Handbags and shoes and friends galore

WANTAGE — Unusual as it may sound, one of the best ways to meet people might be to open a handbag shop.

That is what Annette Dizenzo has found, one year after opening Handbags and Shoes Galore at the Town Center shopping complex in Wantage.

“I’ve met so many amazing people since starting this business,” she says, “everybody is so friendly. A lot of people keep coming back. Some just stop in to say hi!”

If happy, returning customers are the sign of a successful business, then Dizenzo has certainly succeeded.

Assorted selection
Dizenzo also has the supply angle worked out. Her husband Jim is a wholesaler of handbags, purchasing directly from the manufacturers and selling to all the major retailers. Handbags and Shoes Galore can therefore offer highly discounted prices to shoppers. Jim travels to China and Hong Kong twice a year for several weeks. He watches the bags being made and can make adjustments or revisions to the designs if needed.

When the store originally opened last year, it was called Handbags and More Galore. Customers began asking Dizenzo for shoes to go with the handbags, which she did, and finally about six months ago the store name was changed to the current name.

More recently, customers have been asking about jewelry, which Dizenzo has also added, but she doesn’t see another name change in the near future.

The jewelry is handmade by a woman in Lafayette named Robin.

Shoes required a bit more planning than handbags, so Dizenzo started slowly, first with seasonal shoes.

“For shoes we need to have lots of different vendors,” she explains, “Because we offer different types of shoes that will appeal to everyone from young girls to grandmothers.”

The store also offers gift items and is known as “the home of the $10 scarf,” according to Dizenzo.

“Everybody compliments me on the handbags and shoes I buy here,” says repeat customer Ilsa Bordman.

Special promotions will be available to help celebrate the store’s one-year anniversary on May 17. There will be a drawing for a $50 gift certificate to Little Bella’s Bistro, next door, as well as door prizes every hour and a free ice cream with every purchase.