New Mundy's to emerge across the street from old location

NORTH SMITHFIELD - After more than 60 years in the community, Mundy's Flowers, Gifts & Essentials has closed its doors - only to re-open a new store right across the street.

The store name will be shortened to "Mundy's," while ownership changes hands between parents and daughter. Ken and Maureen Raspallo, who have run the store since the original Mundys retired, did not want to see their gift shop full of treasures sink in the sands of the economy like so many others around them. So, in an effort to preserve the Mundy name, their daughter, Lauren, purchased the store from the couple who could not keep the business afloat in the economic conditions.

Inside the old location at 925 Victory Highway, a vibrant greenhouse to the right complemented the wing on the western side of the store, showcasing jeweled necklaces, bracelets and a mosaic collection of Vera Bradley handbags, among other accessories. The new business will be simplified, says Lauren, one of the Raspallos' three children. There will be no floral arrangements in the new Slatersville Plaza store, but there will be a larger variety of collectibles and gifts, including Cinda B handbags, jewelry and accessories.

She said the old favorites and "big-sellers," like the Crab Tree & Evelyn products, will be back for the Nov. 15 grand opening.

"I really just want to focus on gifts," Lauren said.

Toppled by a 30 percent decrease in sales last year, which Ken said did not bode well in combination with the town's high corporate tax rate, he and wife Maureen decided to close Mundy's, noting neither of them had the desire to lay off employees.

"We wouldn't be able to run Mundy's efficiently if we laid people off anyway," Maureen said during an interview at their cozy Buxton Street home last week.

The decision to close came a few months ago, not long after gubernatorial candidate and state Treasurer Frank Caprio spoke to local business owners at their store, offering to lend a helping hand to small business owners at the state level if he is elected. Ken and several of those local entrepreneurs had already attempted to take matters into their own hands through means of some "creative advertising."

Through the now-defunct North Smithfield Business Connection, Raspallo aimed to keep business local with his store's video advertising loop, a place where each local business involved could have a 15-second spot on-screen. Christian de Rezendes, owner of Breaking Branches Pictures, created the video, which had been distributed to more than a dozen of the group's members.

"I'd like to profoundly express it shouldn't be a false mantra to shop local," Ken says now, disappointed in North Smithfield's economic climate.

The former shop owner said North Smithfield is "a ghost town" compared to what it was 10 years ago, an attitude that "permeates like with the Dowling Village catastrophe."

"On the federal level, the state level and the local level, we've been let down by municipal environments," Ken said, shrugging.

The media can analyze the credit and mortgage crisis all it wants, Ken pressed on, but talk to "real people doing real business," and that shows what people are facing day-in and day-out.

"Maureen and I had perfect credit," he said. "I think we had a credit score of 725 to 800. I've never been late on one payment. But after we received a balloon note from the bank that came due in March, we asked them if they'd consider giving us a little more time to pay it. They gave us 90 days."

After refusing to garner the assistance of a private lender, Ken and Maureen decided to close Mundy's and retire.

"It was a comedy of errors, a series of unfortunate circumstances," Ken said.

Ultimately, it was the pair's plan for Lauren to take over the business since she graduated from Rhode Island College in 1999. Lauren, who graduated with a degree in speech pathology, said the plan to take over was based on "a gut decision."

"I guess during my senior year, I said to myself, 'OK, it's real now, I'm graduating,'" she said. "So it was either start applying for my master's in speech pathology or do what felt right."

More than 10 years ago, Lauren essentially "broke through the back door and said, 'I'm going to take over the business,'" Maureen chided her.

Mark Brigido, owner of the Slatersville Plaza across the street, then conferred with Lauren about the possibility of having Mundy's become part of the Slatersville Plaza fabric. Mundy's went through a liquidation sale and Lauren purchased the business from her parents. Ken said he will remain in the background as an adviser, but Lauren will ultimately be making the decisions.

"Our liquidation sale was an incredible testament to the store, when people waited three or four hours in line," remembers Ken. "The only reason Lauren is going to be overworked is because we've got such wonderful customers."

Mundy's originally opened in 1947 as the property of Thomas and Clare Mundy of North Smithfield.

Raspallo came to know the Mundys after building a relationship with them through his first business, a financial advising firm. He was helping them find a buyer so they could retire, when Ken suggested he could take over the business for them.

"I was helping them at the greenhouse here and there, and I really liked the design of the place," Ken said. And so, Mundy's retained its name under the ownership of the Raspallo family. The store expanded from "Mundy's" to "Mundy's Flowers, Gifts & Essentials" in 1994 when the family added lines like Yankee Candle to its inventory.

"It was our first step toward the gift business," he said.

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