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Hallmark Gets an Upgrade

Photo: QueensPost

Dec. 16, 2012 By Christian Murray

It’s been a long time coming but the Hallmark store on Greenpoint Ave. is undergoing a makeover.

The store, located at 45-15 Greenpoint Ave., was purchased in November 2011 by a Filipino family who have decided to renovate it after the previous owner had failed to do so in the 25-years they had owned it. Hallmark has been at that Greenpoint Ave. location for decades.

“When we bought it we knew we would have to upgrade the store—although this is a big job,” said Arthur Deleon, 29, who operates the store with his sister and parents.

The store closed for the revamp on Sept. 1 and will reopen on Sept. 15 if all goes to plan. The aim is to change the layout, replace the ceiling and put in new carpet and shelves.

The front of the store, from the signage to the glass, is also being replaced.

Deleon said the family will offer a greater variety of merchandise when it reopens.

Deleon’s family owns another Hallmark store in Toms River, NJ. However, that is more of a suburban store, he said, where customers tend to buy bigger items—such as large picture frames– that fit inside their homes.

In Sunnyside, people buy smaller items since they live in apartments or smaller homes.

Meanwhile, around the corner from Hallmark, Rovin Optical has also closed for renovation. That store, located at 45-04 46th Street, is also scheduled to reopen on Sept. 15.

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29 Comments

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sunnywoodsiders

I agree with LTS all the way! Good luck to them! I’ll be dropping by the store for my ornament collection soon!

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Long time sunnysider

@ps Sunnyside post s just telling the truth as regards to the former owners never doing anything to the store. They were nice people and had a nice store but it was time for them to retire. I’ve been going to that store for 20 years and they never done any renovations to it. The new owners are a wonderful family who work long hours and are trying to make a nice store on greenpoint ave. I wish there was more like them. Why all the negativity when people are doing the right thing??? They are involved in the community and support local business’s which I can bet on that most of the people writing comments on here don’t do. They are young and extremely pleasant people and their friends also help out when they are not working at their own jobs. I wish them all the luck in the world and am looking forward to the grand re-opening on sept 15 th.

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Preschool Teacher

When I was a kid back in the 70s, it was called Woodside House and it was the ONLY place in the neighborhood to buy books. They had an aisle (along the right side) for books, mostly popular paperbacks and required reading titles (Diary of Anne Frank, etc.). I loved going there!!

108 Cops is DEAD ON RIGHT!! I worked at Barnes & Noble for many years. People feel such entitlement in a bookstore. They expect a place to sit, drink coffee, charge their phones and computers, read books and mags for free, use the books as a reference library, even make photocopies!! Everything but their laundry!! How do you survive running a bookstore?!!! You don’t, unless you’re the ‘last man standing’ like B&N, and they are a horrible company that treats their employees like crap and they have contempt for their customers.

And let’s stop with the snarky comments about the “99 cent stores/Thai restaurant/whatever!! It’s really tiresome and just not funny. Thanks.

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Lion

Been at this place a few times now since they changed ownership and I must say it was a BIG change in a good way.. They now offer gift wrapping more updated gift items and better customer service.. And now more renovations? GOOD! You have my support on this one! Cheers!

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Nancy

Hallmark is not a “new” store – it has been there for decades! Enough of the haters. Shouldn’t we support local businesses that try to improve instead of hoping they fail and welcome 99c stores in their place? I would love a bookstore in the neighbourhood but it should be in place of a cheap, crap store or disgusting, troublesome food place instead of Hallmark.

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108 cops

It is funny how people sign hallmark cards with their own handwriting…

Dear Mom,

(Then a bunch of Hallmark generic warmth like “You mean so much to me” or “You were always there for me!”)

Then at the bottom again with a pen,

Love, 108 Cops

Maybe one day well actually get back to writing heartfelt thoughts and not leave it up to some writing team at Hallmark. This fakeness had its run for decades! Make Gramma a card or better yet send her a text.

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KingofQueens

How could you compare a hallmark card with a rite aid card? You can’t! Hallmark IS hallmark! This place looks really old and it’s great their doin some renovations to it! After all this years I can say “it’s about time”. Best of luck with the new owners. Looking forward to its new look.

