Fairfield Businesses Look to Economy's Bright Side

FAIRFIELD, Conn. — Paul Jordanopoulos has every reason to be worried about his business. As the owner of Media Wave, Fairfield’s last brick-and-mortar video rental store, he’s the last of a dying breed. But when U.S. Rep. Jim Himes visited Jordanopoulos on his tour of the Post Road’s businesses Tuesday, the business owner and many others like him insisted on accentuating the positive aspects of Fairfield’s economy.

“My concern is all this negativity,” Jordanopoulos said. “You’ve got to have confidence in the market. You’ve got to have confidence in the people that represent us to make the improvements and do the right thing.”

Himes, D-4th District, took a tour guided by Interim First Selectman Michael Tetreau, Selectman candidate Cristin McCarthy Vahey and state Rep. Kim Fawcett on Tuesday to see what Fairfield’s business owners had to say about the local economy. Most of the Post Road shop owners held the belief that Fairfield’s local economy, at least, is doing well.

Tetreau pointed out that the Borders space across the street found a new tenant within three months of the book store chain’s closing because of nationwide bankruptcy. Peter Oman, owner of The Tennis Spot, said he’s starting to see more improvement in his store’s sales from when he took over two years ago.

“People would buy the basics that they needed in order to play tennis at all, but they wouldn’t spend the on the luxury items,” Oman said. “But I think this year we started to see that come back a little bit.”

Fairfield’s store owners may have been looking to the positive, but barber Joe Vaccarella said his clients aren’t. During his talk with Himes about the aftermath of the debt ceiling debacle, the Barber Seville fixture said his clients are still worried about the economy. “People are scared,” Vaccarella said. “They don’t know what to do.”

As for what the local leaders could do to help, all business owners asked the same question: “When’s the new train station opening?” (For the record, it’s due to open in October.) Others wanted to see more events such as sidewalk sales or holiday celebrations to draw people downtown.

“That’s great — anything that gets people in the downtown area, gets them walking by our store,” Oman said. “Because that’s the advantage of being here — people see us and pop in.”

How do you think Fairfield’s local economy is doing? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

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