhattan ­— has had a slower return to normal, Jordan Edwards said.

Retail Roundup is a column about major retail news on Long Island — store openings, closings, expansions, acquisitions, etc. — that is published online and in the Monday paper. To read more of these columns, click here. If you have news to share, please send an email to Newsday reporter Tory N. Parrish at tory.parrish@newsday.com.

By Tory N. Parrish

tory.parrish@newsday.com@ToryParrish1

Tory N. Parrish covers retail and small business for Newsday. She has worked at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and Observer-Dispatch in Utica, N.Y.