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H3

Good Luck to Hallmark!!! It’s still nice to know that we still have a decent store to shop in Sunnyside.

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Deniz

Back in the eighties and nineties – before emails – this was the only place to buy a good quality card. I hadn’t been in there for a long time, but I was happy to see what looked like new owners in there a couple of weeks ago. They were very friendly and courteous. I wish them the best of luck with their new store!

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Krissi

A lot of angry people on this site.

I like the hallmark store. Certainly one of the better stores on Greenpoint.

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JuliaJ.

I miss Cafe Mocha. That was a great place. I’m glad the Hallmark store is still hanging in there but who knows for how long.

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Time's Up

This site really needs a new rule.

Censorship sucks, so an outright ban on the word isn’t the answer.

OK, got it: If you’re gonna use a fake word like “hipster” while purporting to make a real point, then you must define the word in each post.

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O'shea

I recommend that all stores have burping stations for the overindulged hard to please customers ..cough(hipst*rs) of sunnyside .

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108 cops

Sure I can translate for you… If you want all the cool stuff in your neighborhood you gotta go all out to support them. Great bookstores are dying fast because people want to save a few cents and buy online. What’s left is holding on by a thread.

I see stores up and down Greenpoint open and close, same story. I’m tired of the vacancies, turnover, the 99 cent solution. Bookstores to me sound great but in a neighborhood that can’t support Orchard Market, Sugar and Joe, Cafe Mocha etc- you think this neighborhood is going to be one of the few that turns its back on Amazon to buy books locally. Not likely. I wish it would.

BTW, Word on Franklin St in Greenpoint rocks, but it was a dead street and their rent is probably a fraction of Hallmarks. Once the B24 is back in 2013 ill go there more often.

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Oppressed Masses

Can someone please translate the comments made by 108 cops? I think it’s a relatively good sign that a young entrepreneur is investing in our neighborhood. And let’s not forget that he can not do this on his own, that the government is his partner in this investment, by providing important elements like sidewalks and roadways.

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108 cops

Bookstore, you people are freakin hilarious!! Its ultra cheap hipsters like yourself that flip thru books with a coffee in your hand and duck in back corner with your iphone and check the book price on Amazon to save 2 bucks. Gimme a break, you obviously have no idea how difficult it is to manage and make a business succeed in this area. The rents on that block are between 6-10G a month at least.

Yeah, and when you meet your groupon friends later to get a practically free meal off the backs of local restaurant owners you can tell the same to them. Yeah, you cheap hipsters like that s***
Whats a matta Brooklyn too $$$$!?

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ikr

I’ll always remember how the previous owner said to me once, “We care about our customers.” He went on about how much they’d done for the neighborhood. It was touching and sad all at once.

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PG

All the people complaining about why do we have this or why are we getting that, why dont you build what you want yourself or open it up yourself, instead of waiting around for somone else.

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EA

Webley- I just learned that if you eat a banana you will be happy because they contain tryptophan. I think you should have one and reread the comments.

Ruben- I know what you mean! I am a hard working person and I don’t have the time to relearn everything.

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Webley

Bunch of whiny people.
I hope the place closes and another 99c store or a pawn shop opens so you guys can be happy, it seems like you guys deserve that.

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Ruben

NO! this is BULLS**T , I knew exactly where to find the Get Well cards! Now I have to learn where they are ALL OVER AGAIN!

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Ich_bin_ein_Sunnysider

Maybe somebody should open up a combination bookstore/dog-run/wellness center/vegan market.

Just use eminent domain to seize Sunnyside Gardens Park and build it.

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EA

…1:

OMG another card store!? what we need is a book store, more cafes, a dog run, more places to sit, and a Banana Republic!

Counter attack agents hipsters and yuppies in 5,4,3,2….

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Ich_bin_ein_Sunnysider

Good luck to them but with Rite-Aid across the street and its two aisles of greeting cards and various dollar stores selling cards for a buck, they better find their niche.

Ok, let the obligatory demands for a book store start in 5,4,3,2….

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ps

“after the previous owner had failed to do so in the 25-years they had owned it.” Wouldnt be a sunnysidepost entry without a little latent anger and bitterness!

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